Tribal leaders considered their options - kill the strange-looking invaders, or bring them into their camp - and opted for the latter.
"Can you imagine seeing someone different for the first time?" asked Tony Incashola.
In opening ceremonies at Travelers' Rest State Park, site of the only Lewis and Clark expedition camp out of some 600 along the way that has been pinpointed by archaeological evidence, Lolo Elementary School fourth-graders exchanged gifts of saddles, blankets and buckskin amid piles of rocks laid out as the four points of the compass.
The Fort Missoula Indian Center Drum Group sang and drummed ancient Indian songs as the children then danced around the rocks, soon joined by others in the crowd.
"This has been a place of many people to trade, or travel, to the four directions," said Rob Collier, Native American program director at Travelers' Rest.
Lewis and Clark did both, getting fresh horses and food from the Salish Indians that probably made the last leg of their march to the Pacific possible.
It took multiple interpreters for the Corps of Discovery and the Salish to communicate, and Lewis and Clark's true purpose was lost in the translation.
"When they first came through, (the Salish) were friendly to them and actually pitied them," said Incashola, who lives in St. Ignatius. "But when they realized what the actual expedition was all about, that's when they felt differently. That's when their lives started changing."
At that first meeting, at least one Indian suggested the white-skinned visitors must be cold, and the Salish wrapped them in blankets, Incashola said.
But it was the presence of York, William Clark's slave, that intrigued the Indians most.
Incashola explained the importance and power of the medicine man and woman in Indian culture, and said Salish medicine men and women would gather each January. They would smear charcoal on their faces and dance.
"They wiped (York's) face to see if the charcoal would come off," Incashola said. "When they couldn't wipe it off, they thought he had to be a very powerful man."
The Salish agreed to trade down for the expedition's pathetic-looking horses, providing fresh animals as the Corps of Discovery headed for for the coast.
Lewis and Clark's journey affected the Salish even before more foreigners began arriving in these parts, Incashola said. To the east, Blackfeet and Crow Indians encountered traders and trappers before the Salish did, and traded for firearms that the Salish did not yet possess.
And while the presence of whites in western Montana is now officially 200 years old, Incashola reminded listeners that the Salish can trace their roots here back 12,000 to 14,000 years.
Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at 523-5260 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com
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