ojourn made themselves
useful in a variety of ways, being excellent trappers and first-rate
woodsmen. They were of the remnants of a party of Iroquois hunters that
came from Canada into these mountain regions many years previously,
in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company. They were led by a brave
chieftain, named Pierre, who fell by the hands of the Blackfeet, and
gave his name to the fated valley of Pierre's Hole. This branch of the
Iroquois tribe has ever since remained among these mountains, at mortal
enmity with the Blackfeet, and have lost many of their prime hunters in
their feuds with that ferocious race. Some of them fell in with
General Ashley, in the course of one of his gallant excursions into the
wilderness, and have continued ever since in the employ of the company.

Among the motley Visitors to the winter quarters of Captain Bonneville
was a party of Pends Oreilles (or Hanging-ears) and their chief. These
Indians have a strong resemblance, in character and customs, to the Nez
Perces. They amount to about three hundred lodges, are well armed, and
possess great numbers of horses. During the spring, summer, and autumn,
they hunt the buffalo about the head-waters of the Missouri, Henry's
Fork of the Snake River, and the northern branches of Salmon River.
Their winter quarters are upon the Racine Amere, where they subsist upon
roots and dried buffalo meat. Upon this river the Hudson's Bay Company
have established a trading post, where the Pends Oreilles and the
Flatheads bring their peltries to exchange for arms, clothing and
trinkets.

This tribe, like the Nez Perces, evince strong and peculiar feelings
of natural piety. Their religion is not a mere superstitious fear, like
that of most savages; they evince abstract notions of morality; a deep
reverence for an overruling spirit, and a respect for the rights of
their fellow men. In one respect their religion partakes of the pacific
doctrines of the Quakers. They hold that the Great Spirit is displeased
with all nations who wantonly engage in war; they abstain, therefore,
from all aggressive hostilities. But though thus unoffending in their
policy, they are called upon continually to wage defensive warfare;
especially with the Blackfeet; with whom, in the course of their hunting
expeditions, they come in frequent collision and have desperate battles.
Their conduct as warriors is without fear or reproach, and they can
never be driven to abandon their hunting g