History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 77

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: San Francisco : History Co.
Number of Pages: 880

USA > Idaho > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 77
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 77
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 77

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In the midst of these preparations for defence against a powerful foe, the arrow of death struck down the governing mind, which in shaping and car- rying forward military enterprises under great difficul- ties had won the respect even of his political enemies. On the night of the 1st of July, while en route to Camp Cook on the business of the regiment, General Meagher fell overboard from the steamer G. A. Thomp- son, then lying at Fort Benton, and was drowned.17

15 Named after a daughter of General Thoroughman.

15 The command consisted at this time of the following companies of Mon- tana cavalry: A, Capt. and brevet col George W. Hynson; B, Capt. Robert Hughes; C, Capt. I. H. Evans; D, Capt. Charles F. D. Curtis; E, Capt. Cornelius Campbell; and F, Capt. John A. Nelson. Virginia Montana Post, June 29, 1869. A company was organized at Salmon River, in Idaho, aad joined the Montana militia about the last of June, under A. F. Weston capt., Thomas Burns Ist lieut, and Charles H. Husted 2d lieut. Id., June 22, 1867. James Dunleavy was surgeon. I regret not having a complete report of the adjutant-generals, from which to give a more perfeet list of officers. I have been compelled to rely wholly on newspaper files.

17 Thomas Franeis Meagher was a native of Ireland, and was a natural as well as trained orator. He became a patriot under O'Connell, and was arrested aad traasported for life. He renounced his parole and escaped from Van Dieman's Land, arriving iu New York in 1852, where he started the Irish News. He afterward went to Central America, and from there wrote articles for Harper's Magazine. Returning to the U. S., he enlisted in sup- port of the union, and in command of his Irish brigade won laurels, and the title of general. In Montana he provoked mueh criticism by certain reckless habits, and by an imperious and often wrong-headed political course; but when it came to military matters be was in his elemeat, and won the grati- tude of all. Every respect was paid to his memory, though the body was not recovered.

703

GENERAL SMITH.

Governor Green Clay Smith, having returned to Montana about the time of Meagher's demise and the expiration of the term of enlistment, was ready to assume the command, which he did by making a call for 800 men, and reorganizing the troops under the regulations of the army, with the title of First Regiment of Montana Volunteers.18 He directed that Thoroughman should retain his headquarters in the Gallatin Valley, whence he would send out from time to time such forces as were necessary to chastise marauding bands, to expedite which Major Howie was ordered to take Captain Hereford's company, with one section of artillery, and move down the Mus- selshell River about one hundred miles, where he would establish a camp for the protection of miners and settlers.

After some fighting, with losses on both sides, and further manipulation of troops, regular and volunteer, came the intelligence that the Indian question, except so far as guarding the roads was concerned, was to be left in the hands of the interior department, where it had been placed by congress, and that this depart- ment had appointed a peace commission similar to that of the foregoing summer.19 Two points were named for assembling the Indians, the first at Fort Laramie, September 15th, and the second at Fort Larned, Kansas, October 15th. Runners were sent out to invite all the tribes of the military departments in which these posts were situated, and all military

18 Thomas Thoroughman retained the command, with the rank of col; George W. Hynson lieut-eol; Neil Howie Ist maj .; J. H. Kingley 2d maj. Company commanders: A, Capt. L. M. Lyda; B, Capt. Robert Hughes; C, Capt. Charles J. D. Curtis; D, Capt. I. H. Evans; E, Capt. Cornelius Camp- bell; F, Capt. John A. Nelson; G, Capt. A. F. Weston; I, Capt. Robert Hereford; K, Capt. William Deascey. Commissions issued by Meagher other than those confirmed by him were made complimentary. Smith's staff eon- sisted of Martin Beem adj. and insp .- gen., Hamilton Cummings quart. - gen., J. J. Hull com .- gen, each with the rank of colonel.

19 N. G. Taylor, commissioner of Indian affairs, John B. Henderson, chair- man of the committee on Indian affairs in the senate, John B. Sanborn, and S. F. Tappan, constituted the committee; $300,000 was appropriated to sub- sist friendly Indians, and $150,000 for other expenses. If the commission should fail, the U. S. would accept 4,000 volunteers into the regular service.

704

INDIAN WARS.

operations were suspended while the negotiations were in progress. In accordance with these regula- tions, General Terry ordered the mustering-out of the volunteers, and they were disbanded about the last of the month, when two companies of regulars were stationed at Bozeman for the protection of the Gallatin Valley, whose commander, Captain R. S. La Motte, founded Fort Ellis, a three-company post, beautifully situated, about two miles and a half from Bozeman. The cost of the volunteer organization was no less than $1,100,000, which charges were referred to congress for payment; and the 'necessary ex- penses' were ordered paid in 1870; but ou investiga- tion of charges, the amount was eut down $513,000 in 1873, and that amount paid.

