USA > Montana > Blaine County > In the land of Chinook; or, The story of Blaine county > Part 10
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William Bent is about five feet and eight inches tall and shows that he has had a good constitution. I do not know what the color of his hair has been but at this time it is gray. His eyes are blue and his voice low and pleasing. There is no sign of dis- pleasure in mode or jesture, when speaking of things which most men would rather forget. His whole make-up is one that would distinguish him as a plainsman who had been brought up under such an environment that he has taken it for granted that he had his life cut out for him and that it was filled, more or less, with enjoyment. That he married Indian women and made them the
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BILL BENT.
"DADDY" MINUGIL.
Two Characters of Milk River.
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respected mother of his children is something that the ordinary reader unfamiliar with the early days of the western territories, can never be made to understand. These men, like Bent, intro- duce you to their wives and children with as much pride as would the whitest of white men to the whitest of white women. And why not? When these men came to make it possible for the chicken-hearted, of these days to come, after all the real rough places had been planed off the map, and establish homes where they can live in no fear of the wild beast or the more savage men who once roamed these hills, valleys and mountains, they did not find any other to mate with but the daughters of Red Men. That they took them in a legal way, some times, there can be no doubt. Not all of them were high-minded enough to unite themselves in wedlock as many of them simply bought their women to discard them and leave them the fruits of that connection to rear as best they could.
No father can love his white child with any more affection than do the fathers of these half-caste youngsters. When I say that I mean any of those men who are worthy to be fathers. The reason is, as explained to me by one of them, as follows: "Can't you understand that these children are to become handicapped in their race for life because of their blood? Well understanding that you must know that the right kind of a father feels that he has been responsible for their lot and for that reason tries in every way possible to make their lives as pleasant as he can by throwing his love and protection about them."
No man has had any more to do with the cilivization of the Milk river than Bill Bent. We will not say that he settled in this section with that end in view, as that would not be correct. The establishing of the reservation was somewhat due to his influence over the Indians as well as was the treaty to allow the building of the railroad.
The Indians have seemed at all times to have had confidence in him. Bent has not been one who has made it his life's work to profit by his knowledge of them and of their ways.
He can leave no other heritage than the one that comes to the Indian as his right, the right to select a piece of land whenever the reservation is thrown open. In other words, he has not made a fortune through his connection with the people. Right here I want to say that I believe that the white man, instead of teaching the Indian to work, has himself, like the Indian, learned to follow the lines of least resistance.
"My father was Col. Wm. Bent who built Bent's fort on the Arkansas. Mother was Sarah Sullivan and came from Indiana. Her folks before her fought at Valley Forge and nearly, as I could ascertain, in every war since. My father was a frontiers-
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man and had several Indian wives before he married my mother. He and Kit Carson married sisters, that is Indian women.
"I was born in 1846 in St. Louis. One of my father's broth- ers was Provisional Governor of New Mexico and was killed by the Mexicans. Just when I do not know. (It took place in 1847.) When I was a small boy I went with Lieut. Gunnison and his men to explore the Gunnison river. My father supported Albert Sidney Johnson during the trouble with Mexico. Old Col. Leavenworth was also a friend of father's.
"I went to school, in a kind of private school at St. Louis, and my room-mates were two Spaniards who were the sons of Senor Romero, a minister to the United States during Grant's admin- istration. These boys were Fernando and Bernado. Fernando killed Bernado while at school. I remained in school for quite a long time as mother was trying to keep me out of the war. An uncle said I was old enough to go to war and help save his negroes. When mother died, as some of my friends were going to join the army, I went with them and remained till it was over. I was wounded at Chickamauga, in the second day's fighting.
"When I returned to St. Louis I thought some of going to Mexico to join Maximilian but instead drifted north and came to Atchison and met Bill Anderson, one of Quantrell's men. I remained for a while with an old fellow named Murphy and then drifted west with some people into the Platte country and there fell in with a Spaniard called 'Sago.' We wandered around quite a lot and at last got into the Yellowstone park from which place we went via Bozeman to Virginia City, where we arrived in June, 1866. I did not mine, though I was offered $8.00 per day to do so. I left the same summer and went into Dry Gulch near Helena. I left Helena with Henry McDonald and went down to the Musselshell country. We drifted around there until that winter and in 1866-7 rode the Pony Express from Diamond City to Fort Hawley on the Missouri.
