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EARLIEST RECORDS RELATING TO THE JUDITH BASIN COUNTRY AND
SOME STIRRING ADVENTURES WHEN THIS WAS AN INDIAN HUNTING
GROUND
BY HON. DAVID HILGER
(Written for the Christmas Democrat News Dec 21, 1924)
It was September, 1846. From the east a cloud of dust was raising along the well
worn trails in the "Judith Gap" which to the experienced eye detected either a moving
band of buffalo or a war party of Indians, a no uncertain sign for the trapper or trader.
Directly objects could be discerned which finally developed into Indians on
horseback, and finally a long concourse of a traveling Indian camp of a thousand, perhaps
fifteen hundred souls, with the ever accompaniment of horses, dogs, squaws, papooses
and the trailing "Travois" raises a cloud of dust, while in the van and on either flank were
scattering Indians all on horseback that constituted the effective fighting force of three
hundred lodges of Indians.
This cavalcade was indeed a study. Trailing the motley but happy throng were
the loose horses, mares and colts always prevalent with a moving band of Indians. From
the tiny babe strapped on a board gazing curiously at passing objects with large wide
open jet black eyes while hooked on the horn of an Indian saddle, or the larger "Papoose"
of two or three years of age, setting contentedly on the travois that grated along the
gravelly trails, up through all the grades of age and conditions to the old, withered and
wrinkled squaw who had born the brunt of prairie life of nearly a century, in all the
varying conditions, hunger and feast, sunshine, rain storm, and the chilly blasts of winter
storms. And there was the boy astride of a two-year-old, if not a yearling pony, with his
sister demure and interesting by his side, and again the "Belle" with her companions and
gaily decorated buckskin raiment's and profusion of beads, rings and bracelets, her hair
falling in two braids over her shoulders, and astride a prancing pinto pony, all moved
along in discordant musical hmlliony from a fast walk to a dog trot, as the gun was
lowering in the western crimson sky the aggregation of Indians descended from the bench
to the Judith river bottom where the Judith river and Ross Fork creek unite their waters in
its onward course to the Missouri river.
This concourse of Indians, in their original and primitive condition, went into
camp for several days in the very heart of the Buffalo country, and in three days time
killed a thousand buffalo upon which they feasted and "jerked" or sun dried the meat by
cutting in long thin strips and hanging in the sun and air until dry, and then pounded into
"pemmican".
This was September, 1846. There was not a white trader or trapper in this entire
section of the country, save and except the subject of this sketch. A conference of
different Indian tribes was to be held, and the Blackfoot were on their way to Fort Benton
just then being built, and having come from the Yellowstone River, where they met their
traditional enemies, the Crows, and worsted them in a battle by taking nineteen scalps.
The next day there was unusual activity in the camp. Cottonwood trees were
being cut down with which to build a bower in circular from and a crude altar arranged.
Then all gathered to the number of two thousand in a compact body, kneeling and sitting
as an Indian only can, when the "Black Robe" appeared and began the celebration of the
mass, by that great Missionary Father, Peter 1. DeSmet.
