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    TRAILS THROUGH
    WESTERN WOODS


[Illustration: LAKE ANGUS McDONALD]




    TRAILS THROUGH
    WESTERN WOODS

    By

    HELEN FITZGERALD SANDERS

    _Illustrations from Photographs
    by the Author_

    NEW YORK & SEATTLE
    THE ALICE HARRIMAN COMPANY
    1910




    COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY
    THE ALICE HARRIMAN COMPANY

    _Published, July 1, 1910_

    THE PREMIER PRESS
    NEW YORK




_DEDICATION_


    _To the West that is passing; to the days
    that are no more and to the brave,
    free life of the Wilderness that
    lives only in the memory of
    those who mourn its loss_




PREFACE


The writing of this book has been primarily a labour of love, undertaken
in the hope that through the harmonious mingling of Indian tradition and
descriptions of the region--too little known--where the lessening tribes
still dwell, there may be a fuller understanding both of the Indians and
of the poetical West.

A wealth of folk-lore will pass with the passing of the Flathead
Reservation, therefore it is well to stop and listen before the light
is quite vanished from the hill-tops, while still the streams sing the
songs of old and the trees murmur regretfully of things lost forever and
a time that will come no more. We of the workaday world are too prone
to believe that our own country is lacking in myth and tradition, in
hero-tale and romance; yet here in our midst is a legended region where
every landmark is a symbol in the great, natural record book of a folk
whose day is done and whose song is but an echo.

It would not be fitting to close these few introductory words without
grateful acknowledgment to those who have aided me toward the
accomplishment of my purpose. Indeed, every page brings a pleasant
recollection of a friendly spirit and a helping hand. Mr. Duncan
McDonald, son of Angus, and Mr. Henri Matt, my Indian friends, have
told me by word of mouth, many of the myths and chronicles set forth
in the following chapters. Mr. Edward Morgan, the faithful and just
agent at the Flathead Reservation, has given me priceless information
which I could never have obtained save through his kindly interest. He
secured for me the legend of the Flint, the last tale told by Charlot
and rendered into English by Michel Rivais, the blind interpreter who
has served in that capacity for thirty years. Chief Charlot died after
this book was finished and he lies in the land of his exile, out of the
home of his fathers where he had hoped to rest. From Mr. Morgan also I
received the account of Charlot's meeting with Joseph at the LoLo Pass,
the facts of which were given him by the little white boy since grown
to manhood, Mr. David Whaley, who rode with Charlot and his band to the
hostile camp.

The late Charles Aubrey, pioneer and plainsman, furnished me valuable
data concerning the buffalo.

Madame Leonie De Mers and her hospitable relatives, the De Mers of
Arlee, were instrumental in winning for me the confidence of the Selish
people.

Mrs. L. Mabel Hight, the artist, who has caught the spirit of the
mountains with her brush, has added to this book by making the peaks
live again in their colours.

In conclusion I would express my everlasting gratitude to Mr. Thomas
H. Scott, of Lake McDonald, soldier, mountain-lover and woodsman, who,
with unfailing courage and patience, has guided me safely over many and
difficult trails.

For the benefit of students I must add that the authorities I have
followed in my historical references are: Long's (James') "_Expedition
to the Rocky Mountains, 1819-20_," Maximilian's "_Travels in North
America_," Father De Smet's "_Oregon Missions_," Major Ronan's "_History
of the Flathead Indians_," Bradbury's "_Travels_," Father L. B.
Palladino's "_Indian and White in the Northwest_," and the _Reports_ of
the Bureau of Ethnology.

          HELEN FITZGERALD SANDERS.

  _Butte, Montana,
      April 5, 1910._




CONTENTS


       I. The Gentle Selish                                    15

      II. Enchanted Waters                                     77

     III. Lake Angus McDonald                                  89

      IV. Some Indian Missions of the Northwest                97

       V. The People of the Leaves                            155

      VI. The Passing Buffalo                                 169

     VII. Lake McDonald and Its Trails                        229

    VIII. Above the Clouds                                    245

      IX. The Little St. Mary's                               271

       X. The Track of the Avalanche                          281

      XI. Indian Summer                                       297




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


    Lake Angus McDonald                            _Frontispiece_

                                                      Facing Page
    Joe La Mousse                                              50

    Abraham Isaac and Michel Kaiser                            66

    Lake McDonald from McDonald Creek                          90

    Francois                                                  154

    Glacier Camp                                              234

    Gem Lake                                                  266

    On the Trail to Mt. Lincoln                               290




_THE GENTLE SELISH_




TRAILS THROUGH WESTERN WOODS




CHAPTER I

THE GENTLE SELISH


I

When Lewis and Clark took their way through the Western wilderness
in 1805, they came upon a fair valley, watered by pleasant streams,
bounded by snowy mountain crests, and starred, in the Springtime, by a
strangely beautiful flower with silvery-rose fringed petals called the
Bitter Root, whence the valley took its name. In the mild enclosure of
this land lived a gentle folk differing as much from the hostile people
around them as the place of their nativity differed from the stern,
mountainous country of long winters and lofty altitudes surrounding it.
These early adventurers, confusing this tribe with the nations dwelling
about the mouth of the Columbia River, spoke of them as the Flatheads.
It is one of those curious historical anomalies that the Chinooks who
flattened the heads of their children, should never have been designated
as Flatheads, while the Selish, among whom the practice was unknown,
have borne the undeserved title until their own proper and euphonious
name is unused and all but forgotten.

The Selish proper, living in the Bitter Root Valley, were one branch of
a group composed of several nations collectively known as the Selish
family. These kindred tribes were the Selish, or Flatheads, the Pend
d'Oreilles, the Coeur d'Alenes, the Colvilles, the Spokanes and the
Pisquouse. The Nez Perces of the Clearwater were also counted as tribal
kin through inter-marriage.

Lewis and Clark were received with great kindness and much wonder by
the Selish. There was current among them a story of a hunting party that
came back after a long absence East of the Rocky Mountains, bearing
strange tidings of a pale-faced race whom they had met,--probably the
adventurous Sieur de La Verendrye and his cavaliers who set out from
Montreal to find a highway to the Pacific Sea. But it was only a memory
with a few, a curious legend to the many, and these men of white skin
and blue eyes came to them as a revelation.

The traders who followed in the footsteps of the first trail-blazers
found the natives at their pursuits of hunting, roving over the
Bitter Root Valley and into the contested region east of the Main
Range of the Rocky Mountains, where both they, and their enemies, the
Blackfeet, claimed hereditary right to hunt the buffalo. They were at
all times friendly to the white men who came among them, and these
visitors described them as simple, straight-forward people, the women
distinguished for their virtue, and the men for their bravery in the
battle and the chase. They were cleanly in their habits and honorable
in their dealings with each other. If a man