USA > Montana > Blaine County > In the land of Chinook; or, The story of Blaine county > Part 9
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How many men did Miles have? Some say four hundred, some say three hundred and fifty whites and thirty Cheyenne scouts. Miles said: "The tramp of at least six hundred horses over the prairie fairly shook the ground."
Joseph had made the most wonderful retreat in the history of the world. He had taken his men, women and children and property for nearly two thousand miles through the enemy's country and had fought several battles, all of which were to his credit. Here on the cold, bleak plains of northern Montana, when the cold blasts of an early fall with its chilling storms of snow made it too disagreeable without fire, for the women, chil- dren and wounded, he had to quit. His almost indomitable spirit was broken because the assistance he had expected from his Red brothers had been withheld; yes, turned to the assistance of the white race, which had never been anything but an enemy to the natives of America.
To give some idea of the kind of men the whites stripped of their native land and forced into exile the writer has appended the following comments.
Gibbon, after the fight at Big Hole: "Who would have believed that those Indians would have rallied after such a sur- prise and made such a fight?"
Titus said: "The humanity and noble generosity of the Nez Perces in caring for the wounded soldiers on the battlefield fur-
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nish the brightest page in Indian history. In fact the Nez Perce had never scalped or mutilated the bodies of their dead foes or tortured a prisoner."
Gen. Howard: "The leadership of Chief Joseph was indeed remarkable. No general could have chosen a safer position."
Speaking of the battle on the Salmon river he says also: "Joseph was able to hold out for several days against twice his numbers at the battle of the Bear's Paw."
Again Howard said: "And even at last, the natural resources of his mind did not fail him. Broken in pieces by Miles' furious assault, burdened with his women, children and plunder, suffer- ing from the loss of his still numerous, though badly crippled herd of ponies, yet he was able to entrench and hold out for days against twive his numbers."
Let us acknowledge that this was a man.
MRS. JAMES DORRITY'S STORY.
"I was a little girl of nine when the battle on Snake creek took place. I remember of hearing the cannon, though, it was ten or twelve miles away. My uncle Bent had been to the battle field and on his return trip was captured by the Nez Perces who took his clothes away and sent him home in a blanket. (Mr. Bent says this is not wholly correct, that they only took part of his clothes, as the reader will see in Bent's experience in another place.) There was a little Nez Perce girl whom I afterward met who managed to escape from the Indian camp.
"She got a short distance down Snake creek where she found some horses, one of which she managed to catch. By using a part of her clothing she managed to make a kind of a bridle so she could ride and guide the pony. She was riding down a coulee when all at once she saw two Indian women rise out of some bushes. One of them had a broken arm. They persuaded her to help them. She, in helping the wounded one on the horse, pushed her clear over, and though the woman cried with pain, she, girl like, could not help laughing. Years after, when she was telling me, she could not keep a straight face.
"Along the Milk river in those days there were many half- breeds living in cabins-really a considerable settlement-the girl took the Indian women to one of these places-from which they could be assisted to escape into Canada. The young girl went to Fort Belknap and when a little older married Left Hand, an Assinniboine. Both of them died, later, on the reservation. She was part Flathead-her father belonging to that tribe-and happened to be on a visit to her grandparents in Idaho when the war started, so never got back to her people. She spoke very good English.
PHOTO NO. 5.
This is the grave in which twenty-two soldiers were buried. They were moved to Assinniboine and later to Custer. This is just across a coulee from the cut bank to the east, and is in a slight depression.
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"The Indians at Fort Belknap were not allowed to harbor a Nez Perce. Two Indian women and three men came for succor; they were taken to a lodge where they were fed their breakfast then driven to a large sandbar on the river, about five or six miles west of Chinook, where they were killed by Long Horse, a Gros Ventre.
"One of the Indian women had the papoose sack on her back filled with the clothing of her dead baby, of which she was so careful she would not allow any one to touch. This was a brutal thing to do but the whites, especially General Miles, had told the Gros Ventres that they must not harbor a Nez Perce under pain of death themselves.