Object Description
| Rating | |
| Title | Earliest records relating to the Judith Basin country |
| Description | Stirring adventures when this was Indian country. Written for the Christmas Democrat News Dec 21, 1924 |
| Creator | David Hilger |
| Genre | newspapers |
| Type | Text |
| Date Original | 1924-12-21 |
| Subject (keyword) | Judith Basin; |
| Rights Management | No copyright restrictions |
| Contributing Institution | Lewistown Public Library, Lewsitown, Montana |
| Publisher (Original) | Christmas Democrat News Dec 21, 1924 |
| Geographic Coverage | Fergus County, Montana |
| Digital Format | application/pdf |
| Physical format | |
| Digitization Specifications | Canon MX310 300dpi |
| Full text of this item | EARLIEST RECORDS RELATING TO THE JUDITH BASIN COUNTRY AND SOME STIRRING ADVENTURES WHEN THIS WAS AN INDIAN HUNTING GROUND BY HON. DAVID HILGER (Written for the Christmas Democrat News Dec 21, 1924) It was September, 1846. From the east a cloud of dust was raising along the well worn trails in the “Judith Gap” which to the experienced eye detected either a moving band of buffalo or a war party of Indians, a no uncertain sign for the trapper or trader. Directly objects could be discerned which finally developed into Indians on horseback, and finally a long concourse of a traveling Indian camp of a thousand, perhaps fifteen hundred souls, with the ever accompaniment of horses, dogs, squaws, papooses and the trailing “Travois” raises a cloud of dust, while in the van and on either flank were scattering Indians all on horseback that constituted the effective fighting force of three hundred lodges of Indians. This cavalcade was indeed a study. Trailing the motley but happy throng were the loose horses, mares and colts always prevalent with a moving band of Indians. From the tiny babe strapped on a board gazing curiously at passing objects with large wide open jet black eyes while hooked on the horn of an Indian saddle, or the larger “Papoose” of two or three years of age, setting contentedly on the travois that grated along the gravelly trails, up through all the grades of age and conditions to the old, withered and wrinkled squaw who had born the brunt of prairie life of nearly a century, in all the varying conditions, hunger and feast, sunshine, rain storm, and the chilly blasts of winter storms. And there was the boy astride of a two-year-old, if not a yearling pony, with his sister demure and interesting by his side, and again the “Belle” with her companions and gaily decorated buckskin raiment’s and profusion of beads, rings and bracelets, her hair falling in two braids over her shoulders, and astride a prancing pinto pony, all moved along in discordant musical harmony from a fast walk to a dog trot, as the gun was lowering in the western crimson sky the aggregation of Indians descended from the bench to the Judith river bottom where the Judith river and Ross Fork creek unite their waters in its onward course to the Missouri river. This concourse of Indians, in their original and primitive condition, went into camp for several days in the very heart of the Buffalo country, and in three days time killed a thousand buffalo upon which they feasted and “jerked” or sun dried the meat by cutting in long thin strips and hanging in the sun and air until dry, and then pounded into “pemmican”. This was September, 1846. There was not a white trader or trapper in this entire section of the country, save and except the subject of this sketch. A conference of different Indian tribes was to be held, and the Blackfoot were on their way to Fort Benton just then being built, and having come from the Yellowstone River, where they met their traditional enemies, the Crows, and worsted them in a battle by taking nineteen scalps. The next day there was unusual activity in the camp. Cottonwood trees were being cut down with which to build a bower in circular from and a crude altar arranged. Then all gathered to the number of two thousand in a compact body, kneeling and sitting as an Indian only can, when the “Black Robe” appeared and began the celebration of the mass, by that great Missionary Father, Peter J. DeSmet. This famous Jesuit, the marvel of the western plains, was the first white man to enter the Great Judith Basin as far as authentic history goes. Father DeSmet had found the Blackfoot camp on the Yellowstone river just after the battle with the Crows, and while he had come from St. Marys Mission in search of the Crows. He concluded to join the Blackfoot after the battle, which was not a propitious time to meet them when they were mourning for their lost war heroes. This story is historically correct, and the good father records the fact that he baptized three hundred children before arriving at Fort Benton. Let me narrate just on day’s entry in his journal of September 15th, in his own language: FATHER DeSMET’S NARRATIVE. September 15th, 1846, on Judith River: “On the 15th, the Octave of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin, the new disciples of the cross took part at a solemn mass. I performed it in the