[318] For this stream see our volume xxiii, p. 70, note 51. The camp was probably upon one of the western affluents of the Judith, on the eastern edge of the Little Belt Mountains.—Ed.
[319] For the Blood Indians, a branch of the Blackfoot tribe, consult our volume xxiii, pp. 95-97, especially note 84. The Grosventres of the Prairie, likewise called Fall Indians, are noted in our volume vi, p. 371, note 183; also our volume xxiii, pp. 75, 76. By the Blackfeet—his final category—De Smet intends that branch of the tribe known as Siksekai, or Blackfeet proper. See Maximilian’s description in our volume xxiii, pp 95, 96.—Ed.
[320] Probably the missionary here mentioned was J. B. Thibault from Red River, who travelled extensively in the Saskatchewan territory; see note 122, ante, p. 231.—Ed.
[321] The trader was Charles Larpenteur, then in the employ of the American Fur Company. He left Fort Union July 8, with one keel-boat and later made a Mackinac boat en route. See his journal in Elliott Coues, Forty Years a Fur-Trader on the Upper Missouri, ii, pp. 237-242.—Ed.
[322] These tribes formed the Blackfoot confederacy, but the Sarcee (Surcees) and Grosventres belonged to different stocks. For the former see our volume xxiii, p. 90, note 77.—Ed.
[323] Sata was at Fort Benton in 1847, and acted as guide to Larpenteur in the latter’s effort to reach the Flathead country. Larpenteur calls him a half-breed Blackfoot and Flathead; evidently his mother was of the latter tribe. See Forty Years a Fur-Trader, pp. 272, 274.—Ed.
[324] For the term “bourgeois” see our volume xxi, p. 183, note 33. Larpenteur’s journal in Forty Years a Fur-Trader, ii, pp. 236-243, explains why neither he nor Malcolm Clarke was at the fort when the missionary arrived.—Ed.
[325] For Maria’s River see our volume xxiii, p. 84, note 73. Little Sandy Creek, twenty-three miles below Maria’s, rises on the western slope of Bearpaw Mountain, and flows west and then south into the Missouri. For Maximilian’s description of the natural stone walls see our volume xxiii, pp. 71-83; also the representations in our atlas, volume xxv, Plates 18, 61, 68, and 74.—Ed.
[326] For Porcupine River see our volume xxiii, p. 33, note 19. The pyramid of elks’ horns is described in ibid., pp. 34, 35; and pictured in our atlas, volume xxv, Plate 21. De Smet describes its later destruction by a modern vandal, in Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, iv, p. 1372.—Ed.
[327] For Fort Union see our volume xxii, pp. 373-383. James Kipp, who had been at Fort Clark during Maximilian’s visit, was at this time in charge of Fort Union. See biographical sketch in our volume xxii, p. 345, note 319.—Ed.