Flathead Salish Archives - Lewis & Clark Research Database https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/key-figure/flathead-salish/ A digital archive of treaties, documents, artwork, and 360° trail panoramas from the Corps of Discovery Wed, 11 Feb 2026 01:27:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/research-articles/the-salish-people-and-the-lewis-and-clark-expedition/ Wed, 11 Feb 2026 01:27:39 +0000 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/research-articles/the-salish-people-and-the-lewis-and-clark-expedition/ A tribal perspective on the Lewis and Clark Expedition's encounter with the Flathead Salish people in September 1805, presenting oral traditions and alternative interpretations of the meeting.

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]]> This article presents the Salish (Flathead) people’s own account of their encounter with the Lewis and Clark Expedition at Ross’s Hole in September 1805, drawing on oral traditions maintained by the Salish-Pend d’Oreille Culture Committee. The piece offers a significant counterpoint to the expedition journals’ perspective, describing how the Salish first observed the strangers and debated how to respond to their arrival. The article details the Salish understanding of the exchange of horses and information, noting discrepancies between the tribal oral history and the captains’ written accounts. It also addresses the broader context of Salish-European contact and the profound changes that followed the expedition’s passage through their homeland, including increased Euro-American presence, the arrival of missionaries, and eventual confinement to the Flathead Reservation.

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]]> Tent of Many Voices: 06040503 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/tent-voices/tent-of-many-voices-06040503/ Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:36:06 +0000 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/tent-voices/tent-of-many-voices-06040503/ A recording from the Tent of Many Voices collection.

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]]> sure well good afternoon everyone welcome to the tent of mini voices the tent of mini voices is part of the core of Discovery 2 traveling Lewis and Clark exhibit this is a National Park Service exhibit that’s been on the road since 2003 and will continue to be on the road through 2006 during the four years of the Lewis and Clark expedition by Centennial and what we do here in the tenam Min voices as we travel along the Louis and Clark Trail we invite in a wide variety of speakers to share their perspectives their many voices about the Lewis and Clark expedition its aftermath and also about the people that were waiting there when that expedition came along and this afternoon we’re fortunate to have with us Lewis Adams of the Salish he’s a Salish Elder and historian he formerly spent 14 years on the tribal council he also served in the United States Navy during the Korean conflict as a gunner on a destroyer and what he’s here to do this afternoon is talk a little bit about when the original core Discovery encountered his people so please give a warm welcome to Lewis Adams I’m happy to be here I’m glad I was invited to say a few words to share what what little I know I’m always willing to share this is uh this area here M our people call it see I’m I’m a saish from today I found out how far away I lived to 245 miles but our people come over here through the years and this is what they call this place and that means saw houses I guess when they come around here they saw the first the first inhabitants the settlers I guess they uh they built their houses of sod so that’s what they kind of named this area in our language many years ago whenever whenever this time of the year come when our people still lived in the Bidot up near Hamilton near Stevensville this time of the year everybody would would scatter and’ go to their favorite hauns a lot of people would go into which is now Idaho some people go down toward the Yellowstone is what our people call the Yellowstone quad Shen the Yellow Stone and if they went into Idaho they took the trail around westfork now I see on a map they call that the nepur trail but our people called it Nam shaks all that meant was a trail to move on and that’s where where our people went into over the hill from there into net which means deep slow water there was a nice Campground back in which is now Idaho many years ago my great grandpa went with some people back there and he died back there but they tried to get him back over into the bitot but he kept sliding off his horse so finally they buried him on top and right now every summer I I I make it up to where he’s buried at least once or twice a year my lady and I and my grandson my grand son the one that was was here his uh chain e and Greywolf and my ladyes is uh sunflower and my aunt named her that on kind of her hair so but anyway when our people would scatter different places cuz they lived in the bit Valley and they lived into the big hole country my grandma was born not too far from where uh where the battlefield is right now just down the corner from there just Downstream is where she was born next to this next to the river and there was quite a few of our people that I knew of that were born back there but I just bring this out because my grandma was there but that’s to our people that big uh big hole country that’s where our people lived they they dug a lot of C they got arrow heads spearheads knife knife scrapers and whatever else I go up there once in a while and and look these places over because the the places are still visible if you know where to go and uh but anyway it was this time of the year whenever see the the npers have a trail into Buffalo country they call it nimu in their language which means trail to the Buffalo country but our trails to the Buffalo country is right near the Bidot up between Hamilton and Darby you come over scalo our people call that I think that’s the white where the white man got skelo sko means many trails to the country and our people use that and this particular time of the year when they come up suo that was when they uh they met a strange bunch of people coming a small band of people there was a few of our people though my my great grandma used to say that was not the only white white person that some of our people saw her her dad or her Grandpa I forget which which he said we’d already met we they’d already seen a white man from T and to us means the cold country I gu some Trappers from Canada somewhere but they they saw them before but 99% of our people never had seen a white man or white white woman but uh they seen the strange strange people coming up they look pretty tired they look pretty ragged they were they were in pretty sad shape looked pale but uh but they they did meet him there at uh Su K that that’s uh right by the the head of uh Ross Ross Ross Creek I think but anyway when they when they did meet him you know I had a I got a friend not a real good friend he had a friend of mine I met some years go Dale Burke he wrote a book on the the Salish meeting meeting the the Lewis and Clark’s band up there by the by the Su K by Ross hole but I remember I got up to the city fathers invited me to Hamilton to give a talk and Dale Burke was talking when I got there and he was talking about when the Salish met uh Lewis and Clark he said they call them flatheads but that’s a misnomer they’re not flatheads they’re Salish or uh how did he say it I I read his book that’s how I I I picked that out Oly shoot he said in the book he said they’re either Salish or ooot Indians they’re not flatheads so when he got done talking I uh I stopped him I said do you wait here a while I want to I was up next I said I won’t hold you back very long I said uh I got something for you to hear so when I talked I said Mr Burke is Right Flathead is a misnomer we’re not flatheads I said but what he said Oleo is also a misnomer we not that either I said where he got that wherever he heard that I looked I looked in his book I said I I I you might say I dissected this word Ute and I I I kind of thought whenever Lewis and Clark met our people he probably there was no communication verbally he probably asked these Indians you know three eagles and some of them where do you where do you people live naturally he under the chief all the Indians understood that three eagles just pointed down toward well they were up high up by Ross hole so he probably pointed just down toward a Bidot and said sh that’s what that means down below so they must have wrote it down that they’re Oly shoot Indians it didn’t make sense you know so I remember Dale Burke scribbling down some things I I hope he was going to change that someday but uh but after that I told him you can go I that’s all I had to say I just wanted to remind you that but anyway when they met these people I remember my grandma’s stepmom used to say she was she was there she said these strange people didn’t concern us too much it was this one individual the black one because through the centuries our people have a medicine dance in the winter time and at these medicine dance ceremonies there’s there’s sometimes one to a dozen Blue Jays and a blue jay will paint himself black for some special ceremony some special reason but there’s got to be a good reason when they do that they’ll paint themselves black with with ashes and that’s what they wondered what what are these people up to what is this one individual up to why do they have a cost clay that’s what they call a a blue jay a cqu wonder what they’re up to they got a Costco with them and through through sign language and through they finally got across that they wanted to they were concerned about this this black man so they told him well go check on him there so some of our people I remember Sophie used to say that they went up there rubbed his face and didn’t come off well they realized then that that’s what he was a black man these people weren’t weren’t up to something I mean they were but you know but uh but uh at the time they they just that that was their main concern this costly this black man to this day whenever you you you see a colored man or what whatever that’s that’s how you describe him you can tell somebody I saw you know I saw a black person but that’s that’s the sign for that and a white person just like that when our first when our first people met white people they had uh the bangs on women that’s what they that’s what that is but anyway from from that that encounter they uh they headed down the bid they helped him through the bito they gave him what Provisions they needed if they were hungry and change of clothes or whatever they tried to give them blankets and whatever else they needed uh Buffalo robes but in in a lot of cases uh leis leou and Clark band didn’t uh didn’t know how to accept these things they thought if we accept it maybe maybe we’re putting ourselves in into something we can’t get out of or whatever this Suspicious Mind you know but anyway they helped them through there right down to uh Tsum down to L Tsum are are people’s name for l no salmon but they they took him down to napt n shaks and that’s that’s our our name for the the npers trail that they callu well our name for that is nap shaks cuz it’s not a not a one-way Trail like a a fish trap no it’s a two- ways our people named it many many years ago and this saish is the npers to our people that’s why they call it napak not just going to the nesper country going through the nesper country because this Trail went clear to which is the ocean and that was the trail that we we established many many years ago but whenever our people used to laugh about I remember the old people used to laugh about when they heard when they heard that this band of people had a leader that was taking them through a young woman they said you know conqu why didn’t they I’m going to say they always said if they really was sincere on going through a Fast Trip they would have hired one of Salish a young man or a middle-aged man that knew the country he’d have got them through there in two days because they said a young woman she didn’t know the country that’s why they got lost they got into some inaccessible areas where the snow was deep they had to eat their dogs their horses whatever they used to laugh about that they felt sorry for him but they said if they would have hired a middle-aged man he’d have got him through there in two days but that was that was our encounter with Lewis and Clark it wasn’t wasn’t too much they they helped him there was good to him they helped him with horses and food and Provisions whatever they needed and that was that was our our our encounter it wasn’t there isn’t too much to tell on that because uh like I say they when they met him they treated him good all the way through and when they come back back they met him again for a while and they when they come through I guess the Missoula area and come over and through this country but this this place right in right in this area is also where a good friend of our people come through and almost made it to Canada to the Bea UNM musk are people called him and that was Chief Joseph he was a good friend to our people uh do have time to tell you people about about our encounters with with with uh Chief Joseph because like I say uh leis and Clark thing wasn’t too long but whenever whenever Chief Joseph come from from his country whenever the the Army was following him he got to you’ve all heard of Fort fizzle he got close there he had a runner ahead of him but he come back and told Chief Joseph concluded he said there’s somebody waiting for us up ahead so he told her junor we’ll wait here you go on ahead you go to to CH am to charlott’s camp and get us some help to to to make it through here so this young man skirted Fort fizzle and he got to charlott’s camp and he told the reason I know this so well John Delaware I heard John Delaware tell about this because he was one of the young men that went back and helped Joseph’s people come through but he says when the runner got there he told charot what what was going on so he sent John Delaware and two of his brothers back with with this young man he said and when we got back where uh Joseph was where UNM to us that was his name to our people and to this day I I kicked myself on H in for not asking at that time why they call him that it means 8 days but there had to be a reason and I never did I thought our old people going to be here forever but I never never found out why but anyway when when John and his two brothers went back with this Runner he said we got back to on musk and we told him where to come through on the two side of this draw and to our people two side is the north side the C side so we come on top of The Ridges we said and we come through there and we skirted all them people down there that was even some of our young Renegade Indians down in that bunch and how they got them enticed to join them Whiskey Whiskey the the firew water the poison but John Del we used to laugh about that all these guys went over there to for us get drunk so we weren’t worried about them so he said we got them back to charlott’s camp and he told Charlotte we just we want to we’d like to stay with you a few days and rest our old people are tired our kids are tired our horses are tired and Charlotte told him at that time you can stay any number of your people can stay you can all stay if you want to you can live with us but remember we won’t help you fight the days of fighting the Su yapi the white man is over if we help you fight we’ll all be wiped out so sh Joseph told him no we just want to rest but yet some of his people did stay to this day there’s some of our people that have ancestry from npers and when they when they left the bito they went as fars medicine tree they Camp close to it and Joseph Joseph sent his medicine man he said you go over to that to that medicine tree and find out what do we have to do so went over there and he prayed for a long time he was there for a long time he come back he told Han musk he says we got to pack up we got to leave because and Joseph told him no we can’t I I I appreciate what you done I know I know you’re you’re you mean well but we got to rest we have to stay here maybe not as long as we we should since you told us of why we we got to leave he said but we have to rest and he said besides the Army is way behind us they’re they’re not even close and not told him that’s not what I mean there’s others there’s others we’ve got others that sneaking up on us that’s surrounding that’s looking at us that’s we have to have people out there we got to have our Scouts watch so he said well we have to rest anyway so they did they did leave before they had to and here it was volunteers people from Fort Missoula that did close in on Chief Joseph because when he when he went when he went through he talked to some of the other people he said to this day I mean to till he died I bet he was sorry because he did talk to some of the settlers in the bitot valley and in near LOL near Victor wherever he had to go through some of the settlers told him yeah you’re okay you just go ahead nobody’s going to bother you but when he got to the big hole country where where the battle took place he was relaxed he let his guard down until he died I bet he wish you to send a couple Scouts back back Trail and to watch but he didn’t he took the word of some of the PE the good people he took the word that they wouldn’t be bothered he relaxed and that’s why there was they were caught up to a lot of his women and kids and men were wiped out there but uh this is why the fort nula Fort Benton Fort Shaw Fort Smith Fort anything the dominant Society have a a different name for every fort in the United States to our people all forts have one name and all that means is home of the killers because that’s what they saw at the time anytime the Army the soldiers come out of there what are they going to do do it was going to kill somebody so that was that was why they called all forts put away but anyway that was that was H musk Joseph’s encounter with our people they helped him as much as they could let him rest and when they were caught up to hear it in the Bear Paws that’s where they was caught up to but that’s that’s what I have to share with you today and when I say my my grandma’s stepmom used to say if it wasn’t for the good people we wouldn’t be here today because at once upon a time there was a move to wipe outapi there was a move to sweep us Indians off the face of the Earth but there were too many good people and that’s whenever I speak if I go to University of Montana or Montana State in Bosman no matter where I speak I bring this up because if there wasn’t good people you people wouldn’t be sitting there you’d say hello with I going to go listen to an Indian there’s too many people in this world they outnumber the bad ones that’s why I’m still here my grandkids everybody else is still here and this is what was handed down to me and I lived by that I run on to a lot of prejudice when I was in service but a lot of my white buddies would be here ah never mind don’t pay attention them yo-yos they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about so I want to thank you do anybody have any questions let me come around with the microphone so everybody can hear them is it on it’s on um it was interesting when you mentioned maybe one of your tribesmen might have gone with them to show them the shorter quicker way would they it must been a communication barrier that they couldn’t communicate that that would have been impossibility for them wouldn’t it either that or they were they were the foregone conclusion that this young lady was going to lead them I don’t know yeah all right another question uh you grew up in the B root no no I was born in in our Flathead reservation presently see there’s uh Ponder kutney and Flathead or Salish that’s all thrown in one basket and were called at that time flatheads and we weren’t but that’s our present home now a million and a quarter Acres when they sent us out of the Bidot our our area and that that area was about 22 million Acres so there was even trade according to the amot to the big man whoever he was that do we have any more questions all right hold on how come Chief Joseph didn’t take what people he had left to Canada what was the question how come Chief Joseph didn’t take what people he had left to Canada to escape Chief J take the people he had left to Canada to escape well because the Army was after him and he thought if he gets into Canada he was going to be safe after he crossed the international boundary but he didn’t quite make it and he I think some people said he thought he was in Canada but he wasn’t anyway he was overtaken and that’s where he he give it up says from where the sun now stands no more will I fight that was it did you guys have any more questions how about some answers no well let’s again thank Lewis here for joining us in the tenam voes oh there we do one more question would you say the name of what you called the fort again this fort here no oh all the fors uhhuh uh-huh and that that means a a killer uhhuh all right well thank you and our next program very nice our next program will be just after 4:00 and we’re going to hear a program entitled Saga WEA speaks