open air, under the bower of green boughs, the work of the Indians, to implore the blessing of heaven upon this great desert and the wandering tribes that roam over it, praying that they may be joined in the bonds of peace. Flatheads, Nez Perce, Piegans, Bloods, Gros Ventres and Blackfoot of different tribes to the number of more than 2,000, surrounded the humble alter that had been raised in the desert to the living God, upon which the victim without spot was offered for them. The single-minded harmony and joy that seemed to animate the Flatheads and the representatives of the various tribes of the Blackfoot, are truly unheard of; one would say that their ancient quarrels are long forgotten; this indeed remarkable, because it is the duty of an Indian to cherish in his heart, even to his last breath, a desire of vengeance upon his enemies. Will this peace last? Let us pray the Lord to strengthen their good dispositions and grant them perseverance. Already the question of baptizing all the Piegan children, as was done with those of the Little Robes, is raised; but for the sake of the businesses and pleasures of the day, the ceremony is deferred to another day.” Seven years later, to be exact, August,1853, a small party of seven horsemen with three or four pack horses was seen ascending from Arrow Creek to the bench not far from the present town of Coffee Creek. They were taking a course south of east in the direction of the well defined Judith Gap. The leader was a young officer, a graduate of West Point, and with him were two white civilians and a Blackfoot guide, and two other Indian hunters. This young lieutenant in command of the party beheld before him a wonderful grassy plain. The Arrow Creek hill bench was once reached he mused on the grandeur of the surroundings. To the right were the Girdle or Belt mountains, while on the left rose like an island from the sea the Judith Mountains. The depression in the main range ahead was the “Gap”. The distant horizon was slightly obscured by that peculiar haze caused by the forest fires in the mountains far west, and always prevalent at this time of the year. As they trailed along, the sneaking coyote trotted by with a look backward now and them at the strange intruders, while the wolf always in company sullenly trailed in a long walk on either side of their course, and the buffalo in droves from a hundred and even a thousand moved in majestic columns to clear the way, while the sky antelope, and the elk with his massive antlers, stood and faced direct the strangers, for be it remembered that seventy years ago the Judith Basin was the great game country of the world, and no part of South America or Africa accepted. They made their camp on Wolf creek, not very far from Denton, whose inhabitants have little conception of their surroundings at that time. This young lieutenant was none other than John Mullen of Governor Isaac I. Stevens’ survey party seeking under the direction of the United States government, a feasible route for the railway from the Missouri river to the Pacific Ocean from the 47 to the 49 standard parallel of latitude in 1853-4-5. Lieutenant Mullen was directed to proceed from Fort Benton to the Judith Basin and the “Gap” to the Musselshell River, and find a band of Flathead Indians and from them secure guides to pilot his party to St. Mary’s in the Bitter Root valley. Think ye young men of this day and age, of this order to a young lieutenant in 1853, in a wild and uncharted country upon the game for subsistence, far from home and friends, and far from his base of supplies, depending on Indian guides and not a white man over the proposed route. But let Lieutenant Mullen tell his own story, as taken verbatim from his narrative as penciled at the campfire: LIEUTENANT MULLEN’S STORY September 12, 1853, -- Monday commences mild and pleasant, the thermometer 47 degrees Fah. We resumed our journey at twenty minutes to seven a.m., our course being in a direction south of east, over a beautiful and level prairie road. The grass on the prairie and even in the valley we found very dry; water, as yesterday, being exceedingly scarce until we struck the main branch of the Judith river, which taking its rise in the main chain of the Belt mountains, we found to be a stream of most beautifully clear, cold water, with a rapid current, the water being from eighteen inches to two feet deep; its banks also, as far as I could observe in either direction, were of a gravelly formation. The stream winds through a beautiful but very narrow valley, which, during high water, is the bed of the stream. The eastern portion of the Belt Mountains, might lead one to suppose that the Judith River takes its rise in the Judith Mountains, but such is not the case. On our road the so-called Judith Mountains lay to our left, while the main chain of the Girdle or Belt mountains lay to our right. The low ranges might with propriety have no separate and distinct names, as they are separated by a gap fifteen or sixteen miles wide; but when taken together they form a belt or girdle, the cavity of which is