Greetings from Montana’s Outback and the Valley of the Musselshell,

My name is Longtrail, one of my main interests in life for the past twenty years, has been that of Native American life and their relationships with other Native Americans as well as early contact with whites, especially information pertaining to the Fur Trade Era.

My interest began when I became involved with a group of people who attended Mountain Man Rendezvous. Someone suggested I start a newsletter for women who were interested in women’s involvement in the fur trade as well as crafts during that period, so I did.

The name of the newsletter as well as of the organization that formed later, was Hiyu Eenas, Chinook jargon from the Pacific North West which means Many Beavers. I discovered that women as well as men were more than happy to contribute very interesting information for publication in my newsletter. Because of the influx of such information, my interest was piqued and has continued to stay that way all of these years.

Due to the vast amount of information on the subject, I continue to learn more and more as time passes. Due to the fact that the Indians did not record information in a written manner but that of stories handed down from generation to generation, their information pertaining to their lives from that time period is very limited. While there are many books of old Indian stories written by Native Americans, it is in a large part, by reading journals of white men who traveled the land and interacted with the Indians and had the insight to record in detail, what they witnessed, that we find the most informative information on how the Natives lived. Information on all aspects of their lives, from their material world to their religions and superstitions.

For the past several years I have been an Associate Member of the American Mountain Man Association, and have contributed many articles to their very informative and inspiring publication called The Tomahawk and Longrifle.

I would be delighted to correspond with anyone interested in this subject and will help gather information to answer any questions presented to me.

I am a crafts person and maker of museum quality Native American style items. I very much enjoy drawing and painting North West Coast Indian art and art and crafts from the Northern Plains. My favorite Native American people to study about and recreate crafts from are the Blackfoot.

Thank you for your journey here to this page and I hope you find this destination an exciting and informative place to be.

Longtrail Snowbird