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]]> Tent of Many Voices: M09010503TEG https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/tent-voices/tent-of-many-voices-m09010503teg/ Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:36:05 +0000 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/tent-voices/tent-of-many-voices-m09010503teg/ A recording from the Tent of Many Voices collection.

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]]> introduction introduction at the top of the hour but for those of you who weren’t here welcome to the tent of many voices and the core of Discovery 2 the tent of many voices was designed as a place for people of different professional backgrounds and cultures to come and share with us their knowledge and wisdom as it relates to the Lewis and Clark expedition and so we’re very um happy to have Lucy vanderberg with us here today she’s going to be talking about Salish language so without further Ado let’s welcome Lucy to our stage thank you um in our language we would say Lum which is thank you Lum um and this is the Salish the Salish language um like I said my my name is Lucy vanderberg and I’m the program manager at the people Center in Pablo uh which is seven miles north of uh pson the people Center is a museum and an education uh facility and a a gift shop we and also our we call it native Ed it’s uh the tours that they combine with education um um our mission statement is to educate um the public and the public includes not only the tribal members but non-trial members about the three tribes that reside on on what is known as the Flathead reservation um we have the Salish and we like to be called the bitot sales because this this is actually our homeland and uh somebody made a comment this morning and said asked me where I was going and I I told them that I was going to Hamilton they said oh you’re going back to your Homeland and I always feel I wasn’t born here or anything but I always feel like when I come back to the Bitterroot that it is uh part of my my background and my father was born in Stevensville and he was uh he was a year old when they were uh moved to the to the Joo Joo area there are there are um three tribes that reside on the resid a and that’s the the the bito Salish and the Ponder and the cutney um the cutney migrated down from Canada and like I said we went from here to there the Ponderay have always been in between Arley and pson they’ve always occupied that land um the Cal spell some some of the Spokan uh we’ve kind of had different tribes that have lived there but um to date we have um approximately about 7,000 enrolled members on that um not all 7,000 live on the reservation um for whatever reason a lot of people do leave the reservation um I left at one time and came back after about 20 years um to be enrolled uh an unrolled member you you uh there’s there’s criteria that you have to meet um either Salish CNE or Ponderay you have to have at least um 1/4 uh degree of either trib’s um degree blood to be enroll an enrolled member and there’s a lot of uh um descendants direct descendants that aren’t enrolled um because of the the requirement that you have to be 1/4 um I consider myself a full blood Salish uh my mom was was a full blood my dad um like I said was born here and through the years of uh not keeping records um not having that uh you know the closest thing we have of the records being kept in this area people that were born here in Stevensville in the Bidot are the the Jesuit uh the fathers and they didn’t start keeping records probably until the late late 1800s um my dad was born in 189 91 or 1890 I’m sorry and um they never did put a a blood degree down for him until the reservation was formed in in in u the Joo is actually where the first agency was and somewhere down the line he ended up being 78 and I could never figure out where that 1/8 went you know uh what is that 1/8 you know I’d like to know um that nobody you know we can’t we can’t track down our background um because there just wasn’t any any record of of anything back Beyond like 1890 and uh so I always uh I always wondering you know what what was that 1 18 you know um so I I consider myself a full blood and we have uh to date probably um a very small amount of full blood um members on the reservation uh probably I would say 50 that are full blood and the full Bloods are the ones that maintain our language um pass it on uh we do a lot of uh Consulting with uh our elders um the Salish language was um an Unwritten language at one time uh the Jesuits did you know they did their version of writing the language after talking you know with the the the Salish um and that was probably the closest thing we had to a written language was is kind of like a dictionary vocabulary word list uh that the Jesuits put out and as years went on you know the elders became concerned because the language being um being lost um the younger Generations um not because life was changing a lot of the parents encouraged the students to um you know like when they go to school you know um don’t they’ll be speaking in your language because you need to earn learn English um and for survival you know that makes sense um my mother who who attended the ursaline um Academy in in St Ignatius she used recalled a lot of the experiences that she had um there I mean they weren’t allowed to speak their language so that was and that was in the the early 1900s and that was kind of when our language became uh threatened um parents Grandparents were um encouraging everyone to um not not speak their language um stay in you know learn as much English as you can now when they were uh brought to like the urine Academy or the the Jesuit the the fathers also had a school that a lot of the Indian children were brought to and they you know they stayed there they just stayed there for um 9 months um the hair was cut there you know I mean they pretty much um really discouraged them from being being themselves and living their own lifestyle um and when they would go home in in the summertime for 3 months and then they they would you know have U be able to because Salish is in my home Salish was my first language um until I went until I got older um probably four or five um and I was the youngest youngest child of uh of a large family um so I learned um English probably when I was about three or four but when I was little it was Salish was my first language because it was spoke in the home um daily I mean that was that was our lifestyle um so I have an advantage over uh the Learners now that we’re trying to to bring back the language and teach uh there the language is being taught throughout the reservation now um cuz there there isn’t that many uh fluent speakers I I feel fortunate that my parents did um you know they spoke the language in the home all the time um they encourage education um but they also encouraged us to keep our keep our heritage alive and to keep our um culture um and I’m I feel I feel very uh fortunate that I I have this ability to teach my children my grandchildren um other tribal members um and I you know I’ve taught Lang uh Salish language for probably the last 30 years um I was was hired by they formed in St Ignatius they formed um it was called at the time the Flathead culture committee um and over the years it became Salish and Ponderay culture committee um and one of the things that we found out right at the beginning was the elders wanted to um keep they they wanted to document as much as they could tell us about history uh families uh the Lang everything was done in the language so we we started interviewing large groups of the elders in and tape recording them um way back then it was a little cassette we didn’t have the the I guess the the equipment that that we have now you know we could have took videos of them you know we just didn’t do that in 78 uh plus we had a limited budget and um we were totally um supported by the elders the elders could see the concern back then that okay if we don’t document all this information is going to be lost so that was our job and I worked for the culture committee for 19 years and then I moved uh I moved up to pson and uh went to work for the people Center our job was to get large groups of Elders together and just turn the tape turn the tape recorders we had them um different places around a big conference room and just turn it on and let them talk in their language in 78 there were still um and it was the elders you still heard the language uh a lot now it’s very rare to hear the language openly um to hear the language spoken you have to go to the Salish cutney College to a language class or go to a Elders advisory council meeting to hear the language it’s just not you don’t hear it every day when I was when I was a child growing up um if we were at the local grocery store in Ari or at the post office and people were coming in I mean you heard the language all the time um that’s the big advantage that the fluent speakers have now over the Learners I mean the Learners have a real disadvantage because they don’t hear it every day they have to hear it from tapes they have to hear it from uh language teachers um and like I said it wasn’t a written language um up until 1978 uh we had no alphabet um nothing was really I mean you couldn’t write it down and after we had interviewed all these Elders for so long um we knew that we had to translate these tapes and trying to put a Salish word using the English alphabet uh became complicated because yeah we have sounds that come from down in your throat and the English just the I mean you how can you say well even a simple one like uh it’s just a that’s that’s a that’s a sound in our alphabet so we’re we’re trying put T andl together and it um it became real obvious that we needed to to work with a linguist um so what we did was we worked with a linguist out of uh British Columbia and his name was Larry Miller a very young man um who was very patient us um stayed with stayed at the in St Ignatius listened to the elders listened to the culture Committee in everyday conversation and it was uh decided that we would use the internet National phonetic alphabet we ended up with 43 sounds 43 letters um we have this the like the same vowels as as English um English is AE I O and U we have the same we use the same letter but it’s instead of AE I O and U is a e i u and O um some of the elders concern was the language is being shortened um we have a lot of words that we say like good day is and if you talk to some people they they they cut off parts of it and it becomes so when you’re teaching the language we try to we try to to to teach the the the whole version of a word and sometimes it it gets to be a pretty long word um and there’s also between the Salish and the Ponder the Salish and Ponder speak the same language but they have um Community differences uh from like arle and Ronan St ignacius there might be the dialect differences uh we understand each other um but it’s just okay we know that okay this is how you say it in ronad this is how the pandere say it this is how you say it in AR Le you know um and when when I was a teacher at the college I I tried to teach all three differences if there was three or two or four um because they’re all right they’re not you know you can’t say this one’s wrong because somebody might have grow had grown up with talking in North Crow of ronam this is how their family talked and you can’t say they’re wrong because they have a little bit of a difference it’s it’s just like in the English I mean throughout the United States everybody says things a little different um we do have an immersion school that started um in Ari and it’s it’s with a real small from probably a year old to age three um they have an enrollment of 30 and um they’re they are doing uh I think a fantastic job of uh instilling the language and the sounds and the um everyday cultural Lifestyles into um the small small children because they won’t they’re not getting it at home so um the school is has taken it upon themselves to do this and I think it’s uh it’s been in operation for probably about 5 years now and once they leave the emerence school and they go in to head start at four they it’s it’s like it’s picked up from where they left off Head Start will pick up uh the language uh instruction from there and once they go into kindergarten or uh the first grade all the all the public schools on the reservation have the Salish Ponder and the cutney language in the schools uh AR Le has one of the biggest probably the biggest um involvement uh they have the you know AR Le has always accepted um the Salish language as a um and they get it from kindergarten through high school and once they get through high school if they CH if they choose to go to the Sal scy College um they can continue to pursue that language uh instruction there uh the college does does a wonderful job of of teaching hiring teachers there um pson school is the the only school on the reservation that does the cutney the cutney occupy the northern part of the reservation Elmo Dayton Big Arm um and pson so um it’s it’s it makes me feel good when I go to the schools and I hear they’re having you know I’ll sit in on some of the cutney classes and sit