“‘Why is it that you have two or three women to one man? Is it not because your young men go out on war parties, and thus the flower of your tribe is cut down? And you will go on diminishing every year until your tribes are extinct. Is it not better that your young men should have wives and children, and that your numbers should increase? Won’t your women prefer husbands to scalps and horses? The Gros Ventres desire to meet you in council, and have the difficulties between you arranged. Will you meet them in council?’
“While in the council, Low Horn, the principal chief and speaker, made all his replies without rising from his seat, and in a quiet, conversational tone. After the council he assembled his braves, and resumed the lofty bearing of a chief. He addressed them with great fervor and eloquence, commanded them henceforth to cease sending out war parties, and threatened them with severe punishment if they disobeyed. It will not be uninteresting here to state that Low Horn, the quiet spokesman of the council and the trumpet-toned chief in the presence of his men, crossed the Missouri in 1855 with his whole band, moved up the Judith, and camped on the Muscle Shell,—the first man who extended the hand of welcome and friendship to the western Indians as they crossed the mountains on their way to the council, showing most conclusively that faith can be put in Indians; for it must be remembered that two years intervened between my conference with the Indians at Fort Benton in 1853 and their reassembling in 1855 at the council appointed at that time.”
LOW HORN
Piegan Chief
CHAPTER XX
EXPLORING THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
September 22. This morning we bade adieu to Fort Benton, and separated from the portions of the expedition who were assigned to duty east of the mountains. Before sunrise we saw Lieutenant Saxton off in his keelboat, drawing eighteen inches of water, accompanied by Mr. Culbertson, who was directed by me to report to the department at Washington, and to urge the importance of the Blackfoot council. Lieutenant Grover, on a smaller craft, commenced his minute examination of the Missouri. Mr. Doty, who had won very much upon me by his intelligence, his fidelity, his promptitude, and energy of character, parted from me with feelings of hope and pride at the idea that now a field was opening to him where he could be useful to his country, and make a reputation for himself.
In order to make a long march this day, the evening before I dispatched my train to a point well up on the Teton, some twelve miles from Fort Benton; and there Mr. Osgood and Mr. Stanley, who had remained behind with me at Fort Benton, and myself, breakfasted with the rest of our party. Dr. Suckley and Messrs. Evans and Kendall, who had assisted me in my correspondence, were the additional members of my party.
The whole party moved off at nine o’clock, continuing for some distance up the valley of the Teton, when we ascended a hill to the prairie, and in twenty-one miles reached a coulee, where there were springs of water sufficient for our animals. Large bands of antelopes were seen on the road. We struck the Prairie Lake at five P.M. Our guide, the voyageur Baptiste Champagne, took us to the nearest point of Sun River, hoping to get in before dark, but we did not reach camp till some time after. The view at almost any point of the plateau between the Teton and Sun rivers is exceedingly picturesque and suggestive. The various minor upheavals and swales of ground, which here and there dot the surface of the country, have connected with them some story of Indian war, wrong, or suffering. This whole country was once occupied by the Snakes, and in later times by some of the tribes of the Flathead nation. It belongs now to the Blackfeet by conquest.