"Two men always rode together. Two went from Hawley to Wolf Point. (That point received its name from a large num- ber of wolves that had been caught and piled up by Charlie Conklin and two other fellows, but the Indians came and they never got a chance to skin them.) The route extended on past Union, Devil's Lake to Fort Abercombrie, on the Red River of the North. I quit riding the spring of '68. 'Liver Eating' John- son rode one or two trips with me. While I was riding with Johnson was when I first met Billy Cochran; he was camping at the east end of the Little Rockies.
"In the fall of 1868 they began to hire men at Fort Benton to build Fort Browning on Peoples creek in the Milk river coun- try. This was about the fourth day of August and Hubbel and
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Hawley, the Northwest Fur company hired the men to build a trading post and a place for a representative of the government. After the Fort was finished there were too many men and we were told to look out for ourselves. Bill Hamilton, one of the men, said, 'Boys, suppose we go into the Little Rockies and hunt for gold.' Bill would not work at the fort as he would not work at anything like that, he was trapping and hunting most of the time. We formed a party with Bill as leader. Bill, Joe Wye, Fred Merchant, John Thomas, myself and three others made the party. This was in the fall of 1868. We went round on the east end of the mountains and prospected on Dry Beaver. We found gold, but not in paying quantities, and that was, to my knowledge, the first gold found in the Little Rockies." In reply to a question Mr. Bent said: "I heard, through a man named Grinnell, that some men who had been mining in the west went east and on their return got off the boat and went into the Little Rockies and were never heard of afterward. Grinnell was later killed by the Indians.
"The ground froze up on us before we could do much and we threw everything in the mining line away. Bill was not very religiously inclined and after the ground froze up he cussed God Almighty. We killed some elk and packed the skins to Benton. I stayed there a while and took supplies back for wolf- ing on the Milk river. The wolfing party consisted of the same men with the exception of Joe Wye, who would not come. We went on the Upper Milk river into the Piegan country." (Here some incidents happened to come into the old man's mind and we record them because they are too good to miss.) "I want to tell you a little story about Major Culbertson and Agent Fenton. The major was a great lover of whisky and one winter at Old Fort Belknap the major was pretty full most all winter and no one could tell where he was getting his supply. There was a cellar in the cabin in which Culbertson lived and Fenton was agent. That fall the Indians brought in a two-headed buffalo calf and as it was a curiosity, Fenton wished to secure it, so he could take it the next spring back to the Smithsonian Institute. In order to keep it he sent for a large keg or small barrel of alcohol and putting the calf head in it put it down cellar for safe keeping. There was no whisky to be kept there as it was an Indian reservation.
"When spring came the agent sent a couple of men down for the keg and told them it was heavy and that they should be care- ful not to drop and break it. When they got down they found the keg was not at all heavy and so reported to Fenton who, on examination, found that it was too true as there was but little
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except dry calf heads as the Major had found and tapped the keg and used the liquor for libations.
ANOTHER INCIDENT.
"Old man Meldrum was trading down on the Missouri near Fort Union one time and some Indians came and they seemed to have something on their minds, though he was anxious to trade he could only do so when they got good and ready. There were several different parties of them and they had been around quite a lot since he had seen them and they were recounting the strange things they had seen on their trips. One party said they had seen funny things in the south and the party that thought they had seen the funniest thing was one that had been to Fort Benton. 'We have seen the white man's mother.' Meldrum said: 'Are you sure ? Was it the Queen of England or was it a white woman in the country ?' 'No, it was the white man's mother and how different from us did God make her. We were raised on our mother's breast but they, the white men, are so different.' Meldrum asked what she looked like and how she was different. 'Well, it did not look like us, it was spotted and had a tail.' The white men had a milk cow at Benton and the Indians sneaked up when they were milking and saw some of them drinking the milk so that was the reason they thought it was the white man's mother.