When the legislature met in November, Governor Smith urged the enaetment of an efficient militia law, which that body failing to do, the governor, in Janu- ary, issued a general order for the organization of two military distriets within the territory, numbered I. and II., with Brigadier-general Neil Howie in com- inand of the first, and Brigadier-general Andrew J. Snyder in command of the second.20 The governor's action was precautionary merely, at this time, yet he had business for the militia before the winter was over, the citizens of Prickly Pear Valley, among

20 Howie's district comprised the counties of Lewis and Clarke, Choteau, Deer Lodge, Missoula, and Meagher, with headquarters at Helena; and Sny- der's district the counties of Madison, Beaverhead, Gallatin, Bighorn, and Jefferson, with headquarters at Virginia City. The generals were ordered to organize their districts into not more than four regiments of eight companies each; the companies to consist of forty enrolled men, who should elect their captain and two lieutenants. The regimental officers were ordered to consist of a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major, the colonel to be appointed by the district commander, and the lieutenant-colonel and major elected by the line- officers; the colonel to appoint an adjutant from the line with the rank of Ist lieutenant; staif-officers to be appointed, the adjutant with the rank of major, the quartermaster and commissary-general with the rank of captain, 2 aides- de-camp with the rank of captain, and 1 surgeon with the rank of major. The staff of the commander-in-chief consisted of Moses Veale, adjutant-gen- eral, with the rank of brigadier; Hamilton Cummings, quartermaster-general, with the rank of colonel; George W. Hill, commissary-general, with the rank of colonel; L. Dacms, M. D., medical director, with the rank of colonel; James H. Mills, J. W. Brown, and W. F. Scribner, aides-de-camp, with the rank of colonel.

705

TREATIES WITH THE TRIBES.

others, appealing for arms in February 1868 to pro- tect themselves against the Blackfoot and Blood tribes, who, as territorial critics pithily remarked, had been supplied with murderous weapons by the officers of the government at Benton to make attacks upon white people, whom the peace commissioners recom- mended should be prohibited from defending them- selves. Arms and ammunition were sent to Prickly Pear Valley by order of the executive, and in defiance of the peace commissioners.21

A treaty was concluded with the mountain Crows May 7th at Fort Laramie, and ratified July 9th,22 by which they relinquished all claim to any territory ex- cept that included between longitude 107° on the east, the Missouri River on the west, latitude 45° on the south, and the Yellowstone River on the north. The Missouri River Crows, Gros Ventres, and Blackfoot tribes were also treated with in July, and the latter ceded, as in 1865, all that portion of their territory lying south of the Missouri and Teton rivers, reserv- ing all of Montana north of those rivers. Immediate steps were taken by their special agent to establish agencies and carry out the provisions of the treaties. But congress failed, as it so often did, to ratify at the proper time the contracts it had empowered commis- sioners to make, and to which the Indians had con- sented, which delay furnished a sufficient provocation, in their minds, to a renewal of hostilities.

All through the spring and summer of 1869 these outrages continued, culminating August 18th in the

21 I represent here the sentiment of the people of the territories. It was said, no doubt with much truth, that the persons interested in peace commis- sions made fortunes out of these negotiations; that traders flocked to the council-grounds, who sold ammunition and arms to the Indians. Two tons of lead and powder were sold at the council of 1866 at Laramie. The Indians expended a year's collection of furs and robes in war supplies, took all the government offered them in presents, and departed to renew their outrages. These occasions were fairs or markets at which the savages laid in supplies.

22 A treaty was made with the Crows in 1866, at Fort Union, by Gov. Ed- munds, Gen. Curtis, and others, by which they yielded to the government the right of a public road through the Yellowstone Valley, and ceded a tract 10 miles square at each station necessary on the route, but the treaty was never ratified. Ind. Aff. Rept, 1868, 223.

HIST. WASH .- 45

706

INDIAN WARS.

killing of one of Montana's oldest and most esteemed citizens, Malcolm Clark. His residence was in the Prickly Pear Valley, and from his long association with the Indian tribes no harm to him was ap- prehended. Still, a young Piegan, whom he had brought up in his own house, under a pretence of de- livering horses stolen by his people, enticed Clark's son Horace from their dwelling, and shot and wounded him; and on the father going out to speak to a chief, he was shot and killed. Twenty other Piegans were in company with the treacherous Blackfoot, and the lives of Clark's wife and daughter were saved only by the intervention of an Indian woman.

