|
This is an excerpt from "A Kootenai
War Club".
Read the complete column in the Central
States Archaeological Societies 2021
July Journal which can be purchased on-line after March
2022
|
 |
Figure1. A Kootenai war club with documented
battle use.
|
| |
Rarely does an artifact from the mid-19th Century become available
that has not only a fascinating history but also impeccable provenance
and documentation. That is the case with the Kootenai war club which
I obtained when I purchased the remains of the Flathead Lake Lookout
Museum near Lakeside, Montana, in the 1990s.
Flathead Lake, located in the northwest corner of Montana, is huge.
It is 28 miles long, 15 miles wide and 380 feet deep and is the largest
natural lake west of the Mississippi. The west shore of the flathead
has, since prehistoric times, been the home of the Kootenai Tribe.
The Treaty of Hellgate signed on July 16, 1855 created the present
reservation that encompasses the south half of Flathead Lake as well
as land extending approximately another 30 miles to the south. The
reservation includes an amalgamation of three tribes: the Pend d’Oreille,
the Salish (erroneously called the Flatheads) and the Kootenai. This
organization is called today The Confederated Salish and Kootenai
Tribes. The 1855 Hell Gate Treaty was signed by Chief Victor for
the Salish, Chief Alexander for the Pend d’Oreille and Chief
Michel for the Kootenai.
The Flathead Lake Lookout Museum was located on the west shore of
Flathead Lake and was started in 1950 by Ernest White and his son,
Thane. They were sheepherders and a pioneer Montana family. Among
their land holdings was Cromwell Island on Flathead Lake located
just a few hundred yards off the west shore of the lake. The Whites
built a raft on which they would ferry their sheep over to Cromwell
for summer pasture. Here, the herd was easier to contain and be safe
from wolves. Thane, as a teenager, helped to build the “Going
to the Sun Road” across Glacier National Park.
Thane White was a self-taught, seat-of-thepants historian, archaeologist
and naturalist. His work on the Big Hole Battlefield and the Bear’s
Paw Battlefield has become legendary among professional archaeologists.
He was a phenomenal hunter, and according to his wife, Fay, had almost
a mystical relationship with animals. A porcupine would frequent
the porch of their home for a chance to nibble an ice cream cone
out of White’s hand. Thane conducted research on the rattlesnakes
found in the rocky outcroppings on their ranch.
To keep track and identify the rattlesnakes, he would paint their
heads red. People would see rattlesnakes with red heads and would
think that they were discovering a new species.
Born in 1913, Thane lived early enough in the century to know...
Read the complete column in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2021
July Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2022 |