"Whether Long Horse was really mean, and did this brutal act for fun, or whether he was actuated through fear of what Miles had said can never be known as he is dead and can never tell his story.
"And the woman, an Assinniboine, who rode to see the death of the Nez Perces, died last year, so we can never probably know the exact truth. According to the story of the Flathead girl Joseph had been in camp on Snake creek for four days before he was attacked by the soldiers.
"Joseph thought he had passed beyond the point where there would be any more danger from the whites. Buffalo were abun- dant and Snake Butte was black with them. They had killed and were curing and jerking meat for their winter's use and had several par fleshes full of the meat in their lodges and they were more or less a protection when they were attacked.
"It was after both of her grandparents had been killed that she made her escape. It was surely a sad thing to think about; these Indians who had never injured any one until driven to fight by the misdeeds of the whites whom they had never injured, even when they could have done so with safety, could not go to their own race and receive the protection that one would extend to a stray dog. After all their struggles they had to succumb to the strength of the white men and to their rapacity.
"I will always remember this cruel thing with horror."
CHAPTER X.
STORIES OF PLAINSMEN. BILLY COCHRAN.
"I was born within two miles of Atlanta, Ga., June 13th, 1844. My last work in the east was steamboating on the Missis-
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sippi river between St. Louis and St. Paul. Father was the cap- tain of the Pembina. Came to the conclusion to go west, so out- fitted at Burlington, Iowa, in March, 1861. We crossed the Missouri at Plattsmouth and followed up the South Platte all the way to the mouth of Cherrie and was on that stream all winter. "June 1 st, 1862, went to Salt Lake via old Fort Bridger. We had started for the Salmon River country and at Salt Lake we heard of the discovery of gold on Gold Creek. We pulled out and went up and prospected some along the Snake, with no success, and arrived at the mines in Bannack the first of October. We remained there that winter and the next spring a party of us went prospecting. The party consisted of John Morehouse, my uncle, John Cochran, Bill Bevins, Jeff Perkins, Adam Miller, better known as 'Horn' Miller, and myself. We got some ground in Alder but by August first had discovered Bevin's gulch, which was named for Bill as he panned the first pan of dirt. (There was a trial by the miners' court of a young man accused of rob- bery and the judge was a man by the name of Darwin, the story will be found in the 'Story of Ajax'.) Bevins was a rich camp No. 6 above discovery, paid fifty dollars to the man per day. I continued to stay around Bevins till June, '64, when I went to Benton for a short time but came back and the winter of '64-5 went on the Silver Bow stampede where I only remained one month. In February, '65, I went to Helena and got some ground on Grizzly, where we made a little money. Later we located Ora Fino park. Our party consisted of Bill Williams, Dick Jones, Henry Newton, John Hardrick and my brother John and myself. We made some money when we had water. (I left Bevins with $28,000.) We worked all the summer of '65 and then came down on the Missouri, as related to you in my last fall's talk.
"In 1866 I went to work for the Northwest Fur company, fifteen miles above the mouth of the Musselshell and built old Fort Holly.
"Jim Wells, George Boyd, Charlie Conklin, Fox, Louie Brampar, Jake Leader and Jack Brown were there after the post was hung up. Fort Peck was built in 1867 and I was there. I recall a little thing that happened on a hunting expedi- tion; there was Bill Martin, O. B. Nevins and myself in the party. We needed meat so we went for buffalo. Everything was going along smoothly and we were getting plenty of game when the first we knew when we were going back to the fort we were ambushed by about forty or fifty Indians who had heard us shooting and wanted to get us. We met them right in the trail. We managed to stand them off until after dark and made our escape; they got me in the leg.
BILLY COCHRAN. Who built the first Trading Post in what is now Blaine County.
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THE STORY OF BLAINE COUNTY
"In 1866 McGinnis brothers had a wood yard at the mouth of the Musselshell. Jack Brown, O. B. Nevins, John Dillon, Adam Armstrong and myself were at Holly. A young fellow deserted from Camp Cook and had started to work for McGinnis. Along about the latter part of September one of the McGinnis boys came to Holly, where he arrived in the morning, and told us a war party had killed the young man whom they had working for them. He said he was sure he was dead, though he had not seen him. We went up and found the young man, he was dead with his head cut off and smashed with an axe.