It was impossible that a mere handful of troops should protect so extensive a frontier as Montana possessed. On the Idaho side the Sheepeaters, under the hostile chief Tendoy, disturbed the peace of the inhabitants. In the Flathead country signs of war were accumulating, through the reservation troubles. 23

23 In June 1855 I. I. Stevens made a treaty with the Flathead, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreille tribes, whereby they were allowed a general reservation of 5,000 square miles on the Jocko River. To this they all agreed in council; but before signing the treaty the Flatheads demanded an additional reserva- tion in the Bitterroot Valley, embracing 500 or 600 square miles. To this demand Stevens yielded in the 11th article of the treaty, which was ratified in 1859, so far as to say if in the judgment of the president it should be better adapted to the wants of the tribe than the general reservation, then such por- tions as might be necessary should be set apart to them. White settlers were encouraged by the Indians to settle on this tract, embracing all of the valley above Lolo fork, a beautiful and productive region. The discovery of gold accelerated settlement, to which the Indians made no objection until 1867, at which time the disturbances east of the mountains and in Idaho and eastern Oregon undoubtedly excited their wild natures. That year the citizens of Missoula county petitioned the governor fer arms and ammunition, repre- senting that the Flatheads were making threats of driving out all the white people, and had already murdered 4 prospectors between Flathead Lake and Thompson River, had stolen stock, broken into houses, and burned off the grass, the fires consuming the farmers' hay-stacks. Virginia Montana Post, Oct. 5, 1867. War, however, did not follow. The majority of the tribe were on the Jocko reservation, and of these in the Bitterroot Valley some had farms and were on good terms with their white neighbors. More, however, were roving in their habits. These latter, more than the former, were dis- satisfied with the occupancy of the white farmers, and talked about claiming a reservation in the valley, to which the neglect of the government to survey and examine the country gave color. In 1869 Gen. Alfred Sully was ap- pointed to the superintendency of Montana, and alarmed the settlers by pro- posing a new treaty, which would deprive over 200 settlers of their farms. But of this he thought better, when the citizens memerialized the senate of the United States not to confirm the treaty, and gave their reasons. Ind. Aff.

707

ARMIES AND RESERVATIONS.

The Blackfoot nation was openly at war; the Crows, while professedly friendly, took horses and scalps when convenient; and Red Cloud with several thou- sand Sioux was encamped on the Bighorn; while the United States troops under General Sheridan were driving the hostile tribes of Kansas and Nebraska northward to swell the forces that at any time could be precipitated upon the territory.

At length a change seemed about to occur. General De Trobriand, in command of the district of Montana, made such representations at Washington as procured more troops in Montana. General Sherman author- ized General Sheridan to punish the Piegans, and Sheridan sent his inspector-General James A. Har- die-to Montana to satisfy himself of their guilt.

About the middle of December an expedition was organized, consisting of detachments from the cavalry

Rept, 1869, 26. The citizens did not ask that those Indians who cultivated, and were permanent, should be removed, but suggested that they be allowed to retain a certain amount which the government should patent to them, and General Sully made such a recommendation, coupled with a suggestion to pay the Indians something for removal; and in 1871 the president ordered them to go upon the Jocko reservation, congress having appropriated $50,000 to compensate them for any loss. At length a special commissioner, James A. Garfield, was appointed in 1872 to visit and accomplish the adjustment of the claims of the Flatheads. Investigation showed them to be firm in their impression that the treaty of 1855 gave them the Bitterroot Valley. The catholic fathers were called on to aid in persuading them to remove, except such as were willing to abandon tribal relations, and to become owners in severalty of their farms. An agreement was finally entered into between the commissioner and the chiefs of the Flathead tribe, that the government should erect 60 houses 12 by 16 feet, 3 of them, for the chicfs, being double the size, and placed wherever on the Jocko reservation they should select, provided the same was not already occupied; they were to be supplied with flour, potatoes, and vegetables the first year; land was to be enclosed and broken up for their use; $55,000 was to be paid to them in instalments. Any who chose could take land in Bitterroot Valley under the land laws. On the part of the Flatheads, they agreed to remove all who did not take land in this manner to the Jocko reservation. The following year, however, they refused to remove, basing their refusal on the non-fulfilment of the government's part of treaty stipulations. A few were prevailed upon to go to the reservation in 1874, more followed, and by degrees the condition of these Indians on their reservation has improved. A boarding-school for girls and day-school for boys was established by the catholics of St Ignatius mission, in 1863, discon- tinued after 13 months because results did not warrant the expense. It was resumed by the government, which paid $1,800 for teachers until 1872, and $2,100 until 1874, when the schools were again closed, and again reopened. Helena Independent, May 15, 1874; Meagher, in Harper's Magazine, Oct. 1867, 581-3; Winser's N. Pac. R. R. Guide, 196-7; Smalley's Hist. N. Pac. R. R., 343.