in on some of the Salish classes and um we are making strides we are making um steps towards preserving and re and re reintroducing the language throughout the reservation it’s you know my my children I have three girls who have married and they’re they’re not around as much as I as I would like I guess but they you know they they learned the most and and I’m ashamed to say this they learned the most language from my mom uh because I spent a lot of time with her you know um she had a cultural camp that she ran for three months every summer and they just stayed there the whole three months and they learned probably the most from her and but my grandkids I have seven grandkids and I try to instill in them the urgency I call it an urgency to to to remember your language remember your heritage remember your background um and it it helps that all other schools are are are doing this um this past spring I was um involved with a college with a a group of nine and we’ always heard about the Maui in New Zealand that had this excellent excellent program immersion program that they totally turned around their language was like ours that was being um pushed aside it was being losted and they completely turned that around with uh the immersion schools like the one that we have started in RI we only have the one um but I was uh fortunate to to go to New Zealand in in March and um we stayed there for 6 weeks and we worked with all the different schools the the dayc carees the head starts the junior high the high school and the colleges the universities in New Zealand um and we came away with a lot of a lot of material a lot of uh curriculum that we can incorporate into our efforts to to preserve our language um I enjoyed myself there um it was a little too hot for me but um it was it was good to see little children speaking their language um all the time I mean it was like I remember how my language used to be um so we’re on the road to uh maybe getting another emerging School uh in a different location and um you know if we can just work together as a tribe tribes and work together as communities um we can we can get that language back um like I said we have 43 sounds I call them sounds because some of them have little extra things along them um teaching the languages is is a way of teaching your culture if you if you know your culture you’re going to know your language and to know your culture you have to learn the language um all these tapes that we did over the years uh is all in sales and if you want to listen to those tapes and if it’s going to make any sense to you you have to know your language they’ve been translated and uh the culture committee is putting out um different I don’t know how many volumes but they they just one was just uh released um about a month ago and it was on the Lewis and Clark um Encounters in in the bitot and there was a volume by itself um all interviews of Elders that have that have passed on um and they have a place names um all of these place names throughout the bito valley um in in Salish um sometimes I I I would like to go back to the culture committee and work with them because they’re uh really struggling to keep keep that preservation and um but that’s what we’re doing at the people Center too um this lady that came with me today she’s our education director and we hold classes at the people Center language um history uh stories storytelling um plus we have the museum we have a we have a small Museum it’s not a large one um we hope to and you know expand on that someday um we’re limited in our language teachers um we have um a lot of the students that are now in college that have taken the language throughout the years um are very capable of teaching the language but are um hesitant because they’re put on the spot you know when you’re teaching something you’re kind of put on the spot and the students expect you to not make any mistakes you know and these new Learners they’re they’re fluent I guess um passive fluent they they understand the language they they can do the basics um and but afraid to get into a conversation with an elder because the Elder will stay in the language and you should too but it’s uh sometimes it’s hard being um a fluence speaker and a teacher myself sometimes it’s hard to stay in in the Salish language um because you there’s so many things that we don’t have words for and that’s what the the the elders advisory Council which we have one uh on the south end and one on the North End we don’t have words for microphone uh camera you know the the modern things so it’s it’s up to the elders to sit down with a list and try to come up with something that describes a microphone describes a video camera and just office equipment you know I mean because we did we didn’t have those things when the language was so it’s it’s up to the elders to um try to find something that describes that basically what we’re doing is making up words um I don’t want to be accused of making up any words so I let the elders do that um and they’ve come up with a a a long you know it’s it’s like an ongoing thing every time something new comes out the kids now want to know how do you say uh Xbox you know and so we have to describe this to elders and they so then they come up with you know so you know the the kids always want to know how do you say this how do you say that and and it sometimes it’s pretty challenging to come up with something that but everybody’s in agreement with I guess um so the the language is one of the things that the whole tribal membership um is struggles with but yet is in support of um within all the schools and uh the the teachers um we work with the state um to certify um language speakers um if if you know if you go to college and you have to take a foreign language we’re trying to get it so s isues that foreign language which is um it always confuses the elders because they’re saying well it’s not a foreign language to the to to the like the university in Montana um to them it is a foreign language so then they you know we have to certify our own Learners in our language to qualify for that foreign language uh requirement um the council the tribal council um they’re very supportive of uh the elders the language teachers um the schools supportive I guess in and uh yeah you’re doing a good job kind of thing you know uh verbally um we don’t always get the support and which is um like with anything any any any um business um your your Li budget your budget is limited there’s only so much you can do and you know we try to fund raid we try to get grants and it’s um it’s an ongoing thing I mean it’s like every day you get up and you you’re trying to think of okay what can I do today to make this more uh simple for the schools uh and the teachers in the schools on the reservation um throughout uh all the way to um Dayton Dayton has a real small school they have like nine students um in September the every third week in September we have our Native American awareness week and schools all the schools on reservation will come to the people Center the people Center has been designated as the place to because it’s big enough that we can um accommodate probably oh we’ve had up to 400 kids at one time um and we go through stations um whether it’s game native games history language and they can also take um tours of the museum um I did bring along some um some books of of our language uh the alphabet um it kind of describes it I didn’t uh you know I didn’t uh do copy make copies but if you’re interested uh we do have a our website for the people Center and the college and just you know if you wanted to call anywhere uh the culture committee or the people Center we’d be more than happy to to help we we get we have a travel member who is a teacher at Coral’s and he always brings this uh bus load of kids to um to the people Center and we get people from the bitot valley a lot just coming to to there and I have a really a good staff who’s uh they don’t have to be told every day to what to do so they just kind of do it and I’m I’m happy for that um if you have any questions I would be more than happy to to answer them do anyone have any questions for Lucy oh one back here just a sec let me get the microphone so every everyone can hear I just wanted to ask you if you are related to Agnes vanderberg Agnes was my mother I have a picture after you’re done to show you that I took of her in Washington DC oh yeah okay wow any other questions up here just a sec this gentleman in the is there any other language in the world that is close to the Salish language like Spanish and Italian is close you know what I mean yeah um some of the linguists that we worked with we worked with Larry m we worked with um Anthony matina at University and then um Sally Thompson from Pennsylvania and um um Steve vegal from Hawaii now he said Steve tells me that um the linguistic part of of like the sounds that we make is a lot like Russian so I don’t know we have a lot of lot of words that come from from here and then they move down um like the is you the it’s almost like clear in your throat it’s it’s a sound that’s made down here which is good and we have um some of the others like um it’s uh we ended up with 43 sounds and U we could probably have more according to one of the linguists he wanted to add the Fingal in but uh okay 43 is enough you know let’s just stick with those question over here can you in Sage count slowly 1 through 10 and can you recite the the months of the year okay it has a a glot stop at the end I mean you’re actually cutting off the moose and that’s 1 through 10 and the once you learn 1 through 10 you pretty much got made uh because what you do after you get past 10 is you take 10 and and then you just start over 10 and one is 11 so you got 11 so learn one through 10 and you can kind of figure it out uh the months of the year January is we put at the end of each the first sound or the first word because that means month is the the how do I explain this um the the New Year the beginning they didn’t go by years back then they went by Seasons but it actually it came out that January is the the beginning of the winter season the winter months um February is um and that means that’s just the coldest coldest month um March is and that’s the literal translation is the the month of the geese um when the geese are L whichever way they go I don’t know um April is staman is the flower the Buttercup and and it’s um a lot of the the seasons went by flowers trees animals June is um the cam the month of the month of the C the bulb which we we still gather today uh and that’s uh just lost it um but that after it’s cooked it’s called e and I always tell my students to remember um the word e is you can eat it and it actually has the very the very beginning is kind of like eat uh after it’s baked um and you could eat it July is the um celebration after if you want to look at January February March April and May June is right in the middle um July is the the time to after Gathering Gathering the new the the harvesting the the herbs and the berries in July was a time to celebrate a time to um I guess relax until you started the the process process again for the fall and the winter um July was and now they call it July c h u l a y August uh and that was Huckleberry um sta um that was when a lot of the people did went out P tuckle berries choke cherries all the berries that are right then September was and that’s Choke Cherry after the first Frost is when they they picked the choke cherries and they pounded and kept dried and kept a lot of the foods were was dried um the drying process was after they’re completely dried you can put them away and they’re they’ll last you know they they just like they do now with dehydrated Foods um October is um and that means the hunting month hunting for the big game the elk moose deer and I’m sure a long time ago the Buffalo it was the strip it was all the hunting November is was the trapping it’s that was the trapping month when they trapped for The Furs the the beaver the weasel the um mink um muskrat um and December is the there’s controversy on that and one one part like I said you know the community differences December was theu the storytelling because we don’t we don’t tell any of our creation stories until the snow or like they say until the snow flies we don’t tell any creation stories and by creation stories I mean the the stories that we have about um the ber Valley and and the coyote the coyote was in instrumental in a lot of our creation stories and that was why they called it the the month of Storytelling well thank you Lucy that was great thanks for that question that was a good question thank you if anyone has any other questions for Lucy I’m sure she’ll be around here for a little bit and you can come up and ask them personally to her we’re going to e for

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]]> Tent of Many Voices: M09010506TEG https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/tent-voices/tent-of-many-voices-m09010506teg/ Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:35:50 +0000 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/tent-voices/tent-of-many-voices-m09010506teg/ A recording from the Tent of Many Voices collection.

