Note 37 — Chapter XIX · FORT BENTON.

The Blackfeet nation, as understood by the early traders and trappers, comprised four bands—the Piegans, the Bloods, the Blackfeet, and the Grosventres of the Prairies. Only the first three were really Blackfeet. The tribal affinity of the Grosventres was with the Arapahoes. In some way these two tribes had become widely separated, the Arapahoes going far to the south, and the Grosventres to the country of the Blackfeet. So far did the Grosventres adopt the language and customs of the Blackfeet that they were ordinarily considered in early times as a part of that tribe and were commonly referred to as Blackfeet. They were relentlessly hostile to the whites during the first twenty-five years after Lewis and Clark passed through their country. Next to them in point of hostility came the Blood Indians. The Piegans were the most favorably disposed of any of the Blackfeet tribes and were also the best beaver hunters, and it was with this band that trade relations were first opened.