Old Missoula

Famous Indian Foot Race

            Judge Irvine had treasured in his memory many interesting stories of Indian life and legends, and he possessed the rare gift of entertainingly relating them. One narrative explained the origin of the name “Course De Femmes” that applies to a stretch of road near Arlee station on the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad, in Missoula County.

            The Judge related that about 1842 Francois Armintinger, one of the head traders of the Hudson Bay Fur Company, arrived with his party among the Flathead Indians, then camped in Jocko Valley, for the purpose of trading. He had a large stock of goods and trinkets and the Indians, learning of his arrival, flocked around his camp which was located near the present site of Arlee Station. The Indians had an immense stock of fine furs, bear and deer skins, and Armintinger realized that if he could put the Indians in good humor and detain them about his camp he would be able to carry on a large and profitable trade.

            Without disclosing the plan he had matured, he selected and piled in one heap, on the ground, liberal quantities of the gaudiest beads, trinkets, and most brilliantly colored goods he had in stock. His actions attracted the attention of the Indians, especially the women and maidens, who crowded about with wondering, eager eyes and longing expressions. He then announced that it was his desire that the Indian women should run a race, the one proving to be the fleetest of foot to receive the entire portion of goods and trinkets he had laid out. The Indians, universal gamblers as they are, gleefully assented to the plan and the women  and maidens immediately prepared themselves for the contest by throwing aside their blankets, tieing their braided locks in tight knots, tightening their body garments, leggings and moccasins and capering about to limber their joints.

            The course was laid out down the beaten trail to a large pine tree, around it and back to the starting point; the distance measuring fully two and a-half miles.

            When Armintinger called “time” about 40 girls and women arranged themselves in line, their supple-sinewed iron-jointed, semi-nude red-brown forms, illumined by the rays of the bright sun, presenting a scene that would task the magic brush of a great artist to worthily depict. At the starting word away they dashed. Heads thrown back, nostrils distended, arms raised with closed fists pressing chests they darted down the trail like trained athletes amid the cheering admiration of both the whites and Indians and followed by many of the Indian bucks on their ponies, most of whom had wife or sweet heart in the race to whom they shouted exclamations of encouragement.

            Half way down the stretch the young and beautiful Indian wife of Charles La Moose was observed to be strongly leading and she doubled the tree far in advance of all. Down the stretch those more closely following strained every nerve and muscle in the attempt to lessen her lead, but the efforts were of no avail as, apparently without great exertion and at a swifter pace than she held on the outbound stretch, she crossed the line far ahead of her nearest follower. In the colloquial phrase of the present race course “She distanced them all in a canter.” And it is related that so swift was her flight on the homestretch that the accompanying Indians were compelled to vigorously apply the quirt to their ponies to keep pace with her.

            In the flush of well-earned victory she graciously received the reward, the great store of goods and trinkets, amid the vociferous congratulations of the tribe.

            But Armintinger was a shrewd trader and well-knew that the heart of an Indian woman was as susceptible of disappointment and envy as is that of her sisters of fairer skin and to assuage such sentiments and cement the good impressions already made he presented to each participating contestant of the race a substantial and pretty present, and joy and satisfaction brooded over the entire camp and Armintinger enjoyed a most prosperous trade.

            The Judge related that the memory of this race was still a theme of conversation among the Flatheads who have ever since called the trail, over which the race was run, the “Course De Femmes” the Woman’s Race Course.

The above article is taken from ‘Biography – Caleb E. Irvine’ which appears in Vol. 6 of Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana (1907). See p 479.