"The Indians claim that the white men drove the buffalo back into their holes from which they came. They had rounded them all up, drove them into the hole and closed it up so they could not get out. Even 'Old Nosey,' the chief of the Assinniboines, could not be argued out of the question. He said they had done it so as to make the Indian come around to the white man's ways.
"At the time that Major Logan wanted to fence the reserva- tion the Indians did not want it done as they had been fooled so often that they were getting sore. They said if I would come to the council they would listen. It was satisfactorily arranged and the reserve was enclosed.
"I have trapped on all the streams of the Bear's Paw and Little Rockies and have many experiences. In the fall of 1869 a steamer was stuck on a sand bar and could not be moved. She had a load of supplies, whisky, etc. Major Reed said that they would go down and wreck the boat as she had a hole stove in her. He hired several men who were around there and took two teams. Major went himself. I forget all of them but Jim Wells, Anderson, John Thomas, Billie Smith and Steve Tabor and Jim Campbell and several others. They wanted me to go but I told them they were going to get into trouble, so went into the Little Rockies and put in forty-four days alone. This was near
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the Middle Butte on the east end. I do not think I am supersti- tious, but living alone for that length of time got me. I got so things began to puzzle me. Every morning I would go out and get on a big rock where I could look all about. When game was quiet I knew no Indians were about, if it was moving I knew that war parties were out. My wolf baits kept me pretty busy, so busy in fact that I could not skin all of them so had to pile them up. While I was living there alone the game would come right down to the cabin but I was afraid to shoot on account of the Indians.
"I used the fat of the wolf to fry my dough banks in. While in the camp that winter there was one thing that occurred to me which I never could understand. I had been out all day, as the baits had turned up several wolves, and while they were fresh I skinned them. The result was that when I got back to the cabin I was very tired. It was almost dark when I arrived, so I built up a good fire and sat down in a camp chair and began looking at the fire when all at once I seemed to hear a sigh. There was a little hole that I used for light in one end of the cabin not far from where I was sitting. When I heard the noise or whatever it was I turned and cold see a dark face and two large eyes look- ing at me. I sat there spellbound, could not move hand or foot. The fire was burning brightly and my gun was close to me, but for a time I could not reach for it. I can not say how long I sat there but at last I grabbed my gun and went out but could find nothing, not even a track. That face was just as plain as yours is at this minute, I can't understand what it could have been.
"Another time after I had been out all day with my traps I returned home late in the afternoon. I noticed some tracks. At first I thought it was a bear when I remembered there were no bears in that section. Then I came to the conclusion it was an Indian hunting my cabin. I went into the house and was there a little while when I looked out and noticed something moving on the hillside toward the spring. I went out where I could have a better view and saw the object get down on all fours and drink. When it raised up I could see it was an Indian woman, but in the most terrible condition I ever saw. I drew her attention by whistling and she made a peculiar noise through her teeth. Her feet were bare and her face was frozen till it was black and partly gone. I watched her as she started to move away from me and thought I would shoot her and put her out of her misery. I actually raised my gun to fire the fatal shot but thought better of it and she left. I never saw her afterward, but in relating my story at Browning, some of the Gros Ventres hearing it said she was a Crow. They told the Crows about it and a young man from that tribe came to me and told me that he thought it must
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be his mother as she had strayed off from their camp and had become lost. He was very anxious to find her and said his folks were wealthy and that he would give me the finest horse in the Crow tribe, besides other things, if I would go and try and find her. I never went.
THE STEAMBOAT PARTY.
