The Yellowstone National Park: Historical and DescriptiveChittenden, Hiram Martin
History
The Yellowstone National Park: Historical and Descriptive
Chittenden, Hiram Martin
Yellowstone National Park
The home of the Crows was in the Valley of the Yellowstone below the
mountains where they have dwelt since the white man's earliest
knowledge of them. Their territory extended to the mountains which
bound the Yellowstone Park on the north and east; but they never
occupied or claimed any of the country beyond. Their well-known tribal
characteristics were an insatiable love of horse-stealing and a
wandering and predatory habit which caused them to roam over all the
West from the Black Hills to the Bitter Root Mountains and from the
British Possessions to the Spanish Provinces. They were generally,
although by no means always, friendly to the whites, but enemies of
the neighboring Blackfeet and Shoshones. Physically, they were a
stalwart, handsome race, fine horsemen and daring hunters. They were
every-where encountered by the trapper and prospector who generally
feared them more on account of their thievish habits than for reasons
of personal safety.
The Blackfeet dwelt in the country drained by the headwaters of the
Missouri. Their territory was roughly defined by the Crow territory on
the east and the Rocky Mountains on the west. Its southern limit was
the range of mountains along the present north-west border of the
Park and it extended thence to the British line. The distinguishing
historic trait of these Indians was their settled hostility to their
neighbors whether white or Indian. They were a tribe of perpetual
fighters, justly characterized as the Ishmaelites of their race. From
the day in 1806, when Captain Lewis slew one of their number, down to
their final subjection by the advancing power of the whites, they
never buried the hatchet. They were the terror of the trapper and
miner, and hundreds of the pioneers perished at their hands. Like the
Crows they were a well-developed race, good horsemen and great rovers,
but, in fight, given to subterfuge and stratagem rather than to open
boldness of action.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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