turned toward the north. The name has been applied to them of the Girdle or Belt mountains. Five or six miles farther we struck another tributary of the Judith river, coming from the west with a rapid current, being from fifteen to twenty feet wide; water clear and cool and very excellent. The grass on this stream we found to be good, its banks being totally unwooded. I saw in the distance still another tributary coming from the so-called Judith mountains, on the banks of which were scattered a few pines and cottonwoods. The grass on the Judith River where we made the crossing was not good, its banks are un-wooded, both where we crossed it and as far up and down as we could see. The Judith Mountains, as also the approaches to them, are well wooded – the pine tree abounding. At twelve m. we halted on the main tributary to the Judith Mountains, where we remained an hour and a half, having traveled a distance of seventeen miles from our camp of last night. Just before reaching this tributary, we saw to our front and at a distance of five or six miles, a large band of buffalo coming towards us, which caused us to think we were approaching the Flathead camp. Game we found to be more than on any day since leaving the Missouri. We succeeded in securing four buffalo, which were killed by the Indians with us. Elk in large bands, and many ducks, were seen during the day. Resuming our journey along the last mentioned tributary of the Judith River, our course lay over a beautiful and level prairie, and grass of which was abundant and excellent. Still continuing to have the main chain of the Belts to our right, at half past four p.m. we came in sight of the Snowy Mountains, a range south of the Musselshell, which at a distance appears higher then either the Belt or Judith mountains, and whose snow-capped peaks now towered high above the surrounding country. At the same time we struck a small stream with an exceedingly raped current, taking its rise in the Judith Mountains, which we called Buffalo to be seen on its banks. This stream was un-wooded, its waters being clear, cool and limpid, in which were to be seen great numbers of mountain trout, some of which our Indians succeeded in catching. The grass along its borders was excellent and green. Our camp of this night was at the foot of the main chain of the Judith Mountains. About 8 p.m. we were startled by the approach from the mountains of a large grizzly bear, that came running with full speed into our camp. The horses were frightened, and were preparing for a stampede, when their picket-ropes held them fast. Mr. Pose, who was on watch at the time and our Indians, secured their guns, but seeing them, he turned to the right, and soon was seen scampering away across the prairie. The night was exceedingly mild and beautiful, the moon shining clear and bright until after twelve p.m. Our camp was a scene of feasting and good cheer, having killed an abundance of buffalo during the day, the meat at night served up boiled, baked, roasted and fried. This was a grand season for the Indians. They sat up half the night around the camp fires – cooking, our fuel consisting of wood left by a Blackfoot camp. The Judith mountains are a great resort for the Blackfoot Indians during the summer season, as game of all kinds is found in abundance; and here, too, they secure poles for their travois and lodges, and everything were to be seen their old camping grounds, one of which was chosen by our guide for our night’s camp, as there was here found an abundance of wood. “Having then an abundance of wood and plenty of meat, the Indians had no difficulty in serving up for themselves a rich repast; and around the high blazing fire were to be seen roasting a fat tenderloin ribs, and all the choice pieces of the buffalo, in addition to the many ducks killed during the day. They rested content and perfectly happy.” Captain Mullen lived to a ripe old age and died at Washington D.C., and it was his good fortune to be one of the guests at the driving of the last spike on September 8th, 1883, when the Northern Pacific railroad was joined by building from the east and west on practically the same route in Montana that the Stevens survey had mapped out thirty years before. What a change and transformation had taken place and in the annals of Montana history as regards railroad building the names of Isaac l. Stevens, Lieutenant John Mullen and Henry Villard, who financed the building of the Northern Pacific railroad, and strange as it may appear, with German capital, will hold high rank as the great geniuses of that time, and it must not be forgotten that Governor Stevens had hardly completed his great work when the completed his great work when the Civil war had started and he offered his services to the government and as a general leading his command fell at the battle of Chantilla, almost within sight of the national capital, on September 2, 1862. He was governor of Washington territory at this time. Lieutenant (afterwards Captain) Mullen was detailed to build the government wagon road from Fort Benton to Lake Cour de