"To return to the party under Major Reed: All the rest of the fellows went with the major. Moses Solomon and Jimmie Dwyer were there also. They went down to Peck first, then started to the wreck and when about ten miles from that post noticed some Indians in the hills. Some thought them Assinni- boines. Tom Campbell did not like their action as he knew Indians pretty well. The boys continued on their way, however, and as they were going over some hills they noticed some Indians on both sides. They were not molested but allowed to come down from the hills into the trap the Indians had set for them. The party proved to be Santee Sioux who were hunting elk. Just as soon as they got in the bottom the Indians closed in on them and they tried to withdraw but the Indians kept them going and they began to run their four-horse teams in order to make their getaway but the Indians were running on both sides of the teams and soon began to fire on them. They shot one of the leaders in Mose Solomon's team. Mose then cut his other horses loose from the wagon and the other boys jumped off and ran for a cut bank that was close by. They jumped over the bank into the willows but before they got there they killed McGregor, John Thomas, Steve Tabor and Montgomery. In the meantime Mose and Jimmie Dwyer had jumped on a mule and started to get away with the Indians after them. They shot Mose in one foot and one bullet passed between them without injury. The other fellows were held in the willows. Some of the Indians came up on one side and some on the other and they were so close, so the boys said, that they could hear them drop their trade balls into their guns. Billie Smith killed one of the most noted Indians in the Sioux nation in that fight. The boys were held in the brush till night, when they abandoned their wagons and walked back to Peck. Tom Campbell escaped on a big black horse that belonged to me and brought the news to Peck.
THE NEZ PERCE CAMPAIGN.
"A year before the battle, where Joseph was captured by Col. Miles, there were a lot of Nez Perces that came down with horses to trade and some which they gave away as presents to the Assinniboines. They told them that they expected to have
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trouble with the whites in the country where they lived. It appears that some of the Nez Perces agreed to the selling of a certain part of their reserve in Idaho but that a large number opposed it but anyway the Government allowed them to be crowded off without their consent. They tried to remain anyway but their agent told them they must move to another place. They explained that it would never do as their stock would be sure to go back to the old range and then there would be trouble with the whites as they would never let them get their stock once it got in their possession. They were right about this, because it actually happened. A short time before the battle I was at Old Fort Belknap when I received word from Fort Benton. Major Algers was in charge of a little band of troops there and he sent word to me to keep the Indians well in hand as the Nez Perces were traveling this way and were fighting down on the Missouri. Murray Nichol- son and Eph Woolsey had been paid $500.00 to bring me the letter.
"I at once called the Indians together in council and told then that the people who were here the summer before with all the horses and presents were fighting the soldiers and that the soldiers were after them and coming this way and that the best thing they could do would be not to have anything to do with them as the soldiers would punish all they found in arms. In less than an hour's time after the council was over some of the Nez Perces came. The majority of the Nez Perces were south of the Mis- souri and coming toward the Bear's Paw. There were five Nez Perces that came. About two days after, quite early in the morn- ing, we heard scattering shots south of us, between us and the Bear's Paw. The Indians who were out in the hills came in and said there was lots of shooting and they thought there must be a battle. A little snow fell that night, about an inch. That evening we heard the big guns and I said the fight is on. The next day we still heard the shooting and I was holding the Indians as close as I could. Some of them wanted to go and find out what was going on, but I told them it would be better for me to go for if I ran into the soldiers I would be safe. So I started and kept going
toward the sound and got south of the West Fork of Snake creek and it became so dark that all I could see was the flashes of the guns once in a while. I got up to where I could see the pickets in one place and laid down and waited till morning. As soon as it was light enough I went to one of the men on picket and explained who I was and he told me to go in. I could see the whole thing, the pits of the Indians, and the breastworks of the soldiers, and away back were the tents. I went over and reported to Miles. My first attempt was not very successful for I saw a fellow all togged out whom I saluted as I was sure it was the
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general, but noticed that some of them laughed and pointed to another, Miles himself. In my report I told him what the Assin- niboines were doing and the orders I had from the War Depart- ment through Algers. He told me to go back and keep them in hand and see that they did not get in the fight. I called his atten- tion to the fact that his was but a handful compared with the number of Sioux who were at Pinto Horse Butte under Sitting Bull and that it was only seventy miles, which would be but a short ride for an Indian. I also told him that all of his pits were a defense on the side toward the Nez Perces and that if the Sioux came he would be in a bad fix as they would come in from the rear. (The Nez Perces had sent for the Sioux but they did not come.)