"There were two men at work cutting hay a short distance up the river from us. Three days after we got back from burying the boy, Jack Brown, George Boyd and myself were out on the river bank in the evening when we were startled by hearing some one shouting from the other side of the stream. It was too dark to see anything but Jack said that was surely a white man that was hallooing so he called but got no reply. We had a skiff and could have gone over but the Indians once in a while did those things to entice one over into their ambush so, as we received no answer, we did not go.
"The next morning our outfit was hired to go up the river and hunt for the two men. We took a mackinaw and cordelled it up the stream. We knew the bottom where they had been at work and were going toward it when about half way up we ran onto some tracks on a sand bar. This bar was about seventy- five yards in width, that is, it was about that distance from the river back to the brush. We followed the tracks back to the river bank and in the bushes there was a large log. When we came to it Nevins said: 'These tracks are fresh, could have only been made recently.' I jumped on this log so I could look around a little and was not surprised to see a man lying naked, just on the other side. He had on one sock. He was dead, though he had only been dead a little while. He was mutilated in a most horrid and unmentionable way. We continued on to their camp, which we found destroyed, but could find no traces of the part- ner. Indians afterwards told us that they had seen a crazy man who was naked out there somewhere in the breaks of the Missouri.
"In November of 1867 Adam Armstrong, O. B. Nevins and myself left Old Fort Holly and came out by our old fort on Rock creek, put out poison for wolves, then followed Beaver creek to the mouth and made our camp at Tiger Buttes. We wintered there that winter. Wolves were plenty and we were getting more than we could handle. We would always skin those that were found before they were frozen and pile the frozen ones up and cover them with brush or anything that came handy so we could find them when winter broke up. It is a fact
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that by spring we had so many that we needed help to skin them so Nevins and I went to Peck and hired three men, Henry Keiser, John Dillon and Bill Martin, to help us. We were to pay them five dollars a day; we had no grub, had been living on meat straight for eight months and for about three months without salt.
"As it required a lot of meat we would hunt, that is the part- ners, each alternate day. It came my day to hunt and, as three days before, I had seen a bear track I was very anxious to secure him as the meat we had been getting was very thin at that sea- son of the year while a bear might furnish us with some grease. In the meantime the men were all busy in taking off the hides. This was on the banks of the Milk river and at points where the buffalo had to enter the river they had made deep trails in the bank. It was about a mile from where the boys were at work that I saw something dark in one of these trails. I thought it was a bear and pulled down to fire when five or six Indians jumped for the brush on each side of the trail.
"I had a Henry rifle, one of the first in that section, which had cost me $180. I also had a muzzle-loader which I generally used for game. I want to say that I had killed an elk and was getting out of the timher wben I saw my bear?
The Indians had gone over the cut bank, but as the river was full of ice they could get no farther. There was a coulee that ran from the river back to the buttes and I thought by making for that there would be some possibility of reaching the boys, save my scalp, as well as theirs as there was a chance that they did not know anything about a war party being out at that time of the year. I made for the coulee and got in it and was running back toward the buttes when I was seen by the Indians, forty-two of them, and they separated and tried to head me off. When I started to run they shot and hit me in the back of the neck but as it was a spent arrow the thickness of my buckskin shirt saved my life, though there is a scar which I am still packing. I had unslung my Henry and it was owing to that that I got away because I was doing something that the Red fellows did not understand, shooting without stopping to load. My first shot killed one and the second hit one in the leg. Armstrong and Nevins heard me shoot and they came to my rescue. We man- aged to escape and reach camp, where they held us for three days without even allowing us to build a fire. They were making it so disagreeable for us that we came to the conclusion to get away as we had nothing to eat and were getting no rest that any one could enjoy. I knew the Indian nature well and was sure they would never leave us till they had killed some one to get even on the fellow which I had shot the first day. At the end of the third day, in the night, we went to the river as the ice had
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run out, and in the dark found three dry logs big enough to hold up our guns and into that cold water we went and swam to the other side and went to a butte where they kept us three days. We could not build a fire and could not shoot anything so had to depend for food on the poisoned carcasses of the buffalo which we had put out for wolves. Of course we knew there was no danger as the manner in which we had put the poison out was to skin the front part of the animal and scarify it into which we sprinkled the strychnine. This left the hind-quarters perfectly good so we felt safe on trying to satisfy our hunger on the meat that had been killed for other purposes.
