Distinctly Montana Magazine

72 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • FA L L 2 0 2 3 swept across North America never took root in Montana be- cause Native people recognized that Montana is not a place that can be tamed or cajoled; rather it must be embraced and accepted. Ancestors of today's Apsáalooke nation had success- fully grown corn, beans and squash for a short time along the far eastern portion of the Yellowstone River near present-day Glen- dive. However, the site was abandoned about 500 years ago as the Apsáalooke people moved further east toward the headwa- ters of the Yellowstone River and became full-time hunter-gath- erer-traders. Their collective experience and the wisdom they took from the land is reflected in an old Tribal placename near present-day Springdale—Where the Corn Died. Along with the extreme climate, Montana's topography is also distinct from other zones on the Great Plains because its Continental Divide area is diffuse and accessible, making it a thoroughfare for Native peoples both east and west of the di- vide who ventured across culture zones to hunt, gather and trade. The snowcapped Rocky Mountains connect directly east- ward onto a sweeping prairie that is interspersed with clear, cold rivers and bursting with island mountain ranges. These magical and mysterious mountains dot the open plains and harbor essential lodgepole pine trees as well as diverse edible and medicinal plants, fresh water, chert rock quarries, winter campgrounds, ceremonial areas, and rendezvous sites. All these blessed resources are not available on the eastern plains of Col- orado, Kansas, or Nebraska. North and South Dakota, Canada and Wyoming all fall short of the dynamic place we know of as Montana. The Apsáalooke chief Sore Belly expressed a similar sentiment when he was quoted in the 1830s: "The Crow Country is in exactly the right place. Any direction you go from here is worse. In the north the winters are long and cold. In the south it is too hot and not much water. To the west there are no buffalo and all the people eat fish and pick bones from their teeth. Far to the east the water is warm and muddy, and our dogs won't drink it. Here in the Crow Country, we have the best of everything. High mountains with snowy peaks, cold clear water, good grasslands with many buffalo, elk and deer, and lots of good wintering sites. The Creator put the Crow Country in the exact right spot." Since time immemorial, the tribes of Montana lived a sustain- able way of life based on hunting, gathering and trading with each other throughout a seasonal cycle of movement. Feathers's map from February of 1801 showed the location of the tribes' wintering campsites, but all those Tribal communities would move from those locations along the rivers during the spring- time when flooding, mosquitoes and grizzly bears gave people good reasons to move to higher ground and to nearby rendez- vous sites to harvest plants and trade with their neighbors. This ancient lifestyle of Tribal communities walking seasonal rounds existed for millennia before horses, and created a culture of consistent and beneficial interaction that allowed Native people to share ceremonies, music and dance traditions, hunting and gathering strategies, ancient star stories, and a myriad of oth- er cultural innovations. This age-old cosmopolitan interaction eventually spawned one of the world's great languages, Plains Sign Language. The world's only non-colonial lingua franca, Plains Sign Language connected the communication network that provided Feathers with the extensive knowledge he had in 1801, but this subtle and profound form of communication was virtually invisible to non-Indians who did not speak it. Peter Fidler sent his drawing of Feathers's map to London in 1801 so that it could be incorporated into the most up-to-date map of the American continent at the time, but because cartog- raphers of the day had no way to include the demographic in- formation and were likely confused by the map's lack of cardinal directions, most of the major concepts were lost in translation. An updated map was completed in 1802 and sent back to America just in time to make it into the hands of Thomas Jefferson, who passed it along to Meriwether Lewis and Willam Clark in 1804. Find your Fjällräven favorites at Chalet Sports. 108 West Main, Bozeman, Montana 406-587-4595

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