Road to the Buffalo

By editor

Plains, Sanders County, Montana, August 2022

The bison was the lifeblood of the Plains, a great shaggy beast that sustained the Indian people for thousands of years, providing food, clothing, shelter, tools, and spiritual sustenance. In the mountains we now call Montana, an ancient network of trails led the Salish, Pend d'Oreille, and related tribes from their traditional territories on both sides of the Continental Divide into the prime bison country of the high plains. The Nez Perce called this vital passageway "Qoq'aalx 'Iskit," meaning the Buffalo Road. It was a well-worn track, beaten deep into the earth by generations of travelers, their dogs, and later their horses, pulling the travois that carried their lodges and supplies. The tracks of those ancient journeys can still be seen along the trail today, a silent testament to a way of life that was intimately connected to the land.

This ancient road crossed the Continental Divide at a low pass the Salish called "Smitu Sxcucs.i," or Indian Fort Pass, a place where warriors sat in small stone structures to watch for approaching Blackfeet raiders. When Meriwether Lewis crossed here on July 3, 1806, he was not discovering a new route, but following the road the Nez Perce had shown him, a road they assured him was so well-beaten he could not miss his way. The invasion of the West by Euro-Americans led to the virtual extermination of the bison by 1883, bringing devastating impacts to many tribes. Yet despite these profound losses, the Indian people survived, and today they still maintain an intimate relationship with these important cultural landscapes, remembering the Buffalo Road and the great herds that once blackened the plains.

See also

• Road to the Buffalo at Plains, Sanders County (Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail, erected 2022)
• Lewis and Clark Pass for more on the expedition's route.