"I forgot to say that the other boys, believing us dead and seeing the large number of Indians which had attacked us, made for Peck as fast as they could go.
"We at last came to the conclusion to go back to camp and also try and find the boys whom we had left skinning the wolves, not knowing that they were in a place of safety. When we got to the river we got some dry logs with which to make a raft and try and get over without getting wet. All we had was willows with which to bind the logs together. Armstrong was placed so he could watch the other bank and to see if there were any Indians in sight. Our idea was to get the raft ready and get on and keep close to the shore till we could drift down far enough to land on the opposite side in a place free from brush. Every- thing was ready and Armstrong was called and as soon as he reached us he told us that the timber on the other side was full of Indians and that we were to get up on the bank as soon as we could, but not till he came down and held the raft, for if we were to leave in a hurry the Indians would think that we had discov- ered them and they would shoot us before we could get up the bank, but if he came down they might get us all when we got to the other side. He came down and got hold of the logs and told us to get, and we did, where we were soon safe but they got poor old Adam by the time he had gotten to the top of the bank and before he could get to a place of safety behind a tree. The wound was clean through his body and he died that afternoon. We got him back into the brush where we stayed so we could hide the body and figure on making our escape.
"We managed to get away and went to Peck, where we found the others safe. We got Dillon and Bill Martin to come back so we could get Armstrong's body and give it decent burial.
"We did not save all of our hides but managed to get 1,700 rafted down the Milk to the Missouri where we waited for a boat so we could sell them.
"There had been a mail contract from Diamond City to Fort Abercombrie on the Red River of the North. I packed mail on
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this route for a time and then came to the conclusion to go down the Missouri. A couple of us got in a skiff and went down to Randall, from Fort Union. When I got to Randall I hired out as scout and courier to Capt. Otis (?) I carried mail for him between two of the posts till the spring of '72, when I bought two four-mule teams and began to freight between Randall and the Spotted-Tail Agency, 300 miles, head of White River.
"On one of the trips I had charge of Huston's six teams and with us were thirteen teams that belonged to another outfit with Bill Emery as wagon boss. We camped at the crossing of White river which was half way and the stock were all turned out and the night herders took them in charge and put them on good feed. It was the custom for them to start for camp early in the morning just before day. As they came in they would call one of us who would go out and take charge till they had their breakfast, then the stock would be harnessed and we would pull. The next morning early the herders called and I went out to meet them and asked where the stock was and they said that they were in the river bottom a short distance below. A person could not see any thing at that time in the morning so I concluded to ride so as to be far enough down the stream to be below the stock, which was a mixed bunch of horses, cattle and mules. Just about daylight I could hear the mules running so I started to head them off as they were going down the stream and away from camp. The first thing I knew the horse was shot and the bullet hit me in the foot. I turned and started my horse for the higher ground but looked and saw. some one on the other side of the river and pulled my gun to shoot, when some other fellow to the side or kind of back of me shot and hit me in the side right under my right arm as it was raised to shoot. The bullet went almost through me and lodged near my left shoulder blade. My horse ran about five hundred yards when he fell dead. I fell by his side and soon saw two Indians sneaking up to get me but that was their last sneak because I hit one of them as he was coming toward me in a stoop- ing position, in the top of the head and as the other fellow straight- ened up he got his and fell close by his chum. It was about five that afternoon before the boys found me.
