Some of them
fell in with General Ashley, in the course of one of his gallant
excursions into the wilderness, and have continued ever since in
the employ of the company.
Among the motley Visitors to the winter quarters of Captain
Bonneville was a party of Pends Oreilles (or Hanging-ears) and
their chief. These Indians have a strong resemblance, in
character and customs, to the Nez Perces. They amount to about
three hundred lodges, are well armed, and possess great numbers
of horses. During the spring, summer, and autumn, they hunt the
buffalo about the head-waters of the Missouri, Henry's Fork of
the Snake River, and the northern branches of Salmon River. Their
winter quarters are upon the Racine Amere, where they subsist
upon roots and dried buffalo meat. Upon this river the Hudson's
Bay Company have established a trading post, where the Pends
Oreilles and the Flatheads bring their peltries to exchange for
arms, clothing and trinkets.
This tribe, like the Nez Perces, evince strong and peculiar
feelings of natural piety. Their religion is not a mere
superstitious fear, like that of most savages; they evince
abstract notions of morality; a deep reverence for an overruling
spirit, and a respect for the rights of their fellow men. In one
respect their religion partakes of the pacific doctrines of the
Quakers. They hold that the Great Spirit is displeased with all
nations who wantonly engage in war; they abstain, therefore, from
all aggressive hostilities. But though thus unoffending in their
policy, they are called upon continually to wage defensive
warfare; especially with the Blackfeet; with whom, in the course
of their hunting expeditions, they come in frequent collision and
have desperate battles. Their conduct as warriors is without fear
or reproach, and they can never be driven to abandon their
hunting grounds.
Like most savages they are firm believers in dreams, and in the
power and efficacy of charms and amulets, or medicines as they
term them. Some of their braves, also, who have had numerous
hairbreadth 'scapes, like the old Nez Perce chief in the battle
of Pierre's Hole, are believed to wear a charmed life, and to be
bullet-proof. Of these gifted beings marvelous anecdotes are
related, which are most potently believed by their fellow
savages, and sometimes almost credited by the white hunters.
11
Rival trapping parties Manoeuvring A desperate game Vanderburgh
and the Blackfeet Deserted camp fire A dark defile An Indian
ambush A fierce melee Fatal consequences Fitzpatrick and
Bridger Trappers precautions Meeting with the Blackfeet More
fighting Anecdote of a young Mexican and an Indian girl.
WHILE Captain Bonneville and his men are sojourning among the Nez
Perces, on Salmon River, we will inquire after the fortunes of
those doughty rivals of the Rocky Mountains and American Fur
Companies, who started off for the trapping grounds to the
north-northwest.