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]]> go we’ve been traveling since January of 2003 started in monachello and so we’ve made it here to Hamilton and uh it’s been a great reception here so far so thank you very much lots to do and see we have our exhibit tent over here replicas of the keelboat The Dugout and the proges um we are joined by our federal Partners the Bureau of Land Management with their little white tent uh the US forest service over there um the National Guard back behind us with their camouflage tent hope you can find that so anyway um please walk around and take it all in and enjoy yourselves and enjoy the fair the tent of many voices this tent was a place designed to uh bring in different people of professional backgrounds and cultures to share with us their knowledge and wisdom as it relates directly and sometimes indirectly with the lwis and Clark and Expedition and so for this hour I’d like to welcome Mary Jane Charlo uh she is the native Adventures manager and member of the um Salish cut tribe and so I’m going to let her tell you more about um the native Adventures program and she’s going to be talking about Lewis and Clark animals so let’s welcome Mary Jane to our stage good afternoon um I work at the people Center I don’t know if you know what that is it’s the cultural visitors center for the Confederate Salish and cutney tribes on the Flathead reservation which is north of Missoula uh Native Adventures is a tourism program for the tribes and that’s what I do I schedule tours tours and set up trips for group large groups and small groups and it’s pretty much wide open depending on on the person on what they want to do and how long they want to stay what I’m going to do today is Give the names and Salish of these animals hi Mary give the names of the animals in Salish and then do the sign language for them okay I’ve been I’ve been learning the sign language for about three four years since I finished a class with Johnny AR Le one of our cultural uh teachers up on the reservation I took a cultural leadership class with him for two years it was a two-year class and it was teaching the about the culture and the history through language okay through the Salish language one of the ways that he taught us the language and different words and how how to speak and stuff I’m not fluent by any means one of the ways was he talked sign language while he spoke the Salish so you were able to comprehend more what he was saying without the English kind of like being in Stuck in the Middle there um so that’s where I started learning about the animals my granddaughter who was who’s 11 years old we just finished doing the explore the Big Sky and Great Falls and she worked with me for 5 days straight 7 hours a day doing this okay she was supposed to come today but her cousin from Minnesota showed up she hadn’t seen her cousin all summer and it was her cousin’s birthday today so she ditched out on me so I’ll do this by myself okay so we’ll just start from this end oh let’s get this one down here I don’t have all of the puppets and I don’t have all of the sign language for them but most of them I do when you’re speaking sign language all of the sign hi R hey there’s my cousin there’s like all the sign language takes part right in between your waist and your neck this is the hand that is kind of like your base you use it for measuring and you use it for this hand to do the action on you know so right in between here and here unless it’s something specifically where you would use like today like that or this afternoon so like this hand you you’d use this hand on it going like evening and morning like this okay so I’ll start with the signs here okay this one is the black bear and flamp Cat and okay the sign for that black bear is his little round ears that’s what it is okay that and here we have a little black bear right okay the sign for that one is little black bear okay this M mahuya what is it yeah some participation here okay the sign for raccoon I take my I could see better if I put this over my glasses this is a mahuya his banded eyes and what do you think it is for little mahuya right little mahuya okay this one is the grizzly bearin we have a sound in our language that comes from your throat it’s written as an X in the international alphabet can you it’s just expelling air from your throat okay the sign for the grizzly bear is two signs it could be this one because they Mark the territory scratching trees or this so some okay this one okay this one is the one I have a hard time remembering all of them okay we don’t have the adult deer the Bucks and we don’t have the adult do we have the little deer so that just starts me out on on the black tail or the mule deer the the buck is pu pu for a mu there okay um how many of you hunt okay you know the difference between a mule deer and a white tail okay mule deer’s horns spread out they spread so this is a sign for the for the male black tail pu pu the male white tail got that X in there again A W sound is the white tail curved forward okay the black tailed D is St big ears the white tail D is because when they turn around they run they’re flagging their tail a danger okay the elk we don’t have an elk but the bull elk is tet and that’s just like a big like this tett and the cow SN well easy to remember okay don’t have the sign language for this but everybody knows what this is anyways this is um St everybody knows what this one is this one has all of our animals and all of um all of our animals you all have stories for all of them and in our creation stories animals came before people people which is when I was working with a lot of kids and and I always like to tell them our creation stories parallel with angl Christian Christianity you know animals came first right okay and people always say trying to say well leis and Clark followed old Indian Trails you know our elders say well actually they were animal Trails the animals knew the quickest and easiest routes to get somewhere you know they didn’t go over the highest mountain and all the way down the deepest valleys you know they were smarter than that so actually Le and Clark followed animal trails and this this little uh animal here has human traits you know like when somebody is nervous and they start to fidget you know their their foot’s going or or the they cut are going like this like this okay same thing this one does too when it starts fidgeting I think you’ve been there too long when you notice that when his little feet start going up and down that’s when you know you should have been gone okay everybody knows a sign for this Quai what’s the sign for this tatonka yeah I got it back there Tatanka remember universal sign with Indians tatonka okay this one here is what a horse good you’re so smart okay this one is a hard onea Sasa okay sign for that very easy you got this hand to do the movement on this is the horse that and I have a story about this one I don’t know what the sign language is for the name for this one is quick J okay okay the story with this little animal is that there was a young man who was considered slow you know like this story teaches people about every little thing every person no matter how seemingly unimportant has a place and a reason to be there so the story about this little animal starts with the young man who was considered slow you know he couldn’t keep up with the rest of the young men and he couldn’t run and play with them hunt ride horses or whatever and so he was always left behind and he spent a lot of time alone so one day while he was out alone and he kind of wandered back and he found realized everybody in the camp had left all the camps were gone and he he had no idea where they went you know and then he could hear some someone crying like sobbing and someone was crying like they their heart was broken he wandered down through the trees and there was this teepee he went inside the teepee and he peaked in the door and what he seen looked like with the back to him was like an old woman and she was crying her heart out and he asked her grandmother why are you crying you know and he asked her is there something I can do for you and she says my children they’re gone she said I I I kept them in a in our house in the chief’s pillow you know and so they’re all gone and he says well we can follow them you know it’s easy to follow them we’ll follow the trail and the old lady wanted him just to go get the children so he took off he followed the trail and as he walked along you know they could pretty easy follow because of travo and dragging the PO horses Footprints all kinds of different ways to follow the the trail and when he found them it was getting towards night time and it was getting dark and he found the chief’s teepee and he went into it you know cuz remember like he wasn’t like right on the ball with everything so this is something you don’t do if the door’s closed you know you don’t just walk into a teepee if there’s a door closed on there it means that you know you it’s it’s private or you know you’re supposed to let him know you’re there so he opened the door and he walked in and he was standing over there looking at the Chief and the chief was laying there he was sleeping the chief you know you wake when you when someone’s looking at you especially if you’re sleeping you’re going to wake up you know and he he woke up and he looked at this young man who was standing there over looking over him and he’s going uh what do you want and the young man said uh can I dig in your pillow and the chief goes well sure go ahead there’s nothing in there and so the young man dug inside the pillow and he found the babies and they were in like a little nest and he started leaving the chief asked did you find what you want he goes yes I did and he went all the way back and he found the the grandmother and he told her grandmother I found your children and she was so happy you know and she had tears coming down she was so joyful and he goes here they are he goes I don’t know if they’re all there because I didn’t know how many you had you know and she’s so happy and she counts the mom goes they’re all here and she said for this I’ll give you a a a great reward you know and what she told him what she gave him uh the gift that she gave him gave him a great ability all the young men whenever he went out on raiding party Hunting Party or whatever wanted to go with him they wanted to accompany him when the reason for that was the little mouse gave him the power to go in places and not be seen and to leave the same way so that’s the one of the story about the mouse do you like it okay everybody is all just really listening okay okay this one is messed up okay my what big teeth you have okay what is it okay it’s a wolf okay this is easy and seen andsen when you say the word cats the on the end cat okay anden that’s the sound that’s in in this word and seen is the wolf okay let me think I remember the oh yeah okay this is a sign for Wolf okay you change it slightly to it changes to Hunter all right okay and this is the wolf’s little brother coyote okay we call him Cula Cula to us is a real important person in in our cultural in our like histor histor historical stories our creation stories and everything you um and the beginning create I can’t tell coyote stories because we’re not supposed to tell them in the summer months until after the first snowfall and stop talking about him after the first Thunder but um in our creation stories uh long time before people were even here um there were spirits you know and people might think of them as U uh God or or whatever you know but there were Spirits out there and they created animals and the and God we call God or kultin or whatever people call everybody every culture has a name for God all right but cre the spirits um decided that they were going to have people so they created the animals first and they told these animals we’re creating you and we’re putting you on Earth because man is coming and he’s going to be born naked and he’s not going to know anything he’s not going to take care of himself and he’s not going to know anything so you’re going to be put on the earth to help him okay how do these animals help us all right everybody always heard stories about people going out seeking vision you know fasting and praying for 4 days or however days you know and and they get a vision and some people says it’s delirium you know and whatever you know but you know I believe in my tradition traditional ways and I believe you know we had our ways way before you know all of a lot of other things came along and I I believe in him and one of the one of the ways this Al also will teach you about something else that we do drumming and singing okay dancing and drumming and singing are very important in our culture you know we still carry that on today in pow all right we dance and we sing like how one question I like to ask to ask kids is um how many of you read the Bible okay how many of you have read the Bible okay quite a few okay I read the Bible I was uh on fireborn Christian door door evangelism at one time um I don’t do it anymore but um in the Old Testament it talked about David dancing before the Lord he’s dancing before the Lord naked you know what was he doing he was praising God wasn’t he okay you can draw that similarity with our dancing and our singing okay those songs were given to us by Spirits when somebody gets a song you know like you thinking of and they go seek a vision they seek counsel and they’re given a song song song makers and singers are very special that’s communicating between this world and that world okay people say we got a song of who’s your helper okay a number of animals could be the helper they received a song their helper could be from the wind or from the I have a very close friend her her song comes from the sound of melting ice you know water so there’s a lot of different things you know so with this uh little animal in the beginning of creation he was known as trickster he’s very important and who is he you know when you think about it and the the analogies drawn you know he’s us he’s he’s the foolish person who’s always done the things that he wish he didn’t do you know you know that’s that’s who this guy is and other times he’s so smart you know and he is cunning most the time it doesn’t end up in a good way because that’s who he is you know but that’s just an explanation of songs and animals trying to draw that kind of give you an idea about singing and dancing and connection between animals all animals have different traits for instance like this your animal here spell turtle okay I have a daughter that just really loves Turtles she’s 22 years old on her dance outfit she has all kinds of different little turtles that she’s received during the years on her belt I made her a turtle bag and in the middle of it it has a heart and I I told her the reason I made her that bag is because this animal stands for wisdom longevity and strength okay no matter what happens you know you heard about race between the hair and the turtle you know you just keep trying and you don’t give up okay and so on that bag on her back was that turtle and there was a heart on there because a turtle has a very strong heart you can try to kill it and they say his heart will just keep beating and beating and beating and also like because I love her I’ve also put a heart on it so there’s a lot of different reasons you know people make things for like their relatives or someone they care for and you’ll see goes oh that looks kind of crazy I wonder what that is for you know but there’s usually a good reason for it so this is SP and the sign for him is this then his little head coming in and up right and for some reason I can’t remember the name for snake but this is a an simple that need there’s something else too like with sign language if you want to ask a question is simply depending on the circumstances for instance if I was sitting in this chair Mary and I were sitting in this chair and we knew everybody that was in the room somebody walks in that’s a stranger you know and we see that person walk in together and I might go like this to her that means so what who who is it you know or if you’re buying something this is like talking for buying okay if you’re buying something and you really like it and you go quinch how much see so this is always the question or you might you might see somebody you as a you know I might see you walk in and get happy to see you but you’re over there and I go you know and go how are you you go good that okay this one here scal scal L scal what is it okay he’s got little teeth okay we know what that is okay sign language for that put your hand out okay why right he’s when he gets alarmed he slaps the water with his tail Dives they all dive down underwater to go into the into the house okay this is a frog I just learned this one I didn’t know the name of this was a very good sign for this one this has a sound in it called bardel okay put your tongue behind your front teeth and blow air out the sides kids can do it easy if you tell them go they they can do it pretty okay so this one is slam SL SL SL slam SL slam SL frog okay sign language for frog that’s easy it’s good okay and this sne sne real easy one this big eyes okay this is an interesting sign with this one this is not very easy to say man’s best friend okay a long time ago our dogs man’s best friend I don’t think we’re that loyal because they were wolves they were kind of like tamed they hung around you fed them you know and the dogs are called and Q sound comes out of your throat and kosam okay that was D dog sign for dog the Travoy used to tie on to the dog before we had horses so that’s sign for dog we were really glad to get horses you know you P put all your packed your stuff on one of these and he got to smell up his nose that he want to investigate he was gone so we were really glad to get horses okay this one here Mountain line okay this one here that’s a little one okay little te me out okay what’s the sign for Mountain line like a cat nose okay you make the cat nose and then the eye is watching because he’s always watching okay and we don’t have a bobcat but the B sign for Bobcat is also the same sign for house cat just push your nose up a little bit on the end that’s Bobcat or house cat all right this that’s a hard one it has that s with the X sound and a K on the end okay we all know what that is right it’s not a reindeer okay okay so moose okay sign for moose okay what else I think I’ve gone through my stuff okay are the oh this doesn’t have anything to do with my side language but here are posters um Tony and CA asked me to work with the Lewis and Clark commission and Clinton Blackwood came to me uh but about a year ago or two years ago and said he’s getting a little concerned because there was no participation from the Salish and so I said well they probably don’t want to celebrate LS and Clark because of the what came after you know it was not happy but um I told them what they would celebrate though would be if they wanted the Indians come down and have a celebration it would have to be an Indian celebration you know and I knew they wouldn’t the elders wouldn’t go for celebrating l Clark but what this PA is for is we have banded together with the ls and Clark B Centennial commission the circle of tribal advisers Sula and Darby ranger district and aerate Chamber of Commerce to put this power on and what this is for celebrating the diplomacy the hospitality and the generosity of Salish okay in this picture this picture was done by Jesse Henderson it was like $45,000 it’s hanging in I forget where it’s hanging in Helena but it shows Chief three eagles who is one of my ancestors um Charlo they the L goes from tanak before three eagles and three eagles then Victor then Chief charot then Martin and then my father Tony but it shows them here you know it’s called offering of the great clearing and so we welcome them we took care of them and traded them horses is what they had in the journal but our elders say no Sint Indian would have traded for those horses you know we gave them our horses and put them out to pasture in the journals it says we they traded for excellent saish horses so what this is going to be is not exactly a reenactment of that meeting but the whole idea behind it is for visitors to come and be welcomed by the Salish again in the bitat valley 200 years later for everybody open to the public and what we’re going to be doing there is Grand entry will be start Friday night at 7:00 it’s all free camping’s free you know you don’t have to pay anything to get in and there are going to be arts and craft vendors food vendors and Native guided po out tours that’s what I do back home as we have native guides take people through the PA explain the dancing and explain whatever is going on there you know and and help them so they can participate and become part of the celebration instead of just like somebody watching standing back watching on the outside okay and so that’s what we’ll be doing on the first night and also there’ll be viewing of uh Johnny AR Le’s video the L and Clark expedition meet the saor and Ponder Indians that was funded by loose and Clark Grant on Saturday we’ll start with the grand entry with the snake dance okay a lot of our names were given to a lot of our different things in English have nothing to do with they about what they really are okay like the snake dance has given that name has nothing to do with snakes you know what the snake dance it’s called that probably because in English when they danced in they came in this way in line dancing in okay what the snake dance represents is like a victory dance you know it’s a Warrior dance a long time ago way before Horses The Warriors would come back if they returned it was successful you know they would come in they would be tired starving you know they would be WIP pretty much wiped out they’d be staggered into Camp you know and the camp would be welcoming but they would be coming in like this and so what you see on this the only time we do it is Fourth of July celebration it’s the biggest celebration up on the reservation you have hundreds of dancers coming in for a snake dance on that and it’s very exciting okay we have I got permission from the elders to do it down here in uh Sula you know so that’s going to be something extra special to see and we’ll have the I think the I’m not sure if that happened yet do you know if they’re going to have that veterans ceremony okay we’ll have a veterans honoring C Cy right after that grand entry and then there’ll be dancing contest dancing and drumming and singing and then the welcoming ceremony is open to all visitors to participate and what we do we have what we call a giveaway dance and it’s a round dance where whoever’s having the giveaway is in the center and they give to whoever’s dancing because remember the dancing is like a really good thing to be doing when you go to Pawa you here the announcer will say everybody get up and dance you know get up and dance for those that can’t dance for those that have passed away and for those who are coming you know so dancing is very important to us so whoever comes down and dances with us you know will be honored and also at that same time we’ll have the loose and clarky and actors come out and be part of that and then about 5:00 we’ll have a buffalo feed none of this is is you know you’re not getting charged for any of this and then later on that at night we’ll have start again at 7 and then we will uh uh continue with the dancing and the drumming and and have uh I think we’re having Clint Clint’s going to stand up and say some words too Clint Blackwood uh is he called the director or the chair chairman of the Montana anyway he’s the head loose and clar guy for Montana but U so that’s going on September 9th and 10th if you wish you can come and get one of these posters to remind you if you wanted to go are there any questions anyone have any questions for Mary Jane all oh we got one over here hang on let me bring this over so everyone can hear when will that event it’s the 9th and 10th but it’s here in the bitteroot but where Sula grab a poster I don’t know am I hooked on to something here any other questions oh Eagle did we get the eagle the eagle sorry okay you were watching mil ands milk ands yeah okay easy sign just that’s we have two kinds of eagles the bald eagle and the golden eagle okay what Johnny told me in the class was the golden eagle is mainly the ones is the one that has to do with Indians more so than the bald eagle because the bald eagle is the one you always see like sitting up by himself you know all solitary the golden eagle you know if you’re watching you will see him in there with the animals you know and there’s different stories and pictures coyote stories of of a golden eagle sitting there surrounded by animals and they’re holding a council you know they’re have making decisions and stuff but any other ones any other questions all right well let’s thank Mary Jane for coming and sharing with us