"The Indians had seen me but they did not dare come within gun shot. In those days if you were hauling for the Government and the Indians raided your train you would get pay. I was haul- ing for private parties and as the Indians got all my stock and the freight I had to pay $2,000 beside the loss of my outfit. That broke me completely as I was in the hospital for eight months. Of course my first act was to stuff a part of my shirt into the wound and keep from bleeding to death.
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"After I got so I could travel I went to Cheyenne and got a couple of horses and with Tom Russell went to Salt Lake City. My uncle, John Morehouse, was there. I wintered with him that winter and came back to Montana in '73.
"About that time I was packing mail from Randall; the distance was quite a long ways. There was one station where I generally put up and one day when I came there I noticed sev- eral fellows who went out a little before I did and when I came up they surrounded me and rode for a short distance when one of them said: 'What have you got in the sack?' I told him that I did not have anything that he wanted but he replied that he would be the judge as to that and for me to fork it over. I turned and they had me covered so that it would have been foolish for me to try and help myself. They took the sack and I rode to the post where we formed a posse and went back. Sommers, the leader, was killed but we never found the other fellows. (When Billy said: ‘Sommers was killed but I did not kill him,' I had to take his word for it but there was something in his eyes that belied the words as it is known that few men ever on the frontier were ever in his class when it came to shooting, but of course there was a posse there at the time and some of the others may have shot first.) This put an end to a tough gang because as soon as the leader was killed the others never came back. They went to Canada.
"To resume, in the fall of '76 I was in Deadwood, White's gulch. Pike Landusky and I were going to Spearfish for some reason and when we got ready to start were told that the Indians had stolen some cattle from a sawmill company and that they would give us twenty-five dollars a head for all we could find.
"When we got to Centennial valley we were overtaken by five or six others and they reported that the Reds had stolen a big band of horses. We went on and soon overtook them but most of them got away. There was one whom we were chasing so close that he quit his horse and jumped over a cut-bank into some wild cherry bushes. These bushes were so thick that we could not see any one. Soon others came and there was plenty to sur- found the place and get him if he showed himself. They rolled rocks down but he simply took them and made a breast work so that he would be pretty safe if any one went down. The place was shot so full that no one could hardly think that he could possibly be alive. A man by the name of Brown said he was going in and get that fellow and we tried to dissuade him but it was no use so he went down, saw the Indian and shouted: 'I've found him,' and there was a shot and Brown was dead. Another tellow went in and he was killed also.
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"All the other fellows quit except Pike and myself but as Pike wanted to stay we did and just about daybreak the fellow came out, supposing all had gone, in which he made the mistake of his ife for it was soon safe enough to go in and get the two bodies. I never traveled with a better man than Pike Landusky. I was a messenger on the stage coach in the Hills in '76. In '77 I was at the Crow Agency and went with Howard to Miles' battle field on Snake Creek."
Few men in Montana have a more interesting life study than the study of this sketch. I regret very much that it was not pos- sible to get more of the interesting incidents that have been a part of his life. There is too much of interest left untold and before long we must get it for the future historian. He is the sub-agent of the Belknap Indian reservation, and resides at Hayes.
WILLIAM BENT.
This man is one who has had a most varied experience.
The son of Col. Bent, the noted frontiersman who built Bent's Fort on the Arkansas, in Colorado, was born in St. Louis in 1846. He was the nephew of the famous Kit Carson by a marriage. Mr. Bent said: "I remember Carson and Freemont and have eaten with them when they had been at my father's house after some of their trips that have helped to make the story of our country. In the light of my own experience I can come to but one conclu- sion and that is my Uncle Kit was an over-rated man. These same hair-breadth escapes, these same trials caused by hunger and cold have been gone through by many a man who has helped to make this country and not one word has been written into the story of their deeds. Kit happened to have his lines cast close to those of Freemont, who had a way of using his pen to advan- tage; and getting himself into the limelight of public opinion and approval. So it has been with many of the men of our frontier. The famous Buffalo Bill never could hold a dim light to some of the men who are living today in Blaine county. Many of these may have never been heard of on account of their modesty."
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