Nathaniel Wyeth and the Salish: Two Weeks in the Bitterroot Valley in 1833

Jim Hardee—historian with the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, Wyoming—explores the experiences of Wyeth, a Boston ice merchant turned fur trader who, in the spring of 1833 while traveling with a Hudson’s Bay Company brigade, kept meticulous notes of the time he spent in the Bitterroot. In his journal, Wyeth recorded details of daily Salish life, and he was the first known Euro-American to witness their First Roots Ceremony.