708

INDIAN WARS.

and a company of mounted infantry, in all between 300 and 400 troops, to invade the Blackfoot country. On the 23d of January, 1870, they surprised the Piegan camp on Maria River, killing 173 men, women, and children, and capturing 100. Three hundred horses were captured, and all the winter supplies of forty- four lodges, driving the Blackfoot tribe into the British possessions. 24

On the 1st of March, 1872, congress set apart a tract of land in Montana and Wyoming, fifty-five by sixty-five miles square, about the head of the Yellow- stone River, to be called the Yellowstone National Park, and the survey begun in 1871 by Hayden was continued this year in the Gallatin and upper Yel- lowstone valleys-from the east fork of the Yellow- stone to the mining district on Clarke fork; in the Geyser basins, and on Madison River.25 This survey was not in the route of the raiding Sioux, and es- caped any conflict with the common enemy. But a railroad surveying expedition of 300 men under Colo- nel E. Baker was attacked near the mouth of Pryor fork by a larger number of Sioux and Cheyennes, losing one man killed, and having five wounded. The fighting lasted for several hours, and the Indians, though armed with repeating rifles, lost heavily in men and horses.26 More fortunate was a pleasure excursion projected by Durfee and Peck of the North- western Transportation Company, which thus early invited travel over the route pursued by them from Chicago westward. The excursionists took boats,

24 This expedition was officered by Col E. M. Baker, commander; Maj. Lewis Thompson, Capt. S. H. Norton, Ist lieuts J. G. McAdams, G. C. Doane, S. T. Hamilton, and S. M. Swigert, and 2d lieut J. E. Batchelder, 2d cavalry. The infantry was commanded by Lieut-col George H. Higbee, with Capt. R. A. Surry and Ist lieut W. M. Waterbury. New Northwest, Feb. 4, 1870.

23 Hayden's report for 1872 is interesting reading. It makes, with the scientific and technical descriptions, a volume of over 800 pages, and is a survey not only of Montana, but of Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. In 1877 Hayden made an exhaustive survey of Idaho and Wyoming.

26 It is said that the camp was saved by the promptness and gallantry of Lieut W. J. Reed of the 7th infantry, who was a Californian before he en- tered the army. S. F. Alta, Oct. 5, 1872.

709

YELLOWSTONE PARK.

built for the occasion, at Sioux City, and proceeded up the Missouri and the Yellowstone as far as Powder River, where a wagon-train was fitted up, and escorted by a strong military guard and reliable guides to Yel- lowstone park. General Sheridan detailed General Gibbon to accompany this notable excursion-the first purely pleasure-seeking company to visit the nation's reserve.27

In the spring of 1873 the Blackfoot tribe, having partially recovered from the humiliation inflicted by Baker's command, became once more troublesome, when the irrepressible conflict was resumed, being carried over the boundary into the British posses- sions, and returning to the territory of the United States. These raids and skirmishes seldom gave oc- casion for the employment of the few troops stationed in the territory, but were met and fought by citizens.28

27 On the 27th of September Gen. Gibbon lectured at Helena upon the wonders and attractions of this region. Helena Rocky Mountain Gazette, Sept. 30, 1872.

28 The advance of the Northern Pacific railroad survey diverted for a time the hostilities of the Sioux from the people of the territory to the exploring expedition. Red Cloud had said that the railroad should not be laid across his country, and he meant to maintain his word. Accordingly, when the sur- veying party, with a force of 1,500 men and an abundance of ammunition and supplies, appeared on the Yellowstone about the middle of July, he was there to resist their progress. The expedition was commanded at this time by Gen. D. S. Stanley, the 7th cavalry companies being under General Custer. They were met at the mouth of Glendive Creek by steamers loaded with sub- sistence and the material of war. A strong stockade was erected fifteen miles above this point, and garrisoned by one company of the 17th infantry and two of cavalry under the command of Captain E. P. Pearson. The re- mainder of the force proceeded up the river, Custer generally in advance with a portion of the cavalry, looking out a practicable road for the supply trains and artillery. The expedition had proceeded as far as Tongue River without encountering the Sioux, and had begun to feel that relaxation from apprehension which the Indian knows so well how to inspire. 'Where there ain't no Injuns you'll find 'em thickest,' was the caution of Bridger the mountaineer to the military in IS66. Absaraka, 183.