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]]> Tent of Many Voices: M07220502TMB https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/tent-voices/tent-of-many-voices-m07220502tmb/ Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:35:49 +0000 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/tent-voices/tent-of-many-voices-m07220502tmb/ A recording from the Tent of Many Voices collection.

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]]> good afternoon everyone and welcome to the tent of many voices the tent of many voices is part of the core of Discovery 2 traveling L and Clark exhibit it’s a multi- agency Federal exhibit the lead agency being the National Park Service as I said it’s a traveling exhibit it started back back in January of 2003 he’s been traveling since then and will travel through 2006 during the four years of the bicentennial the Lewis and Clark expedition what we do hear in the ten many voices as we bring in a wide variety of presenters to share with us different perspectives different voices both voices and perspectives on the leis and Clark expedition and voices and perspectives from those various American Indian nations that have been living there for thousands of years before Lewis and Clark came along and this afternoon we’re going to hear from Germaine white who part of the confederated tri Salish in Cuttin tribes and she’s going to share some of the history of her people and their connection to the Lewis and Clark expedition so let’s please give Germaine a warm welcome to the tenam many voices thank you so much I’m delighted to be here today to visit with you a little bit about a tribal perspective on the Louis and Clark expedition uh as many of you know much that’s uh known about the Lewis and Clark expedition has been written but for the tribal perspective so today I’d like to share with you a little bit um of information that was told to us by our elders who heard from their ancestors these stories so our Story begins on September 4th 1805 a large band of Salish indans was camped at a place called culi a large Gathering Place we now know it as Ross’s hole in the bitet valley um on that day the people were gathering choke cherries because it was fall it was September that was the time to gather choke cherries and and pound them and dry them and prepare them for the for the winter stores of food the people were camped there not only were they Gathering choke cherries but they were also pasturing their fine horses on the Abundant grasses That Grew right there in the High Valley at the base of the pentler mountains there were over 30 camps over 400 people and over that number of horses that were there at that time it was a wonderful time of warm days and cold nights in that High Valley at the base of the pintlers in the bitet valley while the people were camped there a few days prior the scouts had seen a group approaching they brought the information back and there was discussion about this this band of Travelers that were clearly strangers they appeared to be a defeated war party they um they looked as if they were ill and they were hungry they were very pale um their me many of their horses were lame um and there was a great deal of discussion among the leaders uh among the elders and the leaders of the tribe about whether or not they constituted a threat to the well-being of the people and should be eliminated there were those many of those in the camp that said look at them they’re ill they’re wandering around they’re lost um they present a threat to the wellbeing of the people there were those among the Salish that said look at them they’re pitiful they’re lost they’re hungry their animals are lame they’re pitiful we need to help them they’re strangers they’re passing through this much they knew about them there was a great deal of discussion and it was decided by the leaders and the elders that they would provide them assistance now in most non- indan accounts of History that’s where the history of Montana begins however um Lewis and Clark were entering a world much older than they could have ever possibly imagined they were entering a world where people had lived uh a happy and contented life where they had uh subsisted on the natural Bounty of the landscape around them there really was no opportunity for them to understand the depth of relationship between people and the landscape um what Lewis and Clark entered what that band entered at that time reaches back to the very earliest beginnings of human history on this landscape most of the most of our stories tell about the making of This Place fit for humans who are yet to come our traditional stories are coyote stories and they tell about um the land form that were made about the resources that were there um and most of those places have Salish names linguists say that these names are the oldest names in our language in in English we call them archaic words uh some examples are Philips Berg we no longer use Berg in common English um it’s a remnant of an of an archaic word we don’t use Stevensville or we still say Stevensville for a town on the west side but we no longer use Vil in common language so place names are the oldest words in our language and they describe the landscape and the tribe’s relationship with the landscape there are places like timum in the bitet valley or no salmon a place that we now know as L um there’s another place in the bitat valley like Umi um the great Gathering Place or Ross’s hole um another place in the bitet valley that um that has a place name describes a coyote story um um it’s the place of the sleeping child or sleeping child Hot Springs now um it’s interesting because many of these place names uh describe a very ancient landscape and um the coyote stories talk about um about the seasonal uh battled between warm and cold and the final establishment of the seasonal regimes we know now and most it it’s curious because most of the stories that are told um very closely remember excuse me very closely resemble the geological um formations uh the ice age glacier Lake Missoula um and the final seasonal regimes we know now the animals that we have presently most archaeologists date that time to about uh 10 to 12,000 years before present um interestingly enough there’s there’s been a significant amount of archaeological excavation done at the Confluence of the Clark’s fork and the Flathead River really in the heart of our homeland and those um those test sites have also been dated to about 10 to 12,000 years so for Salish people this was a landscape that um that the Explorers entered that tribal people had had a relationship with for a very long period of time and I think that maybe the uh Expedition had no way of really understanding that that relationship between people in place um in in many ways um the early descriptions of the landscape that um the Expedition entered was called a Wilderness you know sometimes they describe it as a virgin Wilderness and actually it was um it was not a Wilderness it was a land that was occupied and that was known by the people it was um it was known quite intimately and the stories that we have really talk about um as I said how long we’ve been here and the depth of relationship and the understanding of the landscape um lots of folks in Montana have been here multi-generations lived on the Family Farm And and understand about what it’s like to to Noah place for multiple Generations but for Salish people their relationship with the bitet valley was really um closer to 10 or 12,000 years of relationship so sometimes we hear Lewis and Clark called um the core of Discovery and they were really less discovering than entering a very old landscape um the the landscape they encountered was abundant and it was presti it was a landscape that um that I think early explorers couldn’t understand in many ways um because they really felt that the the people they encountered there just didn’t have the sophisticated technology to destroy the landscape where in reality tribal values are for maintenance of a landscape um we’re taught from the very earliest ages yet today to never take more than we need to never waste anything we take and always ensure that there’s an abundance for future generations and in that way tribal people for thousands of years lived a sustainable um a sustainable way of life on the land the Salish people um that lived in the bitup valley are the most interior band of Salish speaking people at one time we were a very large Salish family there were there were many tribes and we lived in the entire Northwest of the United States over time as our numbers grew in order not to exceed the resources on the land more bands traveled further and further apart but for us the most interior band of Salish speaking people we have many relatives that live to the west of us toward the coast so there are Spokan cordelan Callis spels um uh calval okan aans and many other Salish speaking people the territory we occupied was an extraordinary large territory so not only did the people have experience on the land of great time depth we also had experience on the land in a very extensive um region of the um region of the Northwest the tribes followed a a seasonal way of life they gathered the abundance of the land that was available um we gathered beginning in the spring our earliest food was bitot followed by cus um in the summer we visited friends and celebrated and picked berries and dried them and stored them for future use we also um had fall hunts um over into the um over into these areas into the into the plains part of the state um into the Great Falls area into this the Three Forks area there were winter camps that were based there as well so the tribes had an extraordinarily long time depth and Al also a very vast expanse of territory they had a relationship with so Lewis and Clark when they stumbled into were really um were less than discoverers they were really visitors for a very short period of time and I like to talk about the time depth of people um because it really for us it puts the Louis and Clark expedition it it helps us put the Lewis and Clark expedition in a tribal in a tribal perspective so if you think about um let’s imagine 12,000 years of occupancy on the land and imagine that as a 24-hour day and take that 10 that 10 to 12,000 years wrap it around a clock for um for a 24-hour day what that means is that uh Columbus arrived at about 10:59 p.m. on that day in the in the world of the Salish people and Lewis and Clark arrived at about midnight so um there was a great deal of time that that that the tribes had in this place before the Expedition and a great deal of history in the state um in in our region before the visitors and strangers came Among Us in the period just preceding the Expedition there were significant changes there were changes that happened rapidly and dramatically one of the first changes that happened was between the 1600s and the 1700s and that was the introduction of horse we acquired from um from our occasional allies to the south of us the shishoni people and um it had a profound impact in our way of life we were one of the first people in this in this region to have horse and it extraordinarily expanded our territory our Mobility our ability to hunt our ability to um to continue our way of life it was an extraordinary uh benefit to the people to have to have horse and natur naturally our enemies the black feet to the north of us had not acquired a horse yet so if you think about the power differential among among people that um occasionally had conflicts over um over competing resources um when you imagine that um Salish people had horse before any of the people in the the region the power differential was tipped way in favor of the Salish people as I said it provided greater Mobility um easier access to Buffalo to hunting um and all of the other foods and materials that we needed um however because it expanded the territory it meant that there was greater conflict between tribes and as they competed over resources in lands that were overlapping Aboriginal territory so about the time that this extraordinary gift the horse arrived among us there was also something else that that came Among Us that had a very different impact um as I said there um the people lived a life that was rich with the abundance but rarely did they have contact with strangers so and so they had not acquired immunity to European diseases and smallpox arrived and particularly small poox among all of the diseases had a devastating effect among the people some people say that five to seven out of every eight people died in a camp as a result of small poox historic um demographers say that about it at by about 1,800 the numbers of Salish people declined from perhaps 40,000 to anywhere between 15 and 5,000 it was a sign it had a profound impact but it it didn’t just impact the Salish people it impacted people all across um all across the the Northwest and all across the region because we lived in communities that were very homogeneous we we lived together we didn’t abandon um our ill or our elderly and um we lived in community so what happened was that when disease came into the community it spread like wildfire it’s just like um when my when my daughters were at home it seemed like one of the girls would bring home um the flu just after school started and then my second daughter would get the flu and then pretty soon their father would get the flu and then you know they’d all be up and on their feet and i’ get the flu well mercifully we’re able to sustain um we’re able to get by even though we we get occasional flu but with small pox there was really no resistance and the people died in huge numbers more than more than the people could grieve and bury individually it it had a profound devastating effect on the tribes um one of the other significant changes that happened during this time just prior to the expedition was um an interesting part of History Hudson Bay established um I’m trying to remember the name of the fort some of you historians probably know this Buckingham house on the Saskatchewan River at about 1870 and um prior to that time people had learned about um about non- indan people they knew that there were that there were white people but very few of our people before Lewis and Clark had had Direct experience with with non-native peoples the Hudson Bay Company um had a profound effect on us at Buckingham house because they began to trade Firearms with the black feet people our traditional enemies as a consequence of our um conflict over competing resources in territory it was um it sign significantly shifted the power differential again because when they acquired Firearms nearly 10 to 20 years before us that had a dramatic effect so there were there were huge impacts and enormous changes to the tribal World um the Lewis and Clark Expedition was sent by as many of you know sent by President Thomas Jefferson and he stated that um in the instructions he gave to Maryweather Lewis President Jefferson said the object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River and to find the best water route to the Pacific Ocean for the purposes of Commerce so these guys were really on a business trip they they came looking like a military Expedition but they were really on a business trip and they were there to catalog and prepare to appropriate tribal resources so for many tribal people the arrival of the Lewis and Clark expedition and the subsequent changes that occurred after that are really a dark part of our tribal history um they established a groundwork uh the the groundwork for um significant changes that happened to tribal people um and a fundamentally different way of life that resulted from um from all of the changes that came after the core of discovery and I I don’t mean to disparage any great American Heroes but I really do want to provide what I believe is a balanced and honest and accurate telling of the story uh the story that remains to be told and that’s that’s the tribal perspective um the the Salish people were were really unaware of the Louis and Clark expedition’s full objectives um it it was difficult for them to know um the Explorers spoke English they had french-speaking interpreters The Interpreter spoke one of the interpreters spoke to his wife who understood French and spoke shason and there was a small boy among the Salish that spoke shason and he translated the shishoni to Salish so imagine what happened when communication went through that many