gustavus sohon's portraits of

However, there was strong rivalry in the East over the location of the route and the choice of its eastern terminus. He also made pencil portraits of the most important leaders of the tribes that participated in the treaties.

MAP"

WASHIIWTON TERRITORY

After removing the ammunition from Fort Benton and proceeding as quickly and as quietly as possible, the party crossed the Coeur d'Alene mountain range in deep snow at the end of November, passed through the enemy's country, and reached Fort Dalles safely against the end of the year. When Governor Stevens' reports on his explorations and surveys of the Northern Railroad were published in 1860, most of the colored lithographs used as illustrations were reproduced from original drawings by John Mix Stanley, the expedition's official artist, who returned to the east. in 1854.

8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IIO

NO. 7 SOHON S PORTRAITS OF INDIANS — EWERS 9

10 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10

In the 1890s, the name St. Regis Pass appears to have replaced Sohon Pass on maps of the region. An original Sohon negative of this subject is now in the collections of the Montana State Historical Society.

12 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10

A selection of tbcsc drawings have been used in the illustration of this paper, including those which have been identified and are clear enough to reproduce. Sohon, in 1918, which is now in the William Andrews Gark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, and information kindly provided by his daughter, Dr.

14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10

The expeditions of the period included the Nez Perce as well as the Flathead and neighboring Salishan tribes. Later reports confirm the fact that the Flathead were richer in horses than the Plains Indians.

IS SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10

De Smet baptized nearly 600 Indians, including senior chiefs of the Flathead and Upper Fend d'Oreille tribes. The following spring, Father De Smet led a small group entrusted with the grand opening of the first Catholic mission in the Great Northwest.

20 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10

NO. 7 SOHON S PORTRAITS OF INDIANS EWERS 21

NO. 7 SOHON S PORTRAITS OF INDIANS EWERS 23

24 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10

In this opinion he took into account the natural fertility and resources of the two areas. In the wake of the Montana gold rush of the early '60s, white settlers moved into the Bitterroot Valley. On November 14, 1871, President Grant issued an Executive Order declaring that all Indians residing in the Bitterroot X'allcy.

26 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10

They persistently asserted their right to remain in their beloved Bitterroot \'alley homeland until their own poverty forced them to leave it. They equally bravely resisted efforts to introduce among them foreign economic and social practices that ran counter to their own cultural experience. As humans, they passionately wanted to live their own lives and make their own decisions.

GUST.WUS SOIIOX'S PORTR.MTS OF FL.\THEAD INDIAN LEADERS

They stubbornly clung to their right to hunt buffalo on the plains, despite the deadly opposition of the more powerful Blackfoot and the friendly advice of their white friends, until the buffalo were gone. Probably no one has expressed the simple aims of primitive Flathead life more succinctly than Father Mengarini, their missionary for many years, who wrote: 'Generally the prayers of our Indians consisted in asking to live long, to kill many animals and enemies , and to steal the largest possible number of horses (from the enemy). (Mengarini p. 87.).

28 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10

Victor, the chief of the Flathcads, by his simplicity and smooth conversation, completely wins the good will of his hearers. Among the many reasons for the dissatisfaction with Mathcad that led to the closure of St, Mary's Mission in 1850, Father Accolti mentioned the loss of influence of the chiefs after the abolition of the punishment of the whip. Visiting Stevens 2 days before the formal Council opened, \'ictor complained about the Blackfoot's inability to keep the peace their chiefs had promised 2 years earlier.

30 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10

He knew, on the one hand, that Alexander's men did not want to leave the T^Ission, and might not follow their chief if he consented to go to the Bitterroot. Under the terms of the treaty, he had become the paramount chief of the Flat Nation, which included all the tribes party to the treaty. For the rest of his days, Victor made his home in the Bitterroot Valley, and his people did not abandon him to reserve in the north.

32 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I ID

Mullan suggested that the Indian Department erect a monument to Victor's memory "to commemorate his wortli and deeds, and at the same time to teach all Indians that their good deeds never die." A portrait of Victor, as a "representative of the religious element," was sought for a proposed new volume of Thomas. Until the decade of the eighties, this policy expressed the will of the majority of the members of the tribe. Moise was at the head of the Flathead delegation that went to meet Father De Smet at Fort Hall in 1841.

36 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10 Ambrose, Successor to Moise as Flathead Second Chief (Plate io)

But we can assume that he died sometime between the end of March 1869 (when last mentioned by Owen, 1927, vol. Peter Ronan said that Adolphe led the Flatheads against their enemies as their war chief. In the battle with Gros Ventres about 1840 Adolphe and Arlee led Flathead to a decisive victory.

38 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I ID

De Smet stated (1841) that the Nez Perce had offered Insula the position of chief of their trihe. In the summer of 1835, Insula traveled to the Green River meeting place for the fur traders, where he was in the company of a group of Nez. In the autumn of 1855, ^^ De Smet wrote of Insula's great bravado, tender piety, and gentle manners, adding that he had "retained all his first affection." Again in the spring of 1857 he wrote of Insula as "always equally good, equally happy, an ardent Christian, daily advancing in virtue and perfection." He.