On the 4th of Aug. Custer, with two companies of the cavalry, numbering ninety-five men, guided by a young Arickaree warrior, left camp at five o'clock in the morning. At noon, while taking a siesta, they were attacked, and an attempt made to draw them into an ambush, which failed, Custer he- ing rescued from a perilous position by the main body. After that the Ind- ians moved on up the Yellowstone, Custer following with 450 cavalry to punish them. On the 9th he found where they had crossed the river on rafts, but the stream being too wide and too swift for swimming the horses, the pursuit was abandoned on the 10th. That night his camp was discovered, and the next morning attacked by 800 Indians, who fired across the river. After several hours of exchanging shots, 300 warriors effected a crossing, and en-

710

INDIAN WARS.

deavored to gain the bluffs in the rear of Custer's command. The cavalry were dismounted and received them bravely. After they had been engaged for some time a charge was ordered, the troops driving them for eight miles. In the mean time the main column came up, and the artillery opening on the Indians across the river dispersed them. This battle took place within two miles of the Bighorn River. General Custer and Adjutant Ketchard had their horses shot under them. Lieutenant Brogen was severely wounded, and private Tuttle, Custer's orderly, killed. The loss on the part of the Sioux was about forty killed and wounded. After this second fruitless attempt to intercept the movements of the expedition, the ludians did no more than to hang upon the trail of the troops to annoy them. After reach- ing Pompey's Pillar, on the 15th of September, the expedition turned north- ward to Fort Peck, whence it returned home.

Other expeditions traversed the Yellowstone country in 1873, one of which was composed of 149 mountaineers, seventeen wagons, and a thorough out- fit, under Colonel Brown, the object of which seems to have been to prospect for minerals and fight the Sioux. The history of this expedition was never pub- lished, and the few facts I have are gathered from a letter printed in the Boze- man Avant-Courier, Oct. 18, 1877. It is called in that communication the 'best managed Indian expedition of the west.' It descended the Yellowstone as far as the Bighorn River, having a skirmish with the Sioux a short distance below, and crossing the country to the Rosebud River, 'had several days' and nights' terrific fighting with many hundred Sioux and Cheyennes, and thoroughly defeated them.' A gun accompanied the expedition which had been used on a march from the North Platte to Bozeman in 1870. It was loaded with horse-shoes cut in fragments for the purpose, and performed deadly work among the Indians, who followed and fought the expedition from the Littlehorn, later called Custer, River, back by Fort Smith and the Bozeman road to the Yellowstone, losing but one man. This piece of ordnance, known as the Bighorn gun, 'all the mountaineers nearly idolize,' says the letter referred to. It was the only gun in Fort Pease, below the mnouth of the Bighorn, and was burned in it by the Indians, after a year of guerrilla fighting, in 1876. It was afterward mounted on a rough carriage of cottonwood, and placed at Black's landing, below the Bighorn.

The Union Pacific railroad had also an expedition in the field under Cap- tain W. A. Jones of the engineer corps, to look out a route to the Yellow- stone park and lake, in order to secure the travel of tourists to this wonder- land, besides making a more direct road to the already developed mines of Montana, and competing with the Northern Pacific railroad. The survey began at Fort Bridger, on a branch of Green River, in Wyoming, and travelled north-east to Camp Stamhaugh, a two-company post on one of the sources of the Sweetwater; thence north to Fort Brown on Little Wind River, the agency for the Shoshones; thence to the main Wind River, in a course a little west of north, crossing which, and passing mountains and streams in the same course, to the south fork of the Stinkingwater; thence up the north fork and over the divide to Mud Lake and Gardiner River; thence to Fort Ellis for supplies, returning by the Firehole basin and Yellowstone Lake, whence it crossed the Snake River divide, the Yellowstone and Wind River divide, and passed down Wind River to Fort Brown and home. This expedition reported that nothing worthy of notice in the way of minerals was found on the whole route, and advised miners not to waste their time prospecting in these regions, but the route for a road was declared to be practicable. Helena Rocky Mountain Gazette, Oct. 12 and Nov. 30, 1873. The first public convey- ance of any kind to enter the Yellowstone park was the stage-coach of G. W. Marshall's line of Virginia City, on the 1st of October, 1880. Strahorn's Montana and Yellowstone Park, 158.

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History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 77

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902 Publication date: 1890 Publisher: San Francisco : History Co. Number of Pages: 880

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: San Francisco : History Co.
Number of Pages: 880