Cameahwait's band of 400 Lemhi Shoshone dried berries, seeds, roots, and salmon in summer, but it was not enough. To survive the long winter, they would need about fifteen tons of bison jerky. The fall bison hunt in Montana was risky because enemies roamed the plains: Blackfeet and Hidatsa.
After the hunt, small bands of Lemhis made camps in sheltered mountain valleys with adequate water, firewood, and forage for horses. Winter was a time for ceremony, story telling, music and dancing. And for dreams of summer, when one again they would be the Agai Dika, the salmon eaters.
"they never leave the interior of the mountains while they can obtain a scanty subsistence, and always return as soon as they have acquired a good stock of dried meat in the plains." - Meriwether Lewis, August 19, 1805
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