Blackfoot - Bridger Brigade Battle, 1838

Summary

The year 1838 was a bad time for the Blackfoot and many other Indian Tribes. Smallpox had ridden a steamboat up the Missouri River the year before and ravaged tribes of the Northern Plains. The Blackfoot were among the hardest hit. Although no one will ever know the true extent of death suffered, certainly half the tribe perished, perhaps three quarters. By early summer of 1838, the worst of the epidemic was over. People were still dying of

Smallpox but they were also prey to older forms of death: hunger, accidents, and attacks by hostile tribes and white men, especially American trappers.

This article details the battle between Blackfoot Indians and the Bridger Brigade that took place in Montana in 1838.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• National Archeological Database (NADB)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Sponsor(s): Montana Archaeological Society

Record Identifiers

lccn(s): sn 87012107 79003010

NADB document id number(s): 3068852

NADB citation id number(s): 000000301714

Notes

General Note: The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. In 2019, Dave Tahija supplied a copy of the report to the Center for Digital Antiquity.

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