has an uncle among the flathead Indians and he wants to go and see him, for some important reasons. As to the country is the country where we can locate and have all the advantages of Navigation and commerce. We want to get between some of those mountains where we can fortify ourselves, and erect the standard of liberty on one of the highest mountains we can find. In some of those vallies, between the mountains, there is gold and silver and precious stones. Now we want a place where we can raise all kinds of fruits &c. We can go from here to that country and take our beef cattle and bread timber to last us a year if we have a mind to. When they trading ships go from the East to they scarce ever take any frieght only what they require [p. [141]]
Since the late eighteenth century, the fur trade had enticed a number of Iroquois to move west among the Flathead Indians. Most of the Flathead lived in and around the Bitterroot Valley in present-day Montana. However, a few small groups of Flathead Indians had moved east to the mouth of the Kansas River in Indian Territory. At a later council meeting, Young stated that Dana wanted to “go over the mountains to see his uncle,” suggesting that Dana’s uncle was likely living with the majority of the Flathead in the West. On 27 February, Young, apparently relying on information from Dana, cited the supposed numerical strength of the Flathead and other American Indian nations in the West and stated that “they want Mormonism.” (Fahey, Flathead Indians, 25, 40, 66; Council of Fifty, “Record,” 11 Apr. 1845; Council of Fifty, Minutes, 27 Feb. 1845.)
Fahey, John. The Flathead Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974.