Pre-1879, Montana Territory: In the land of the Blackfeet
Whose reminiscence of Montana Territory is this? What year does it refer to?
It was published well before the frontier era’s end, which many reckon as 1890.
Same chief? Buffalo Bull’s Back Fat (Stu-mick-o-súcks), painted in 1832 by George Catlin (image credit: Wikipedia)
I’m wondering if it was an early piece of writing by Andrew Garcia (1853-1943), whose book “Tough Trip through Paradise” is a phenomenal document of life among tribal and Métis people of northwest Montana. But I can’t yet prove that.
Certain elements suggest a writer older than Garcia. For example, the author tells of talking with “Bull-Back-Fat”, a Blackfeet chief historically known from 1832 (see the image above). And he speaks of being a family man and a veteran of the great war — the Civil War, which ended in 1865?
In any event, the writer says he managed to find someone in a Blood (Blackfeet) encampment who understood him when he talked in Chinuk Wawa, making that well-traveled interpreter one of the very few examples we’ve found of the Jargon in Montana.
Here’s an excerpt:
Then we ate, and as
we ate were questioned in pantomime [sign language]. At a
venture I spoke “Chinook” to one Indian. I had
picked up the dialect on Puget Sound and the
Upper Columbia. He stared at me, listened at-
tentively, got up, retired, soon to return with
another Indian who could talk Chinook. To
him I stated our case, who we were, where we
wanted to go, and the pardonable desire I had
to go at once. This was translated into Black-
foot. Instantly they all seemed to be relieved,
for some reason I could not divine. And the
manner of the bedeviled ones changed for the
better. Rapidly I glided into friendly relations
with Bull-Back-Fat, a redoubtable Blackfoot
warrior and chief.
— from the New York (NY) Sun of April 13, 1879, page 2, columns 1-4