Alene, which was completed in 1862. I must not forget, and relate a historical gem written by Mr. Peter Koch in 1873 when he wintered at the Old Post on Casino creek, later occupied by Reed and Bowles, and verbatim is as follows: 12-1924 SITE OF LEWISTOWN IN 1873 “The region was traversed frequently by trappers and hunters all through the early part of this century, at the first visit by white men of which I can find and record is by Father DeSmet, September 13, 1864. He gives an interesting account of a meeting within the basin of a peace congress of various Indian tribes. “The next mention is in a report of the explorations of Lieut. John Mullen, who was sent by Governor Stevens in the exploration for a Pacific railroad route to find a camp of the Flatheads, and who passed through the Judith Basin, going out through the gap. “In 1869, Captain Clift, Thirteenth infantry, surveyed a wagon road from Fort Ellis to the mount of the Musselshell River, going through the basin, and a freight train went over it at this time. All this time, there were no settlements of any kind in the basin. “In the winter of 1872-3, Major F. D. Pease negotiated a treaty with the Crows, according to which they were to give up their reservation on the Yellowstone and accept the lieu of it the Judith Basin. This treaty was never ratified by the senate and therefore came to nothing; but anticipating that this removal would take place, Messrs, Story and Hoffman, who were the traders to the Crows, engaged me to go down into the basin and establish a trading post. Capt. Cross, an employee of the Crow agency, went also to select a site for the new agency. “A site was selected just below the mouth of Big Casino Creek, on the bank of Big Spring creek, and when the ox-train with the goods and supplies had arrived, I built there, during November and December, 1873, he first permanent houses within the Judith Basin. While waiting in idleness the arrival of the train, the boys put in most of their time with an old deck of cards, playing casino, and we accordingly named the creek we were camped on “Big Casino”, and a little spring creek just below “Little Casino”, and I was Colonel Ludlow’s map that these names had been perpetuated. “The basin was then the finest game country I ever saw, swarming with elk, buffalo and deer. The whitetail deer were especially plentiful in the pine coulees which ran down through the foothills from the mountains, and their tameness showed they had been very little hunted. Small bands of Crows came in to trade all through the winter, and we had considerable trouble from war-portions of the Sioux who came in to steal horses. One white man was killed by them. “I left there in March, 1874, when it became evident that the removal of the Crows would not take place, and T. L. Dawes took charge of the post, which I had named Fort Sherman. “That year Carroll was established on the Missouri river, and a wagon road opened from that point to Helena, running through the basin. Meanwhile, Major Reed, an old Indian trader, had purchased the trading store from Story and Hoffman and moved it down Big Spring Creek about a mile, to the crossing of the Carroll road, where it became known as Reed’s Fort, and a hard place it was. “A military post, Camp Lewis, was established in 1874, built, I believe, almost on the identical spot where I had built the trading post in 1873. Near this military post gradually. “In 1875 Colonel Ludlow made a military reconnaissance from Carroll through the Judith Basin to the Yellowstone Park, and in his report is found the oldest map of the basin.” CHIEF JOSEPH MARCHES THROUGH In 1879 another notable incident of Indian warfare took place when Chief Joseph crossed the Judith Basin and right over the present town site of Lewistown with his entire Nez Perce tribe of Indians. Joseph was going north, having been pursued by General Howard all the way from Idaho, and who was intercepted by General Gibbon when the battle of the Big Hole was fought, and came near being annihilated by Chief Joseph. These Indians were again intercepted by General Miles where Joseph surrendered in the Bear Paw Mountains. This retreat and final surrender of Chief Joseph forms one of the greatest chapters of Indian warfare. Chief Joseph was fighting in self defense, and was leaving a country that the Nez Perce Indians had occupied for time immemorial, to seek shelter in British territory. These Indians passes over the present site of the towns of Hilger, Christina, Suffolk, then crossed the Missouri river at Cow Island in the early part of October, 1879. AN INDIAN RESERVATION Do the good people of Fergus and Judith Basin counties know that this territory, taking in all the exterior lines save and except Petroleum County, was at one time embraced in the Crow Indian reservation? Well, let me prove it to you. The following executive order signed by President Grant is taken from the government records: The Helena Daily Herald, Wednesday, February 25, 1874. THE NEW RESERVATION FOR THE CROW INDIANS Washington, D. C., Feb. 9, 1874. Surveyor General of Montana: Sir – I herewith transmit for your information a copy of an executive order, dated the 31st ultimate, setting apart a reservation for the Crow Indians of Montana. You are directed to notify the register and receiver at Helena that this reservation exists, and cause its boundaries to be respected in the extension of the U. S. surveyor. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, WILLIS DRUMMOND, Commissioner. EXECUTIVE MANSION, JAN. 31, 1874 It is hereby ordered that the following described tract of country in the Territory of Montana, set apart as a reservation for the Crow tribe of Indians, by the first article of an agreement concluded with the said Indians, August 16, 1873, subject to the action of congress, be and the same is hereby withdrawn from sale and settlement, viz: Commencing at a point on the Missouri river opposite to the mouth of Shonkin creek; thence by the said creek to its head, and thence along the summit of the divide between the headwaters of the Judith river and the waters of the Musselshell river; thence along the said divide to the Snowy mountains, and along the summit of the said Snowy mountains in a northeasterly direction, to a point nearest to the divide between the waters which run easterly to the Musselshell river and the waters running to the Judith river, thence northwardly along said divide to the divide between the headwaters of Armell’s creek and the headwaters of Dog river, and along said divide to the Missouri river; thence up the middle of said river to the place of beginning – the said boundaries being intended by the Judith river, Arrow river and Dog river. U. S. GRANT, PRESIDENT This treaty failed to receive the sanction of congress and was withdrawn. However, for some time the Judith Basin was a reservation for the Crow Indians, and in anticipation of ratification by congress Nelson Story and C. W. Hoffman sent Peter Koch with a stock of goods from Bozeman to trade to the Crows and their camp was established on Casino creek within the corporate limits of the city of Lewistown. Mr. Koch sold the buildings to Reed and Bowles. HISTORIC MUSSELSHELL This narrative would not be complete without reciting some of the incidents that transpired at the town of Musselshell, located on the south side of the Missouri river, a short distance above the mouth of the Musselshell River. From 1859 to the year of 1869 the Missouri river, with the many steam boats, furnished the only avenue of transportation to Fort Benton, the head of navigation, outside of the slow overland wagon trains migrating westward on dangerous Indian territory. The boating season was short at its best, owing to low water and the rapidity of the current of the river. Hence the establishment of the town of Musselshell, where steam boats could reach until cold weather and the Carroll wagon road was laid out where mule and ox teams could haul the freight to Helena, Bozeman and Virginia City. Musselshell City was destined to be in the minds of many metropolis of the Missouri river, a keen competitor of Fort Benton. Fortunately we have the narrative of two very reliable persons of the events transpiring at that point who were residents there in 1868, 1869 and 1870, viz: Mr. Peter Koch and Col. George Clendenin, and the only living representatives that I know of is your fellow townsman, Mr. Gilman R. Norris. Certainly Musselshell had a short and tempestuous career. There were more Indian fights and skirmishes, more thrilling and hair breadth escapes, more trappers and wood choppers killed that at any other point on the Missouri river. The two industries were hunting, trapping and trading, and chopping wood for the steam boats for their use the following season. Sprung up a town, which is now Lewistown, the county seat of Fergus county. Not a week passed without a skirmish and many a wood chopper met his early demise at the hands of the always treacherous Sioux. I must relate a major engagement that resulted in the harvest of thirty-five scalps of a war party of Sioux, with but a loss of one white man and one wounded. The inhabitants, consisting of about 60 or 75 persons, and one lone white woman were regaled one morning by the arrival of a war paint on and stripped for action. This meant for the defenders a major engagement. The Indians congregated just beyond gunshot on the neighboring hills shouting defiance in language that was not misunderstood at the fort. They made several dashes at the fort and exchanged a rapid gun fire without effect on either side. The Musselshell River enters the Missouri river at this point at right angles, with a considerable growth of brush and cottonwood timber. There was a deep cut coulee running from the Musselshell toward the fort up the river. About eighty to one hundred Indians left the main body on the hills and on foot worked their way down the Musselshell River in the brush into this coulee, which was in firing range of the fort. A party of volunteers of forty men deployed through the heavy sage brush flat to the head of the coulee where the Indians were secure. In this fighting one white