Book
Description
In 1901, almost
a century after Lewis and Clark toiled along the same
route, noted writer James Willard Schultz and his Blackfeet
wife Natahki (Fine Shield Woman) made a float trip on
Montana’s Missouri River
from Fort Benton to the mouth of the Milk River, a distance
of more than 200 miles. In a small boat, they passed through
what is now the Upper Missouri National Wild and Scenic
River, the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument,
and the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.
On one level, this
book is an entertaining travelogue about the river’s
extravagant scenery, its plentiful wildlife, and the
joy of drifting day after day through wild country. On
another level, it is a remarkable record of the vanishing
American frontier. Each tributary, island, rapid, and
geological formation was the scene of some notable event
to Indians or white men, including Schultz himself, who
had lived in the area since 1877. Schultz relates those
events with verve and dialog as if they happened yesterday.
The result is an extraordinary book for travelers and
historians alike.
Schultz
wrote the acclaimed Blackfeet Tales of Glacier National Park
and dozens of books about Indians and the American West.
Floating on the Missouri includes an authoritative introduction
to Schultz, his writings, and the historical significance
of this book, by Montana historian Eugene Lee Silliman
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