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Every week, #Trending runs an excerpt from Know Your Nation, a punchy book series by Tim Mostert that’s all about the rich culture, history and geography of South Africa and other countries around the world.
Today's extract is about the Going-to-the-Sun Mountain in the US.
James Willard Schultz was a 19th-century hunter and explorer who eventually wrote 37 books about the Native American tribes he encountered.
Originally from New York State, Schultz became obsessed with the untamed and largely unexplored western territories of the US.
He befriended several Native American tribes, including the Blackfeet of Montana, and Schultz’s first wife was a Blackfoot woman. Their son, Lone Wolf, illustrated some of Schultz’s books.
Schultz named various landmarks, and the names remain to this day.
In 1887, while hunting on Red Eagle Mountain with his friend Tail-Feathers-Coming-Over-the-Hill, Schultz gave the Going-to-the-Sun Mountain the name it still bears today.
Here is an extract written by Warren Hanna, Schultz’s biographer: “It was during this winter that Schultz and Tail-Feathers-Coming-Over-the-Hill killed a bighorn ram on Red Eagle Mountain. When they finished butchering it, they built a small fire and sat down beside it for a leisurely smoke. As they took turns puffing on Tail-Feathers’ long-stemmed black stone pipe, Schultz noticed that his friend was gazing constantly at a particularly beautiful mountain across the lake.
“Finally, he commented to Schultz: ‘How very high it is, its summit far up into the blue. Of all the mountains that I have ever seen, I think it is the most beautiful. Were I younger and were it summertime, how I would like to climb up and lie on its summit, and fast and pray to Sun for a vision.’
“Schultz, too, had admired that particular peak and had considered it the finest in the area. Often he had tried to think of a name for it that would be fitting, and now Tail-Feathers had given him an idea. The mountain should have some relationship to Sun, the most important of all the gods of the Blackfoot tribe. After pondering the matter for a while, Schultz turned to Tail-Feathers and said: ‘We will name that mountain. Let us call it Going-to-the-Sun Mountain. With which suggestion Tail-Feathers was in complete accord, saying: ‘Good. That is a powerful, sacred name; it could not have a better one.’”
The iconic Going-to-the-Sun Mountain is one of the most beautiful natural wonders in Glacier National Park in Montana.
- Buy the book for R90 at airport CNAs, Exclusive Books, takealot.com, or by emailing Mostert directly at tim@timtv.biz