man was instantly killed and on wounded. An open charge was suggested, but better advice was heeded as it would result in many fatalities, however severe they might be on the Indians. This continued till noon, when a ruse was effected by having Jim Wells. Henry McDonald (after whom McDonald creek in Fergus county was named) and Frank Smith volunteered to work their way under the banks of the Missouri river to the Musselshell, cross it – and it was a raging torrent at that time – then work their way up the Musselshell to a point opposite the coulee where they would cut off the retreat of the Indians, while the main party of whites were deployed in the high sage brush in front of the coulee. The coup worked well. The three men with Winchester rifles, and arm unknown to the Indians at that time, gained the position sought, and presently the crack of the concealed rifles into the exposed Indians at short range caused consternation among them. It would be necessary to swim the Musselshell River at that point, and a dash from the coulee to the hills over an open plot would bring them under fire of the men concealed in the sage brush. But the merciless crack of the Winchesters continued and the leaden missiles all took effect. There was but one recourse left for the Indians, and singing their death song they sprang from the coulee and run as an Indian only can for the hills. Then the whites got their long desired opportunity and poured a hot fire into the retreating savages. The result was thirty-five scalps and a great jollification at the fort that night. But this signal defeat did not improve conditions, as the Indians were now bent on revenge and life at Musselshell was intolerable. No horses could be kept and the chopping of wood was a very dangerous occupation. The Missouri joined issues with the Indians and undermined the town. Some of the buildings were moved to higher ground, and finally the place was abandoned, and Carroll, some thirty miles further up the river, became its successor. WOMAN IS SCALPED It was during this time (1869-70) that “Jennie” Smith, the only white woman in the camp, was scalped. She was taking dinner to some wood choppers who were at work near the fort. A concealed war party opened fire and she was shop down by a ball in the neck. An Indian rushed to her prostrate form and scalped her amid a fusillade of bullets from the fort. Recovering consciousness, she was picked up and carried to the fort, where it was found that the wound was not fatal. She recovered and I saw her some years afterwards and a scar on her cheek and neck, and a bald spot on the top of her head about three inches in diameter were carried as souvenirs of the unusual episode. LIVER EATING JOHNSON The war parties continued. The Sioux Indians were determined to avenge the disaster before recited. It was here that “Liver Eating Johnson” was christened and while he took an active part in having the skulls of the dead Indians stuck on poles at the boat landing as a show of triumph to the “Tenderfeet” passengers on the river boats, nothing approaching the liver eating of dead Indians occurred. Now one more episode and I am done, and Musselshell will pass into history. AN AMAZING EPISODE Here is an incident narrated by Lieutenant Bradley that is well worth reproducing, and which happened about the same time. There arrived at Musselshell an eccentric and restless Frenchman who came all the way from Helena afoot, much to the surprise of the denizens of the town, as the country was infested with hostile Indians. He came for the purpose of taking passage down the river by the first boat. After awaiting the arrival of the boat for some time he grew discontented, and after a period restlessness and fretting he started on foot to return to Helena against the advice of everyone in the fort. He became lost and after wandering around for a number of days he returned nearly exhausted for food and water, as the bad land coulees contained strong alkali water unfit to drink. After a few days’ rest he became restless and once again set out on foot for Fort Benton. Again they tried to persuade him of not going, but he struck out, going up the “Benton Hill”. As he was ascending the hill within rifle shot from the fort a large war party of Indians was seen directly the other side of the Frenchman, but out of his sight. Strenuous efforts were made to attract his attention without avail, and up the hill he went right into the very jaws of death, and as an act of mercy they resolved to kill him themselves and save him from the torture by the fiendish Indians which surely awaited him. The bullets kicked up the ground all around him, and as he gained the crest the Indians surrounded him. They might have killed him at once, but they withheld their fire to count their “Coups”. One tall Indian mounted as the Frenchman stood dazed and stupefied, and slapped him on the cheek with the flat of a butcher knife, and this seemed to have brought him to his senses and one great bound he sprang among them and dashed down the hill at terrific speed. At this time the men at