ABSTRACT
Bitterroot Valley runs north-south, walled on the west by high peaks. The Meriwether Lewis and William Clark expedition spent many anxious days in 1805 tracing its course to find a way to the Pacific Ocean. On the explorers' return journey the following year, coming down into this valley and to the hot springs at the foot of the pass, was a scene they were grateful to behold; at the foot of the mountains, the way eastward led them home. Seventy years later, the Nez Perce Indians, under the united chiefs, Joseph, Looking Glass, Ollokot, White Bird, Toolhoolzote, and others, led a whole tribe the same way from west to east, hoping for refuge. The native peoples had never had to discover the pass and the valley. Pierre Jean De Smet's first experience of hunting with the Salish was in a camp set up alongside the Madison River, named so for Jefferson's secretary of state by Lewis and Clark.