iterations of of translation I I’m guessing that very little was understood very um I I would guess that there was significant miscommunication and and great misunderstanding among the people um the results might have been very different in terms of misunderstanding one of the one of the greatest misunderstandings I think occurred when the Expedition arrived and um and the people offered them blankets they had no blankets they appeared to be cold their skin was kind of blue and and white and so they offered them blankets and when the Expedition arrived they they put them down on the ground and sat on them and the people were very confused because they had offered these gifts to them and and they chose to sit on them it was kind it was one of the first examples of of communication but miscommunication but as I said the people had had determined that they would be that they would be generous to these um to these strangers that appeared to be lost so um the Expedition clearly had um had need of horses and we had an abundance of of beautiful what um what Clark described as elegant horses um the stock was exhausted some of them were lame and so the Expedition gave them uh seven horses in exchange for um 10 or 12 of The Elegant horses that the Salish people had they also um and this is going to be really important to the Louis and Clark expedition a little bit further on down trail um they didn’t know the trail so so they were provided an escort they were um they were shown on to the over L pass to go and meet among the nest Pur people um the Salish also gifted the Lewis and Clark Expedition with value food stores that had taken countless hours to prepare they gave them dried meat they gave them Roots they gave them berries they gave them food that would sustain them and it would take countless hours to replace them as well as the hides they were given um to keep themselves warm on their trip over the pass as they began traveling over the past they um they encountered every hardship That Could Be Imagined as as the Explorers said um William Clark or excuse me uh Lewis wrote after his return um most fortunately on our way within the mountains we met with a traveling band of they were Salish people going to the plains of the Missouri in quest of Buffalo and obtained from them an accession of seven horses to our former stock exchanging at the same time 10 or 12 to Great Advantage this ultimately proved of infinite service to us as we were compelled to subsist on horse beef and dogs previous to our arrival in the in the navigable navigable part of the cus cusi I have not the Leisure at this moment to State all those difficulties which we encountered in our passage over these mountains suffice it to say we suffered every Everything cold hunger and fatigue could impart so clearly the um the horses that were gifted to them were of huge benefit um not just for transportation but but for food as well as they traveled Clark also echoed the words of of Lewis at about this time I want to make sure that I leave plenty of time for us to discuss this um this encounter between the Salish people in the Lewis and Clark expedition I’m I’m just going to conclude by saying that many of the leaders were um were greatly um angered and and hurt by the subsequent events that happened um the after the um leis and Clark expedition there was a a a great concern that the kindness of the people had been exploited the welcoming and the generosity of the people had been um uh had been used and the people had been had been treated somewhat um somewhat badly this was a an ancient landscape and the people had had a great um relationship with the land and a and a huge fondness for the land and yet um there was clear misunderstanding and miscommunication I believe what our ancestors offered the Lewis and Clark Expedition was really an opportunity for respectful coexistence that that they knew the strangers were there they knew the strangers were passing through and they wanted they wanted to help them provide them some assistance and and hopefully provide that promise of of a way um another way of interacting with the people um when I was first asked to serve as a representative for the tribes and provide a tribal perspective on the Lewis and Clark expedition I met with our tribal elders and I asked them um what I should say and and what I should tell the people and at first they said you know this this isn’t a celebration for us this is not something that we really want to participate in this is not um these people to us were not great Heroes um it this was the beginning of an opening to our to our land that um this was the beginning of the cataloging of our resources and appropriation of those resources um and they talked among themselves and some of those said nope we’re not going to have anything to do with it and the others said think of our children think think of what they will learn think about what they will know if if our story isn’t told so the elders sat down and worked many countless hours and told the stories that they knew they told hundreds of hours of of stories and those stories were recorded and a a draft was prepared and um the elders have just released and the culture committee has just released this book The Salish people in the Lewis and Clark expedition it’s um it’s really um a telling of the of the tribal story thank you and if anyone has any questions for Germaine please raise your hand I’ll bring the microphone around so everybody gets a chance to hear them does anybody have any questions hi I I’m sorry I came late the could Salish now have a good oral history program don’t they yes and the second part of that question is if they do does the communal memory and tradition of of Storytelling go back far enough to the Louis and Clark expedition thanks that’s such a great question it reminds me of something that I left off that I had hoped to speak about um the tribe formed a cultural committee um approximately 30 years ago there were a group of middle-aged people in the in the mid 70s that were very concerned about the loss of language culture history and and many of them had been raised by traditional grandparents and what they knew was that their children um and their grandchildren were not able to communicate unate with their with the grandparents that the older people spoke Salish the young children spoke English and there was a huge disconnect so the middle-aged this group of middle-aged people that was very concerned and that that were fluent language speakers asked the elders to come to a meeting and ask the elders for guidance and Direction and said what shall we do we’re things are changing we’re we’re afraid for our children they’re losing their language and their history and um the elders came together and they expressed an extraordinary sense of gratitude they said we’ve been carrying the burden of these stories um and have have looked for somebody to pass them on to and we we have these stories that were given to us by our elders that was given to them by their ancestors and we’re we continue to carry them but we don’t see we they hadn’t seen anybody to pass them on to so it was a wonderful Nexus between um between the Middle people and the elders and some very bright individual and I don’t know who it is but some Visionary um chose to bring a tape recorder to the meeting and turn it on so we have approximately a thousand hours of recorded oral history interviews by Elders that you know many of them left us just after after that time so um we’ve got uh about a th000 hours of songs about a th000 hours of oral history so when we began this this project not only did we um look at the oral history tapes that the taped interviews but we also met with the elders we have today in terms of time depth most of those older Elders had parents or grandparents that had lived during a time um before there was there was significant non-tribal contact so at that time the stories were very intact and we have we have many hours of coyote stories that tell about the the formation of the place the um all of the um the resources the landmarks um how the animals came to be in incredible stories so we have um a rich Archive of information great question oh and and just to answer your last question some of the elders have have commented on what what they generally call openings um what it is when the tribal when someone comes comes into tribal land and there’s a consequent change in in the traditional way of life Pete beaverhead said I believe it was in the mid ’70s Pete beaverhead said um they hadn’t even seen our land yet and already they hadd taken it um Mitch small salmon said um they came and they set Flags down on our land and claimed it and yet it was already occupied so um there was there were some early accounts of of what happened when early strangers came into Salish territory and did we have any other questions y all right Jermaine um could you um comment on the the book by uh Peter Ronan who was a traitor around I guess around the turn of the 20th century uh and which he talked about his time living with the SES and and particularly he said that there had been that that William Clark had fathered a child with this Anish woman and is that a story that’s ongoing within the tribe was that a new book that is a story that’s talked about um um yes there um one of the one of the culture committee staff said something about Louis and Clark were the first deadbeat dads they um left a child behind that they did not provide for and the Salish people did raise that child and we have a picture of um his grandchild in in the book as well um sakal Clark Jermain can you talk about uh land ownership I mean there were territories amongst the other tribes you were competing but what was the concept of owning land and land ownership in in traditional times there wasn’t a sense of ownership we had a relationship with a landscape that was really very intimate it was not um uh you know I’m guessing it’s a lot like people that have had multi-generational Farms you know they they take care of it because it was given to them by their parents or grandparents and they hope to pass it on to their children um the land ownership or the relationship between s people in the land was really um a very reciprocal relationship it was um it was based on reciprocity and um there was a great deal of abundance that was offered to the people but it was all held communally and um we as I said at one time we were a very large band of Salish speaking people and um we had primary camps um along the Flathead River we had primary camps in the bitup valley we had a primary Camp uh along the Sun River um in the Three Forks area um there were there were um at one time there were both um plateau and plains Salish people so we were on on both sides of the Divide um and you know in um in ecological terms we talk about um we talk about those areas um those biosystems where two different Landscapes come together like wetlands and and you know grasslands or something like that and and for us and those are extraordinarily rich in complex landscapes for Salish people we lived at the backbone of the world we lived at the very beginning of the water we lived at the very beginning of the resources and we lived on both sides of the Divide so we hunted bison um like PLS people we gathered Roots like Plateau people um it it was um you know it was like a SM boorg we took the we took the um an abundance we we took from the abundance that was all around us um and and we um felt a great deal of uh people knew the landscape the elders lament now is that our children are like Buffalo born behind a fence they have no idea of the Abundant landscape and the depth of relationship that that people had traditionally kind of a long answer what was the name of the book that you mentioned right at the end on the Indian perspective when was it printed um it came out two weeks ago it was um it’s published by University of Nebraska press and it’s called the Salish people and the Louis and Clark expedition yeah and um I understand the Press told us you can go you can Google it you can go to um like amazon.com and and get copies of it or you can just contact the tribes and we can you know we we have them as well but yeah I don’t think I answered one of your questions did you ask me a complex question or a or a two-part question oh okay this the second topic I wanted to ask you about was the the attitude of the towards Clark slave York and whether he was treated any differently than than anyone else on the Expedition as he was with some tribes and and I asked that because when Clark talked to B about when they were preparing the journals Clark had said that some tribes that had not had much personal encounter with Europeans didn’t treat York any differently than anyone else York might have been the determining factor for one of the significant determining factors that allowed the Expedition not to be eliminated when they entered Salish territory the people were very very curious about him there’s um in our um in our ceremonial way of life there is there is a time where um occasionally a transformation happens and um uh charcoal will will be used to blacken the skin and there was there there was some question about whether or not this this person was a great um a great spiritual leader of the people whether he was the um the you know the the most profoundly spiritual person um and and leader within the group um so there was some question whether or not that that color would come off they were very curious about him extraordinarily curious about him and did we have any more questions for Germain oh yes we do good all right I noticed that you had said that you considered that the Salish were related to other tribes in the area and but how did you regard the black feet as being I I it seems as if they were the sworn enemies of almost everybody around but did you consider other native tribes like the black fate to be related to Salish or how was was no we’re distinct there’s no relationship they have a completely separate language and history and culture there’s there’s no relationship between Salish and cutney people and the black feet people um I think it was Desmet that called black feet the hell hounds the Rockies they were they were um uh they were Fierce Warriors occasionally we had temporary alliances but traditionally they were our enemies and it it’s complex to understand the the need to protect resources for the well-being of the people and how it is that that when some when someone enters into your territory and makes an effort to uh to capture those resources how people will fiercely respond I mean if somebody came to your house to steal a child um I’m guessing you would be fierce in your retaliation of of that individual um for Salish people and and it’s for Salish people it was much the same you know the the threat to the well-being of the people was was um was powerful and people we are known to be very hospitable very generous of spirit people but um we’re also known to be extremely Fierce adversaries so the relationship between black feet was primarily adversarial and you know I I I really don’t get this you know I I don’t get the whole notion of War Warfare you know maybe it’s a gender thing or I don’t know you know maybe it’s because I’m a mom um you know or an educator and so maybe because I come from a people that are really very very peaceful people and but so I don’t get it so I asked one of the elders you know just to try to explain to me about Warfare because it it doesn’t make sense to me um it seems contradictory to everything about our culture um the extraordinary art we produced the the generosity as I said um you know the love of children um the deep relationship with animals so why did we go to war and um finally in frustration he said you know it was a different time gerain it was a different time probably now people that were um probably now great warriors that were admired for their courage their strength their bravery would be in prison so it’s just um it’s difficult for me to really explain about Warfare and adversarial relationships very easily and particularly about our relationship with black feet you know I tell my black feet friends don’t take it personally you know if if some of my relatives um seem less than welcoming it’s just this long historic relationship we have well let’s thank Germaine again for joining us here in the Ten of many voices thank you lmm L pesia thank you and remember there are programs here in the ten