"After going back and telling the Assinniboines what Miles had said I returned to the battlefield. I think it was the fourth day of the fight that Miles, Sweeny, Arthur Chapman, an inter- preter from Idaho, Captain John, a Nez Perce, and myself went down to have a talk with the Indians. John was sent down into the pit to talk with the Nez Perces while we laid down peeping over a hill. He rode a pinto horse with a hospital sheet tied to a pole. He would stop and wave the flag and halloo at them and at last he was allowed to approach near enough to carry on a conversation. You could still see them throwing out the dirt, as they were occupying all their spare time fortifying. After a little some of the Indians came out and John went out of sight for a few minutes and then appeared again with six or seven of them. They all had their guns with them and Miles said to Chapman: 'You tell those fellows not to use any treachery be- cause there are hundreds of men looking through their sights ready to shoot.' They shook their heads and came on. Of course we did not know who they were. We started towards Miles' tent but as a lot of officers began to crowd around, the Indians stopped and Miles said to Arthur: 'What's the matter with them?' Chapman replied that they did not like the officers to be so handy so Miles ordered them back as they were confusing the Indians. We all went over to Miles' tent and he got some camp stools for the Indians, but not enough as some had to sit on the ground. They sat there a while and then he said that they had better have a smoke but for the Indians to furnish the tobacco as then they would be sure it was all right. After a while Miles began to talk. He said that it pained him to do what he was doing but it was his duty. They did not make any reply. Captain Baird and another officer were taking down everything that was being said in writing. When Miles was talking he was addressing a very fine tall Indian who was sitting on a stool not far away. When Chapman was doing his interpreting he was looking and talking
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to an Indian sitting on the ground. The Indian to whom Miles was talking would hardly say anything but the Indian sitting on the ground would smile. A little while after I noticed an old gray-haired officer come in and stand way back, he only had one arm and the coat sleeve was pinned across his breast. As soon as the Indians saw him they seemed to be awful angry, their eyes blazed. This was Howard.
"Miles once more addressed the Indian sitting on the stool and asked him if he hadn't had enough of this by now. But the Indian did not reply. Miles turned to Chapman and looked for an answer. Chapman had noticed that Miles had addressed all his talk to the particular Indian who would not reply and as Miles looked at him he said (pointing to the one on the ground) Why don't you ask him? Miles said: 'Who is he?' 'That's the leader, Chief Joseph.' Miles was surprised but he got up and handed his stool to the Chief and from that time all his remarks were made to the proper person. Joseph said that White Bird did not want to surrender and that he would take one more night so as to give him a chance to think it over. During that night White Bird escaped with his two wives and went over the line. The next day, the last day of the fight, Miles said: 'I want you to go down to the river and tell the Indians down there not to kill any more Nez Perces. About seven Nez Perces were killed by the Assinniboines.
"The day that Joseph surrendered he said he thought the river was the line and that the Indians would be friendly but as they were enemies he would give up. He handed his gun, muzzle first, to Howard but Howard said: 'No, that man, pointing to Miles, is the one who won it.' He then turned and handed his gun, butt first, to Miles. I have always thought that if Howard had reached for that gun he would have been shot.
MY CAPTURE BY THE NEZ PERCES.
"When I left the battlefield to go to the river to tell the Indians what Miles had said I was captured by some of the Nez Perces that had escaped. One of them talked to me and said: 'You are a soldier.' To this I said 'No.' He said: 'You are a liar you are a soldier and you came right from them and we saw you.' I replied that I was not a soldier but belonged on the river and that my children were the offspring of an Indian mother. They asked me if I was living with the Indians to talk some of the language to them. I talked Crow and made several attempts to talk several different Indian tongues so they would know that I was not lying. Then they noticed the horse which I was riding and it belonged to the Government. 'Why are you riding a Gov-
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