[27] The enmity between the Sioux and the Snakes lasted to our own time. When the writer lived among the western Sioux, one of their chiefs organized a war-party against the Snakes, and numerous bands came to join the expedition from a distance in some cases of three hundred miles. Quarrels broke out among them, and the scheme was ruined. [28] The above descriptive particulars are drawn from repeated observation of similar scenes at a time when the primitive condition of these tribes was essentially unchanged, though with the difference that the concourse of savages counted by hundreds, and not by thousands. [29] At least this was done by a band of Sioux with whom the writer once traversed a part of the country ranged by these same Snakes, who had lately destroyed an entire Sioux village. [30] The Bighorn Range, below the snow line, is in the main well timbered with pine, fir, oak, and juniper. [31] The only two tribes of this region who were a match for the Snakes were the Sioux and the Blackfeet. It is clear that the Bow Indians could not have been Blackfeet, as in that case, after the war-party broke up, they would have moved northward towards their own country, instead of east-southeast into the country of their enemies. Hence I incline to think the Bow Indians a band of Sioux, or Dakota,--a people then, as since, predominant in that country. The banks of the Missouri, in the part which La Vérendrye would have reached in following an east-southeast course, were occupied by numerous bands or sub-tribes of Sioux, such as the Minneconjou, Yankton, Oncpapa, Brulé, and others, friends and relatives of the Bow Indians, supposing these to have been Sioux. [32] The Sioux, Cheyennes, and other prairie tribes use the small astringent wild cherry for food. The squaws pound it, stones and all, and then dry it for winter use. [33] _Le Chevalier de la Vérendrye au Ministre, 30 Septembre, 1750._ [34] _La Vérendrye père au Ministre, 1 Novembre, 1746_, in Margry, vi. 611. [35] _La Galissonière au Ministre, 23 Octobre, 1747._ [36] _Mémoire en abrégé des Établissements et Découvertes faits par le Sieur de la Vérendrye et ses Enfants._ [37] _La Jonquière au Ministre, 27 Février, 1750._ [38] _Le Chevalier de la Vérendrye au Ministre, 30 Septembre, 1750._ [39] _Mémoire des Services de Pierre Gautier de la Vérendrye l’aisné, présenté à Mg^r. Rouillé, ministre et secrétaire d’État._ [40] Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, in spite of his treatment of the La Vérendrye brothers, had merit as an officer. It was he who received Washington at Fort Le Bœuf in 1754. He was killed in 1755, at the battle of Lake George. See “Montcalm and Wolfe,” i. 315.