Tuesday May 28th 1805.

[Lewis]   This morning we set forward at an early hour; the weather dark and cloudy, the are smokey, had a few drops of rain; we employed the chord generally to which we also gave the assistance of the pole at the riffles and rocky points; these are as numerous and many of them much worse than those we passed yesterday; arround those points the water drives with great force, and we are obliged in many instaces to steer our vessels through the appertures formed by the points of large sharp rocks which reach a few inches above the surface of the water, here sould [NB: Should] our chord give way the bough is instantly drivin outwards by the stream and the vessel thrown with her side on the rocks where she must inevitably overset or perhaps be dashed to peices; our ropes are but slender, all of them except one being made of Elk's skin and much woarn, frequently wet and exposed to the heat of the weather are weak and rotten; they have given way several times in the course of the day but happily at such places that the vessel had room to wheel free of the rocks and therefore escaped injury; with every precaution we can take it is with much labour and infinite risk that we are enabled to get around these points.    found a new indian lodge pole today which had been brought down by the stream, it was woarn at one end as if draged by dogs or horses; a football also, and several other articles were found, which have been recently brought down by the courant; these are strong evedences of Indians being on the river above us, and probably at no great distance; the football is such as I have seen among the Minetaries and therefore think it most probable that they are a band of the Minetaries of Fort de Prarie. . .  This evening we encamped on Stard. opposite to the entrance of a small Creek.  I beleive the bighorn have their young at a very early season, say early in March for they appear now to be half grown. One of the party saw a very large bear today but being some distance from the river and no timber to conceal him he did not think proper to fire on him.

Well, they've learned their lesson about the grizzlies. With their zeal to kill things, it must have taken great restraint not to go for the bear. Moulton speculates that the football is a buckskin ball used in a game that many Plains Tribes women played. Moulton also says that the tribe Lewis is speculating about were likely "Atsinas, a small nomadic tribe of the Algonquian language family, a separated branch of the Arapahoes, at this time closely allied with the Blackfeet." Early traders often called them Gros Ventre, which would cause the confusion with their being Minitaris or Hidatsas. Having escaped all the potential dangers the river provided today, they made 21½ miles.

Comments

[Blue the Wild Dog]

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL??? (Sorry, guy thing.)

Gros Ventre? That's also the name of a range in Wyoming north of the Wind Rivers and south of Jackson Hole.

Catching up on old stuff, I just want to say that bighorn sheep are extremely cool animals. There's a spot on I-70 east of the divide where you can often see them.

Also, there is an odd old movie starring Marlon Brando called "The Missouri Breaks".

[mcjoan]

I've never seen that movie, but kept coming across it as I Googled for good Missouri Breaks links. And I've never seen a bighorn sheep. Lots of mountain goats in Glacier, but I think bighorn sheep would be a lot more impressive.

[Blue the Wild Dog]

You've been to Glacier and haven't seen a grizzly bear or a bighorn sheep? What do you do - set off an airhorn every minute or so?

[mcjoan]

I'm wildlife repellent, apparently. Can you believe that rotten luck? I have seen moose in the Tetons (and one in Yellowstone). What I'm really good at is spotting garbage. I've taken to bringing a plastic bag with me on all hikes so that my pockets don't fill up with trash. Somebody's got to do it, I guess.