Notes of the Indians of the Territory of Nebraska between the Rocky Mountains and Mouth of the Yellowstone.

The Blackfoot Nation are in four tribes, viz., Piegans, Bloods, Blackfeet, Gros Ventres, and number 11,500 souls.

The map shows the hunting-grounds, secured exclusively to the Blackfeet in the treaty, at the mouth of the Judith, concluded October 17, 1855; the hunting-ground common to the Blackfeet and Western Indians, the Blackfeet and Assiniboines; the western and southern boundaries of the Assiniboine country; and the western boundary of the Crow country.

The Western Indians, Flatheads, Pend Oreilles, and a portion of the Kootenays, generally make two hunts a year east of the Rocky Mountains, and they depend for their lodges, parfleches, apechinos, and much of their meat upon these hunts. They get some of their supplies by trade with the Blackfeet. The Indians of the western tribes, as the Spokanes and Cœur d’Alenes, “go to buffalo,” but not in as large numbers or with as much regularity as the preceding.

The Nez Perces generally have a large camp—over one hundred lodges—either on the common hunting-grounds or in the Crow country. Their hunters always pass one winter, and sometimes two winters, in succession, east of the mountains before they return to their own country.

Census of the Blackfoot Nation.

Tribes.Number of Lodges.Population.
Piegans.3403,150
Bloods.2902,690
Blackfeet.2902,690
Gros Ventres.3602,970
128011,500

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