nałisqelixw, which literally translates into people-eaters. Within many of the Coyote stories, there are vivid descriptions relating to the history of the geological events that had occurred near the last ice age. Stories that include "the extension of glaciers down what is now Flathead Lake, the flooding of western Montana beneath a great lake, the final retreat of the bitter cold weather as the ice age came to an end, the disappearance of large animals like giant beaver and their replacement by the present-day smaller versions of those creatures". Archaeologists have been able to document a continuous occupancy within some sites as far back as 12,600 years ago during the final retreat of the glaciers. Some stories suggest that occupancy can go far back as 40,000 years when the ice age had already begun. Bitterroot Valley The Bitterroot Salish began to occupy the Bitterroot Valley in the 1700s when pressure from westward-moving Plains tribes pushed them off the plains. About the same time, smallpox swept through the tribe, causing a population decline. The people adapted, practicing a seasonal round and traveling across the continental divide once or twice each year to hunt buffalo. They sought alliances with tribes to the west in order to strengthen their defense against Plains tribes like the Blackfeet. St. Mary's Mission Sometime before Lewis and Clark reached the Bitterroot in 1805, Xalíqs (Shining Shirt), a Salish prophet, foretold that fair-skinned men dressed in black robes would arrive in the valley to teach the people new morals and a new way to pray. These men, who wore crosses and did not take wives, would bring peace, but their coming would be the beginning of the end of all native people. By the 1830s, Jesuit-educated Iroquois trappers had settled in the Bitterroot and told the Salish about the "powerful medicine" of Catholicism. Remembering Xalíqs's prophecy, the Salish sent delegations in 1831, 1835, 1837, and 1839 to St. Louis asking for Black Robes to come to the valley. The 1839 delegation convinced Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet, S.J., to visit Salish territory. In the summer of 1840, 1,600 Salish and Pend d'Oreilles met DeSmet at Pierre's Hole. About 350 chose to be baptized, including several leaders: Tjolzhitsay (Big Face), Walking Bear, and Victor ( Xweɫxƛ̣ ̓cín or Many Horses). DeSmet traveled back east to get funding for a mission, returning to the Bitterroot in September 1841 with five more Jesuit