In the autumn, when salmon disappear
from the rivers, and hunger begins to pinch, they even venture down into
their ancient hunting grounds, to make a foray among the buffaloes. In
this perilous enterprise they are occasionally joined by the Flatheads,
the persecutions of the Blackfeet having produced a close alliance
and cooperation between these luckless and maltreated tribes. Still,
notwithstanding their united force, every step they take within the
debatable ground is taken in fear and trembling, and with the utmost
precaution: and an Indian trader assures us that he has seen at least
five hundred of them, armed and equipped for action, and keeping watch
upon the hill tops, while about fifty were hunting in the prairie. Their
excursions are brief and hurried; as soon as they have collected and
jerked sufficient buffalo meat for winter provisions, they pack their
horses, abandon the dangerous hunting grounds, and hasten back to the
mountains, happy if they have not the terrible Blackfeet rattling after
them.
Such a confederate band of Shoshonies and Flatheads was the one met
by our travellers. It was bound on a visit to the Arrapahoes, a tribe
inhabiting the banks of the Nebraska. They were armed to the best of
their scanty means, and some of the Shoshonies had bucklers of buffalo
hide, adorned with feathers and leathern fringes, and which have a
charmed virtue in their eyes, from having been prepared, with mystic
ceremonies, by their conjurers.
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