People hunted the buffalo to near extinction after the development of a new tanning process in 1871 which turned the hide into a material that was perfect for use as a factory machine belt. The demand for buffalo then became insatiable and within a dozen years they were gone. Piegans. pg. 119
Introduction
In summer of 1846, Chief Victor and the Flatheads aided by a dozen lodges of Small Robes (a band of Piegans that were friends with Flatheads) smashed a superior force of Absaroka (Crow). When the Flatheads attributed their success to the protection of the “Black Robes God”, that was all the Blackfoots needed to hear. Baptism by the Black Robes became a guarantee of victory over your enemies, and the more bloodthirsty the Blackfoot warrior, the more ardent his petition for Baptism to the Roman Catholic Church. - Piegans. pg. 20
The Blackfoot nation was composed of three bands; the Blood, Piegan and Blackfoot eponymous. The Blackfoot may have been the fiercest tribe of the Northwest American continent. The Piegan were the most feared warriors of the three.
What follows are some of the raids from the sunset of the Blackfoot heyday - as told by Chief James White Calf - the last Chief of the Blackfoot - who lived from the 1860s to the 1950s. The warrior chief took part in the last raids of the North American stone age and witnessed the invention of nuclear weapons.
The Piegan embark from Blackfoot country on a raid of the Crow under the lead of White Quiver and Under Bull.
[1] The first camp is at Great Falls.
[2] The Piegan steal a number of Crow horses near Billings, Montana at the Elk River.
[3] The Crow give chase and catch up to the horse rustlers at Big Coulee Creek. White Quiver summons fog with his medicine.
[4]
The words to the song were, “I want a fog.” The day was clear and bright, but as soon as White Quiver finished a heavy ground fog began to surround us. Soon the fog was so thick we simply drove the horses right past them and on home. - Chief JWC. pg. 212
[5] Though not in this story, Prairie Chicken Old Man and Crazy Crow are two ubiquitous characters in the Chief’s war stories.
The route on this raid - south to Great Falls, Bear Paw Mountains, Big Timber and up the Yellowstone River to Crow or Gros Venture settlements - is a fair representation of the usual route the Chief took on his raids. In another raid, at the same place where the fog took place, Chief James White Calf was left fighting off wrathful Gros Ventures alone and got shot through his arm, breaking his bone, before he managed to run away.
The Chief did not see the connection between my vision and the moose we killed. The Chief attributed the appearance of the moose to the Beaver ceremony, rather than my peyote. Piegan. pg. 254
The Piegans didn’t fight the way the movies show it. Sometimes we rode our horses on a raid, sometimes we went a long way on foot and rode back on the horses we took. When attacked, we would dismount and lead our horses and fight on foot. The movies never show Indians fighting that way, but that was how we fought, and it was a good way to fight. You can shoot a lot straighter with your feet on the ground, and when the fighting is hand to hand you can move around a lot quicker on foot than on horseback. - Chief JWC. pg. 130
The knife is large and heavy. The blade is marked, “Village Blacksmith, Watertown, Wis.”. Twelve inches long, 2 and 3/4 inches and 3/8 inch thick. The Chief says he mostly used it to dig fox holes when he got caught on the open prairie, but years ago he loaned it to Weasel Tail who killed a bear with it. A grizzly charged Wesel Tail and he struck it in the mouth with the knife, knocking out its teeth and killing it. Piegans. pg. 279
[1] 1866 - Assiniboin steal horses from a blood named White Elk on the border of Canada.
[2] 5 Bloods and 1 Blackfoot travel south to Montana to recover the stolen horses through the agency. The party is found by Big Wolf a few weeks later.
At first the killers were unknown. One rumor blamed American Cavalryman. When word came that Gros Ventures had performed a scalp dance, all doubt was removed. Piegans. pg. 299
Calf Robe and Crazy Crow were the worst horsemen. Crazy Crow couldn’t stay on a horse if you tied him on with bailing twine. Calf Robe could stay on all right, but he had no sense how to pace a horse - he played out every horse he rode. - Chief James White Calf
[3] Chief James White Calf rallies the posse to avenge the six murders.
[4] Horse stealing.
[5] I caught a pinto for Crazy Crow, but he was unable to mount the animal so I caught him a Palamino, and when he was unable to mount the Palamino I left him in disgust. - Chief JWC pg. 312.
[9]
The Piegans encounter a white man.
The Piegans evade detection by a dispatch of U.S. Army sent to intercept them.
[6]
The war party follows the trail of another Blackfoot party. This party is Three Calf, Many Bull and Bee.
At one point we were so close behind them that I placed my hand in the ashes of their fire I got burned, but we never caught up with them
We camped at the foot of the Bear Paw Mountains, where there was plenty of dry wood. We built a shelter and fire. We had not eaten for two days, but the weather was so bad, the rain and sleet so heavy, that we had to remain sheltered. Two of my horses, a mouse-gray mare and young colt, both wearing bells, died. We remained in shelter for four days. - pg. 315
While we were exchanging fire with the enemy (8 Crow warriors), Young Pine said to me, “I know this creek. You take the point and have Calf Robe and Crazy Crow drive the horses up the creek bottom until you come to the place where the walls become steep. That is where we should fight.
[7] I turned the enemy over, preparing to scalp him, but I jumped when I saw his face. … Young Pine scalped one, and I the other. - pg. 319
[8] By this time we were so hungry we had to be careful about eating. We at the raw liver as we dressed out the antelope, but before cooking the meat we drank some blood soup. We took the paunch of the antelope and filled with blood, and it tied it at both ends so that it would not leak. Then we dug a small pit, lined it with the skin of the antelope, and filled it with water. We made the water boil by dropping in stones heated in the fire, and into the boiling water we placed the paunch of blood to cook - by the time the meat was cooked we could eat as much as we pleased without getting sick. - pg. 323
The war party returns to learn they killed an Assiniboin, not a Gros Venture as they believed.
This was the last war party in Blackfoot history (thank God).
Chief James White Calf believes that worship of the Almighty should bring people closer together, not drive them further apart. The Chief will participate in Christian religious services in the same spirit of syncretism a tolerant Christian will attend a Medicine Lodge… The Chief genuinely accepts the Christian concept, but does not feel it necessary to abandon his traditional beliefs to do so. - Lancaster. pg. 18.