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]]> Clark: August 12, 1806 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/journal/clark-august-12-1806/ Tue, 10 Feb 2026 20:37:52 +0000 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/journal/clark-august-12-1806/ Thursday 12th August 1806 I set out early this morning and had not proceeded on far before Shannon discovered he had lost his Tomahk. I derected him to land his…

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]]> Thursday 12th August 1806 I set out early this morning and had not
proceeded on far before Shannon discovered he had lost his Tomahk. I
derected him to land his Skin Canoe and go back to our Camp of last night
in Serch of it, and proceeded on my self with the two wood and one Skin
Canoe to a large hottom on the N. E Side above the head of Jins island and
landed to take brackfast as well as to delay untill Shannon & Gibson
Should arive. Sent out Shields & Labiech to hunt deer in the bottom,
at 2 P m. Shannon and gibson arived having found the tomahawk at our camp
they killed 3 Elk &c. one of the Canoes of Buffalow Skin by accident
got a hole peirced in her of about 6 inches diamuter. I derected two of
the men to patch the Canoe with a piece of Elk skin over the hole, which
they did and it proved all Sufficient, after which the Canoe did not leak
one drop. The two hunters returned without haveing killed any thing. at
meridian Capt Lewis hove in Sight with the party which went by way of the
Missouri as well as that which accompanied him from Travellers rest on
Clarks river; I was alarmed on the landing of the Canoes to be informed
that Capt. Lewis was wounded by an accident-. I found him lying in the
Perogue, he informed me that his wound was slight and would be well in 20
or 30 days this information relieved me very much. I examined the wound
and found it a very bad flesh wound the ball had passed through the
fleshey part of his left thy below the hip bone and cut the cheek of the
right buttock for 3 inches in length and the debth of the ball. Capt L.
informed me the accident happened the day before by one of the men Peter
Crusat misstakeig him in the thick bushes to be an Elk. Capt Lewis with
this Crusat and Several other men were out in the bottom Shooting of Elk,
and had Scattered in a thick part of the woods in pursute of the Elk.
Crusat Seeing Capt L. passing through the bushes and takeing him to be an
Elk from the Colour of his Cloathes which were of leather and very nearly
that of the Elk fired and unfortunately the ball passed through the thy as
aforesaid. Capt Lewis thinking it indians who had Shot him hobbled to the
canoes as fast as possible and was followered by Crusat, the mistake was
then discovered. This Crusat is near Sighted and has the use of but one
eye, he is an attentive industerous man and one whome we both have placed
the greatest Confidence in dureing the whole rout.After Capt. Lewis
and my Self parted at Travellers rest, he with the Indians proceeded down
the West Side of Clarks river Seven miles and crossed on rafts 2 miles
below the East fork 120 yards wide, after Crossing the river he proceeded
up the North Side of the east fork and encampd. here the Indians left him
and proceeded down Clarks river in Serch of the Tushepaws. an Indian man
Came up with Cap L. from the W. of the mountains and proceeded on with
those who had accompanied us. Capt. L. proceeded up the E. fork of Clarks
river 17 ms. to the enterance of Cokahlarishkit river or the river to
buffalow, he proceeded up on the North Side of this river which is 60
yards wide crossing Several Small Streams and the N. fork, and passing
over part of the dividing mountain onto the waters of Deabourns river in
the plains and in a Derection to the N. extremity of Easte range of rocky
mountains which pass the Missouri at the pine Island Rapid. from thence he
bore his Course to the N E untill he Struck Meadcin river near where that
river Enters the rocky Mts. and proceeded down Medicine river to the
Missouri at the white bear Islands at the upper part of the portage. this
rout is a very good one tho not the most derect rout, the most derect rout
would be to proceed up the Missouri above Dearborns river and take a right
hand road & fall on a South branch of the Cokatlarishkit R. and
proceed down that river to the main road but the best rout would be from
the falls of the Missouri by fort mountain and passing the N. extremity of
that range of the Rocky Mountains which pass the Missouri at the pine
Island rapid Course nearly S. W. and to the gap through which the great
road passeds the dividing mountain the distance from the falls to this gap
about 45 miles through a tolerable leavel plain on an old indian road. and
the distance from thence to Clarks river is 105 miles. The total distance
from the falls of the Missouri to Clarks river is only 150 miles of a
tolerable roadCapt L. arived at the white Bear Islands and encampd.
on the West Side of the Missouri and in the morning he discovered that the
Indians had taken of Seven of his best horses, drewyer prosued the indians
two day’s on the rout towards Clarks river. he Saw their camp on Dearborns
river near the road on which Capt. Lewis & party Come on a by place
where they had left only one or two day at this encampment he Saw great
appearanc of horseson the return of Drewyer Capt L. took Drewyer
& the 2 fieldses & proceeded on his intended rout up Marias river
leaving Sergt. Gass, Thompson, Frazier, Werner, McNeal & Goodrich at
the portage to prepare Geer and repar the wheels & Carrage against the
arival of the Canoes and he also left 4 horses for the purpose of hauling
the Canoes across. The Canoes arrived on the 16th, and on the 26th they
had all except one across, the Plains becom So muddy from the emence rains
which had fallen, that they Could not get her over the portage. on the
28th they joined Capt Lewis at the Grog Spring a fiew miles above the
enterance of Marias river From the Falls of Missouri Capt. L. proceeded on
with Drewyer & the 2 fieldses Courss

On the 26th of July Capt Lewis Set out on his return to the enterance of
Marias river to meet with the party with, the Canoes from the falls. his
course was through the plains

S. E. 5 Milespassing a Small Creek from the mts

S. 70° E. 9 Miles to a principal branch of Marias River 65 yards wide not
very deep at 7 mile. this last branch is Shallow and rapid about the Size
of the former from the S W. both of those Streams Contain a great
preportion of timberhere we find the 3 Specis of Cotton before
mentioned

N 80° E. 4 miles down Marias river and met with 8 Indians of the Blackfoot
nation with about 30 horses, those Indians professed friendship and Set
out with him and encamped together the night of the 26th of July, thy
informed him that there was two large bands of their nation in that
quarter one of which would be at the enterance of Marias river in a fiew
days. they also informed that a french Trader was with one of those bands,
that they traded with the white people on the Suskashwen River at 6 easy
days march or about 150 miles distant from whome they precured Guns Powder
Lead blankets &c. in exchange for wolf and beaver Skins. Capt Lewis
gave them a Flag Meadel & Handkerchief Capt. L. informed those Indians
where he was from & where he had been and his objects & friendly
views &c. of which they appeared to be well Satisfied.

“on the morning of the 27th at day light the indians got up and crouded
around the fire, Jo. Field who was on post had carelessly laid his gun
down behind him near where his brother was Sleeping. one of the Indians
Slipd. behind him and took his gun and that of his brother unperceived by
him, at the Same instant two others advanced and Seized the guns of
Drewyer and Capt Lewis who were yet asleep. Jo. Fields Seeing this turned
about to take his gun and Saw the fellow running off with his and his
brothers, he called to his brother who instantly jumped up and prosued the
indian with him whome they overtook at the distance of 50 or 60 paces
Siezed their guns and rested them from him and R. Field as he Seized his
gun Stabed the indian to the heart with his knif who fell dead; (this Cap
L. did not know untill Some time after.) drewyer who awoke at the first
alarm jumped up and Seized & rested his gun from the indian &c.
Capt L. awoke and asked what was the matter Seeing Drewyer in a Scuffle
for his gun he turned to get his gun and found her gorn, he drew a pistol
from his holsters and prosued the Indian whom he Saw in possession of his
gun making off he presented the pistol and the indian lay down the gun.
the two Fields Came up and drew up to Shoot the Indian which Capt L.
forbid the indians then attempted to drive off all the horses. Capt L.
derected the men to fire on them if they attempted to drive off the
horses, and prosued two fellows who Continued to drive of his horses he
Shot the indian who had taken his gun and then in possession of his horse
through the belly, he fell and raised on his elbow and fired at Capt L.
the other made his escape into a nitch out of Sight with his bow and
arrows and as Capt L. guns was empty and he without his Shot pouch he
returnd. to the Camp where the 2 fields and Drewyer joind him having
prosued the indians across the river the were now in possession of the
most of their own as well as the indian horses and a gun Several bows
& arrows and all the indians baggage the gun & Some feathers and
flag they took and burnt all the other articles. and Saddled up a many of
the best horses as they wished with Some Spear horses, and Set out for to
intersept the party at Marias river and proceded on a little to the S. of
East 112 Miles to the Missouri at the Grog Spring. here they met with
Canoes and party decending joined them leaving their horses on the river
bank, and proceeded on to the enterance of Marias river opened the
deposits, found Several articles damaged. 3 Beaver traps could not be
found, the red perogue unfit for Service, from thenc they proceeded
without delay to the River Rochejhone See cources of Capt Lewis rout in
next book.”

at 2 P.M. Shannon & Gibson arived in the Skin Canoe with the Skins and
the greater part of the flesh of 3 Elk which they had killed a fiew miles
above. the two men Dixon & Handcock the two men we had met above came
down intending to proceed on down with us to the Manclans. at 3 P M we
proceded on all together having left the 2 leather Canoes on the bank. a
little below the enterance of (Jos) Shabonos Creek we Came too on a large
Sand point from the S. E. Side and Encamped. the wind blew very hard from
the S W. and Some rain. I washed Capt L. wound which has become Sore and
Somewhat painfull to him.

