[129] In this letter, Father de Smet does not describe his movements with the Flatheads, who having crossed to Red Rock Lake advanced slowly down the Jefferson until August 21, where they camped at the Three Forks of Missouri, and prepared to lay in their winter's supply of buffalo meat. There he left them for his return to St. Louis.—Ed.
[130] As a beautiful specimen of an affecting farewell address, we take from the journal of a Canadian Missionary the following discourse spoken by one of the savages of the Red River, to the Black-Gown who had converted them, when he was about leaving them. After expressing, in the name of all the Indians of his locality, the grief which they felt at the Missionary's departure, he added the following words, which prove their gratitude to the worthy Priest, who had brought to them the truths of salvation, and to the members of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, whose charity had procured them so great a benefit:—
"Dear Father, you are going to leave us, but we hope to see you again. We are quite sensible that you naturally wish to see your relations and friends, your towns and country—we shall find the time of your absence very long, but the winter is soon over.—We conceived it to be our duty to assemble before your departure, and to express our feelings. We shall only say these few words: we formerly led very wicked lives, and we know this day to what destruction we were hastening. There was a thick cloud before our eyes; you have dispersed it; we see the sun. We shall never forget what you have done and suffered for us.—Go now, go and tell the Prayers, those kind Prayers, who take pity on us; who love us without knowing us; and who send us priests; go and tell them that savages know how to remember a benefit; go and tell them that we also pray for them, in the desire which we feel to know them, one day, in the abode of our common Father. Set out, but return and instruct those whom you have baptized: leave us not forever in affliction; depart, and in the meanwhile remember that we are counting the days."—De Smet.
[131] De Smet thus describes his route: "For two days we were going up the Gallatin, the southern fork of the Missouri; thence we crossed by a narrow pass (Bozeman's) thirty miles in length to the Yellowstone river, the second of the great tributaries of the Missouri."—Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, i, p. 234.—Ed.
[132] On the mourning habits of the Western Indians, see our volume xxiii, p. 362, note 331.—Ed.
[133] For references on the Indian sign language see our volume xix, p. 221, note 56 (Gregg); also our volume xxiv, pp. 300-312.—Ed.
[134] In prehistoric times, the horse was indigenous in America. Evidence thereof was collected by Professor O. C. Marsh, and has recently been corroborated by the results of the Whitney Exploring Expedition; see H. F. Osborn, "Evolution of the Horse in America," in Century Magazine, lxix, pp. 3-17. Why this animal became extinct on the western continent is unknown; but it seems certain that the Spanish discoverers found no trace thereof among the American Indians, and that the horses of the plains Indians were derived from those lost or abandoned by or stolen from the Spanish conquerors of Mexico. These soon reverted to a wild state and became what De Smet calls "the Maroon race of the prairies." Upon the changes in the economy of life among American aborigines, brought about by their possession of the horse, consult A. F. Bandelier, "Investigations in the Southwest," in Archæological Institute of America Papers, American Series, iii, p. 211.—Ed.
[135] Absaroka (Upsahroku) is the name by which the Crows know themselves, although according to Lewis and Clark it designated but one band of the tribe. Its significance is uncertain, although usually thought to be a certain species of hawk. The name "Crow"—literally raven, but translated "Corbeaux" by the French—is an Anglicized form of the name given to this tribe by the surrounding Indians, and may refer to their pilfering tendencies. See our volume v, p. 226, note 121.—Ed.
[136] For a sketch of this fort see Maximilian's Travels, in our volume xxii, p. 373, note 349.—Ed.
[137] For these two animals, the latter of which is commonly known as the black-tailed or mule deer, see our volume xix, p. 327, note 137 (Gregg).—Ed.