40 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10

He was the paternal grandfather of Martina Siwahsah, who recalled some of Bear Track's notable feats. They found the horse tied where Bear Track had indicated, and the hunter's dead body nearby. Probably Bear Track was the most successful and famous medicine man of his time among the Flathead.

42 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10

7 SOHON'S PORTRAITS OF INDIANS – EWERS 43 The written account seems to emphasize Pelchimo's skills in the traditional male occupations of the Flathead. Father Palladino considered "Phidel Teltella, or Thunder," one of the notable men of the Flathead tribe. 34;Thunder" he signed both the Flathead and Blackfoot Treaties in 1855, but took no part in the proceedings.

THE UPPER PEND D'OREILLE INDIANS

Many of the upper Pend d'Oreille were baptized by Father De Smet and his colleagues at the Flathead Mission of St. Loyalty to the mission was an important factor in the refusal of the upper Pend d'Oreille to accept a reservation in the Flathead Bitterroot X'^alley country about 75 miles south of their mission. Father Hoeken and his associates encouraged the Upper Pend d'Oreille and those other Indians who lived with them to raise crops on the fertile land.

AUEXANDER, HEAD CHIEF OF THE UPPER PEND D'OREILLE

GUSTAVUS SOHON'S PORTRAITS OF UPPER PEND D'OREILLE LEADERS

50 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IIO

In his September 1874 annual report, Peter Whaley, the flat agent, recommended that Michelles should be replaced by Andre, the second chief of the tribe. Andrea, on the other hand, had the trust of his people and was the true leader of the tribe. Michelle seemed very conscious of the fact that he had lost touch with his people and thought of returning to live among them in order to regain his lost influence.

NO. 7 SOHON S PORTRAITS OF INDIANS — EWERS 53

Bonaparte, a Pend-d-oreille chief, is known for his generosity and benevolence towards his tribe and especially towards those who are poor or needy. Apparently he was a minor chief in 1855, for his name is not a signatory to either the Flathead or Blackfoot treaties. THE IROQUOIS AMONG THE FLATHEAD AND PEND D'OREILLE The fact that there were Christian Iroquois living in the camps of.

THE IROQUOIS AMONG THE FLATHEAD AND PEND D'OREILLE The fact that there were Christian Iroquois living in the camps of

7 SOIIONS PORTRAITS OF INDIANS — EWERS 55 western plains they met the Blackfoot, Gros Ventres, Sarsi and Cree, the original inhabitants of the region. The rest of the original group was dispersed after their disastrous battle with the tribes of the plains. It is thus certain that some Iroquois, possibly remnants of the great group of the migration of 1798-99, reached the Flathead and Pend d'Oreille country at the end of the first decade of the nineteenth century, only 5 years after the pioneer explorers Lewis and Clark.

56 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IIO The Iroquois Ignace Lamoose, also known as Old Ignace or Big

The whites were ordered to stand aside, as the Sioux had no intention of molesting them. Old Ignace, who was dressed as a white man, was mistaken for one and ordered to stand with the whites, but he refused to leave his Indian companions. It is possible that the Sioux mistook the Indians for the Shoshoni, traditional enemies of their tribe.

GUSTAVUS SOHON'S PORTRAITS OF IROQUOIS LIVING

Pierre Gaucher left for home alone, while Young Ignace waited at Westport to accompany Father De Smet westward in the spring. Bishop Rosati was informed by the Iroquois of this last deputation that only 4 of the 24 Iroquois who had previously emigrated from Canada to the IHathead country were still alive in 1839. It is probable that the Indians meant that only that number remained among the Flatheads, and.

AMONG THE FLATHEAD

Ludvika, Bishop Rosati gave them an assurance that they would send a priest to their people next spring.

58 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10

Bishop Rosati wrote in his journal that tlicse Iroquois had reached the Flathead country in 1816 (which agrees with De Smet's statement above). However, little is known about Peter's religious activities after founding St. Marj^'s Mission to the Flathead. At the time of the Pacific Railway Survey, Peter was the most successful and conscientious farmer in the Flathead country.

60 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IIO

I learned it through an old Iroquois Indian named Aeneas, who now resides in the Bitter Root Valley, whose wanderings in the mountains often threw him with parties traveling in wagons to the south, which made him capable of judging the demands of the wagon. road so they could have a line through a gorge-like pass in the Coeur d'Alene mountains. In March 1854 Lieutenant Mullan sent one of his topographers with Aeneas as guide to make a special survey of the place. Charles Lamoose was the eldest son of old Ignatius Lamoose, the Iroquois whom Palladino called "the Apostle of the Flatheads." Like.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SOHON PORTRAITS

The distinctive trade hats, worn by many of Sohon's subjects, were a style of headwear that was in great favor among the flathead in the mid-nineteenth century. These hats appeared in less detail in the Flathead life scenes drawn by Leather Nicholas Point a decade earlier. At his best, in the portraits of Flat Head, Pelchimo, and the three Iroquois, Sohon's portraits deserve to rank with the best works of white artists who.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Annual Reports, Commissioner of Indian Affairs

Report of explorations and surveys to determine the most practical AND economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

APPENDIX

A LIST OF PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED DRAWINGS BY GUSTAVUS SOHON