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]]> Clark: July 5, 1806 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/journal/clark-july-5-1806/ Tue, 10 Feb 2026 20:37:40 +0000 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/journal/clark-july-5-1806/ Saturday July 5th 1806 I rose at day light this morning despatched Labeash after a Buck which he killed late last evening; and I with the three men who I…

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]]> Saturday July 5th 1806 I rose at day light this morning despatched Labeash
after a Buck which he killed late last evening; and I with the three men
who I had Sent in Serch of a ford across the West fork of Clarks river,
and examined each ford neither of them I thought would answer to pass the
fork without wetting all the loads. near one of those places pointed out
by Colter I found a practiable foard and returned to Camp, ordered
everything packed up and after Brackfast we Set out passed 5 Chanels of
the river which is divided by Small Islands in passing the 6th & last
Chanel Colter horse Swam and with Some dificuelty he made the Opposite
Shore, Shannon took a different derection from Colter rained his horse up
the Stream and passed over very well I derected all to follow Shannon and
pass quartering up the river which they done and passed over tolerably
well the water running over the back of the 2 Smaller horses only.
unfortunately my trunk & portmantue Containing Sea otter Skins flags
Some curiosites & necessary articles in them got wet, also an
esortment of Medicine, and my roots. about 1 mile we struk the East fork
which had fallen and was not higher than when we passed it last fall we
had not proceeded up this fork more than 1 mile eer we struck the road by
which we passed down last fall and kept it at one mile we crossed the
river at a very good foard and continued up on the East Side to the foot
of the Mountain nearly opposite flour Crek & halted to let our horses
graze and dry our wet articles. I saw fresh Sign of 2 horses and a fire
burning on the side of the road. I prosume that those indians are spies
from the Shoshones. Shannon & Crusat killed each a deer this morning
and J. Shields killed a female Ibex or bighorn on the side of the
Mountain, this Animal was very meager. Shannon left his tomahawk at the
place he killed his deer. I derect him to return for it and join me in the
Vally on the East Side of this mountain. gave Shields permission to
proceed on over to the 1st Vally and there hunt untill my arival this
evening at that place, after drying every article which detained us untill
1/2 past 4 P.M. we packed up and Crossed the Mountain into the vally where
we first met with the flatheads here I overtook Shields he had not killed
any thing. I crossed the river which heads in a high peecked mountain
Covered with Snow N. E. of the Vally at about 20 Miles. Shields informed
me that the Flat head indians passed up the Small Creek which we came down
last fall about 2 miles above our Encampment of the 4th & 5th of,
Septr. I proceeded up this South branch 2 Miles and encamped on the E.
side of the Creek, and Sent out several men to examine the road. Shields
returned at dark and informed me that the best road turned up the hill
from the creek 3 Miles higher up, and appeared to be a plain beaten parth.
as this rout of the Oat lash shoots can be followed it will evidently
Shorten our rout at least 2 days and as the indians informed me last fall
a much better rout than the one we came out. at all events I am deturmined
to make the attempt and follow their trail if possible if I can prosue it
my rout will be nearer and much better than the one we Came from the
Shoshones, & if I should not be able to follow their road; our rout
can’t possibly be much wors. The hunters killed two deer this evening. The
after part of the day we only come 8 miles makeing a total of 20 Miles-.
Shannon Came up about Sunset haveing found his tomahawk.

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]]> Clark: July 1, 1806 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/journal/clark-july-1-1806/ Tue, 10 Feb 2026 20:37:38 +0000 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/journal/clark-july-1-1806/ Tuesday July 1st 1806 on Clark’s river We Sent out all the hunters very early this morning by 12 OClock they all returned haveing killd. 12 Deer Six of them…

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]]> Tuesday July 1st 1806 on Clark’s river We Sent out all the hunters very
early this morning by 12 OClock they all returned haveing killd. 12 Deer
Six of them large fat Bucks, this is like once more returning to the land
of liveing a plenty of meat and that very good. as Capt. Lewis and Myself
part at this place we make a division of our party and such baggage and
provisions as is Souteable. the party who will accompany Capt L. is G.
Drewyer, Sergt. Gass, Jo. & R. Fields, Frazier & Werner, and
Thompson Goodrich & McNear as far as the Falls of Missouri at which
place the 3 latter will remain untill I Send down the Canoes from the head
of Jeffersons river. they will then join that party and after passing the
portage around the falls, proceed on down to the enterance of Maria where
Capt. Lewis will join them after haveing assended that river as high up as
Laid. 50° North. from the head of Jeffersons river I shall proceed on to
the head of the Rockejhone with a party of 9 or 10 men and desend that
river. from the R Rockejhone I Shall dispatch Sergt. Pryor with the horses
to the Mandans and from thence to the Tradeing Establishments of the N. W.
Co on the Assinniboin River with a letter which we have written for the
purpose to engage Mr. H. Haney to endeaver to get Some of the principal
Chiefs of the Scioux to accompany us to the Seat of our government &.
we divide the Loading and apportion the horses. Capt L. only takes 17
horses with him, 8 only of which he intends to take up the Maria &c.
One of the Indians who accompaned us Swam Clarks river and examined the
Country around, on his return he informed us that he had discovered where
a Band of the Tushepaws had encamped this Spring passed of 64 Lodges,
& that they had passed Down Clarks river and that it was probable that
they were near the quawmash flatts on a Easterly branch of that river.
those guides expressed a desire to return to their nation and not
accompany us further, we informed them that if they was deturmined to
return we would kill some meat for them, but wished that they would
accompy Capt. Lewis on the rout to the falls of Missouri only 2 nights and
show him the right road to cross the Mountains. this they agreed to do. we
gave a medal of the Small Size to the young man Son to the late Great
Chief of the Chopunnish Nation who had been remarkably kind to us in every
instance, to all the others we tied a bunch of blue ribon about the hair,
which pleased them very much. the Indian man who overtook us in the
Mountain, presented Capt. Lewis with a horse and said that he opened his
ears to what we had said, and hoped that Cap Lewis would see the
Crovanters of Fort De Prarie and make a good peace that it was their
desire to be at peace. Shew them the horse as a token of their wishes
&c.

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]]> Clark: June 9, 1806 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/journal/clark-june-9-1806/ Tue, 10 Feb 2026 20:37:31 +0000 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/journal/clark-june-9-1806/ Moday June 9th 1806 We had all of our horses brought up and attempted to exchange our Sore back and most indifferent horses with the indians for Sound back horses,…

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]]> Moday June 9th 1806 We had all of our horses brought up and attempted to
exchange our Sore back and most indifferent horses with the indians for
Sound back horses, we exchanged one only. Hohasillpilp took his leave of
us and Set out for the Plains of Lewises river, with Several of the nativs
who Visited us yesterday. The broken arm came over and continued a fiew
minits with us this morning, and also took his leave of us & Set out
with his Village for the plains of Lewis’s river. The Cut nose borrowed a
horse and rode down the flathead river a fiew miles to take Some young
Eagles, which he intends to raise for their feathers. in the evening one
of the young Cheifs who had given both Capt Lewis and my Self a horse came
to our camp accompanied by 10 of his people and continued with us all
night. one of our men exchanged a very indefferent horse for a very good
one. our party exolted with the idea of once more proceeding on towards
thier friends and Country are elert in all their movements and amuse
themselves by pitching quates, Prisoners bast running races &c-.

The flat head river is Still falling fast and nearly as low as it was at
the time we arrived at this place. this fall of water is what the nativs
have informed us was a proper token for us. when this river fell the Snows
would be Sufficiently melted for us to Cross the Mountains. the greater
length of time we delayed after that time, the higher the grass would grow
on th Mountains-.

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]]> Clark: June 7, 1806 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/journal/clark-june-7-1806/ Tue, 10 Feb 2026 20:37:30 +0000 https://research.lewisandclarktrust.org/journal/clark-june-7-1806/ Saurday June 7th 1806. The two young cheafs and other Indians who accompanied them Crossed the river and returned to their Village this morning after brackfast; Shabono Sergt Gass McNeal,…

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]]> Saurday June 7th 1806. The two young cheafs and other Indians who
accompanied them Crossed the river and returned to their Village this
morning after brackfast; Shabono Sergt Gass McNeal, Whitehouse &
Goodrich accompanied them for the purpose of purchaseing or exchangeing
old peces of Sane, fish gig, peces of iron, bullets, and old files and
Such articles as they Could raise for ropes and Strings for to lash their
loads, and bags to Cary their roots in Sergt. Gass, Shabono & McNeal
returned at 2 P M haveing precured a String each only. Whitehouse and
Goodrich continued at the Village all night. Hohastillpilp crossed the
river to day and brought over a horse and gave it to Frazier one of our
party who had made him a present previously of a Par of Canidian Shoes.
one of our men informed me one of the young Chiefs who had given us two
horses already was in Serch of one which he intended to give to me. George
Drewyer Set out on a hunting excurtion up Collins’s Creek alone. our party
are all much engaged in prepareing Sadles and packing up their Stores of
Provisions &c.The Flat Head river is about 150 yards wide at
this place and discharges a vast body of water; notwithstanding it’s high
State the water remains nearly transparent, and it’s temperature appears
to be quit as cold as that of our best Springs. we met with a butifull
little bird in this neighbourhood about the Size and Somewhat the Shape of
the large Sparrow. it measures 7 inches from the extremity of the beak to
that of the tail, the latter Occupying 21/2 inches. the beak is reather
more than half an inch in length, and is formed much like the Virginia
Nightingal; red bd. it is thick and large for a bird of it’s size, wide at
the base, both Chaps convex, and pointed, the upper exceeds the under chap
a little is Somewhat cirved and of a brown Colour; the lower chap of a
Greenish yellow. the eye full reather large and of a black colour both
puple and iris. the plumage is remarkably delicate; that of the neck and
head is of a fine orrange yellow and red. the latter predomonates on the
top of the head and around the base of the beak from whence it gradually
diminishes towards the lower part of the Neck, the orring yellow prevails
most, the red has the Appearance of haveing been laid over a Ground of
yellow. the breast, the Sides, rump and some long feathers which lie
between the legs extend underneath the tail is of a fine orrange yellow.
the tail, back and wings are black, except a Small Strip of yellow on the
outer part of the Middle joint of the wing, 1/4 of an inch wide and an
inch in length. the tail is composed of 12 feathers of which those in the
Center are reather Shortest, and the plumage of all the feathers of the
tail is longest on that Side of the quill next to the Center of the tail.
the legs and feet are black, nails long and Sharp; it has four toes on
each foot, of which three are forward and one behind; that behind is as
long as the two outer of the three toes in front

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