[70] Bear Paw Mountains are located in Chouteau County, west of the Little Rockies. They are not a continuous chain, but a group of high, steep, broken hills partly covered with timber, forming part of the watershed between Milk and Missouri rivers. The western end approaches within eight or ten miles of the Missouri. In these mountains occurred the battle of September 30-October 2, 1877, when United States troops captured Chief Joseph and the largest part of his band of Nez Percés.—Ed.
[71] This group is the Highwood Mountains, on the southern borders of Chouteau County, directly south of Fort Benton. These mountains rise to an altitude of 7,600 feet.—Ed.
[72] See Lewis's own description of his cure, by the use of this fruit, in Original Journals, ii, p. 142.—Ed.
[73] Maria's River rises in the main chain of the Rocky Mountains, and flows nearly due east into the Missouri, forming its largest northern tributary beyond Milk River. Upon reaching the mouth, Lewis and Clark were uncertain, until they had explored each branch, which was the main stream of the Missouri. They named the northern tributary for Captain Lewis's cousin, Miss Maria Wood, later Mrs. Clarkson.—Ed.
[74] For James Kipp see our volume xxii, p. 345, note 319. The site of this post was directly in the angle of the rivers on the west bank of the Missouri; it has since been swept away by the river. While the fort was building, Kipp requested the Indians to depart and return after seventy-five days, when to their surprise they found a completed structure. In the spring of 1832 most of the engagés declined to re-enter the service because of the hazardous situation of the post; moreover, the furs had to be transported to Fort Union. Kipp had, therefore, no alternative but to abandon the stockade, which the Indians soon burned. Three French-Canadians, having taken Blackfoot wives, remained with this tribe. See "Affairs at Fort Benton," in Montana Historical Society Contributions, iii, pp. 203-204.—Ed.
[75] Fort Mc Kenzie, whose founding is described by Maximilian in chapter xix, post, was situated about six miles above the mouth of Maria's River, a little below a cluster of small islands, on the west side of the river, opposite bold bluffs. It was maintained until 1844. In that year Culbertson having been transferred to another post, Chardon and Harvey, in command at Fort Mc Kenzie, took summary vengeance on the neighboring Indians for theft by discharging cannon at them as they came to trade at the post, and killing over thirty. Thereupon the traders were forced by native hostility to abandon this fort and retreat to the newly-constructed Fort Chardon, near Judith's River (see note 53, ante, p. [71]). The Indians burned Fort Mc Kenzie, which was thereafter spoken of as Fort Brulé, and its site as Brulé Bottom.—Ed.
[76] Those Indians are called soldiers at the trading posts who are employed as a kind of police to maintain order among their own people.—Maximilian.
Comment by Ed. Catlin painted a portrait of a Blackfoot chief and medicine man named White Buffalo. See his North American Indians, i, p. 34, Plate 15.