the Fort were firing at the Indians and the unfortunate Frenchman was between two firing lines for every Indian had emptied his gun at the fast fleeing Frenchman, and the hill being very steep the Indians could not well follow with their horses. Well the Frenchman reached the Fort unharmed, and the speed with which he came down the hill was the talk of the camp for weeks. His footsteps were actually measured in the soft earth on the steep hillside and were fifteen feet apart which is needless to say that there was no further trouble with him staying until the boats came. It was the most marvelous escape on record. He must have been a brother of your townsman, Mr. Damas Tallion. OLD REEDS FORT Reeds Fort and Lewistown were markedly free from Indian conflict owing to its later occupation. We have the positive record of two trappers being attacked by a war party on Spring creek near the present county farm, by the name of James Campbell and “Old Man Louis Gaznon” which occurred on February 5, 1874, and the latter was killed, while Campbell escaped. Gaznon was buried on the hillside near where he fell and no doubt fills an unmarked grave. This article is based upon reliable historical data on file in the State Historical society, and is of more than passing interest because search as you may, it records the events of that time, a story of the past well worth preserving for the historical students in the years to come. |
| Local Identifier | SC 1.1 Earliest records |
Description
| Title | Earliest records 1 |
| Type | Text |
| Digital Format | application/pdf |
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| Full text of this item | EARLIEST RECORDS RELATING TO THE JUDITH BASIN COUNTRY AND SOME STIRRING ADVENTURES WHEN THIS WAS AN INDIAN HUNTING GROUND BY HON. DAVID HILGER (Written for the Christmas Democrat News Dec 21, 1924) It was September, 1846. From the east a cloud of dust was raising along the well worn trails in the "Judith Gap" which to the experienced eye detected either a moving band of buffalo or a war party of Indians, a no uncertain sign for the trapper or trader. Directly objects could be discerned which finally developed into Indians on horseback, and finally a long concourse of a traveling Indian camp of a thousand, perhaps fifteen hundred souls, with the ever accompaniment of horses, dogs, squaws, papooses and the trailing "Travois" raises a cloud of dust, while in the van and on either flank were scattering Indians all on horseback that constituted the effective fighting force of three hundred lodges of Indians. This cavalcade was indeed a study. Trailing the motley but happy throng were the loose horses, mares and colts always prevalent with a moving band of Indians. From the tiny babe strapped on a board gazing curiously at passing objects with large wide open jet black eyes while hooked on the horn of an Indian saddle, or the larger "Papoose" of two or three years of age, setting contentedly on the travois that grated along the gravelly trails, up through all the grades of age and conditions to the old, withered and wrinkled squaw who had born the brunt of prairie life of nearly a century, in all the varying conditions, hunger and feast, sunshine, rain storm, and the chilly blasts of winter storms. And there was the boy astride of a two-year-old, if not a yearling pony, with his sister demure and interesting by his side, and again the "Belle" with her companions and gaily decorated buckskin raiment's and profusion of beads, rings and bracelets, her hair falling in two braids over her shoulders, and astride a prancing pinto pony, all moved along in discordant musical hmlliony from a fast walk to a dog trot, as the gun was lowering in the western crimson sky the aggregation of Indians descended from the bench to the Judith river bottom where the Judith river and Ross Fork creek unite their waters in its onward course to the Missouri river. This concourse of Indians, in their original and primitive condition, went into camp for several days in the very heart of the Buffalo country, and in three days time killed a thousand buffalo upon which they feasted and "jerked" or sun dried the meat by cutting in long thin strips and hanging in the sun and air until dry, and then pounded into "pemmican". This was September, 1846. There was not a white trader or trapper in this entire section of the country, save and except the subject of this sketch. A conference of different Indian tribes was to be held, and the Blackfoot were on their way to Fort Benton just then being built, and having come from the Yellowstone River, where they met their traditional enemies, the Crows, and worsted them in a battle by taking nineteen scalps. The next day there was unusual activity in the camp. Cottonwood trees were being cut down with which to build a bower in circular from and a crude altar arranged. Then all gathered to the number of two thousand in a compact body, kneeling and sitting as an Indian only can, when the "Black Robe" appeared and began the celebration of the mass, by that great Missionary Father, Peter 1. DeSmet. |
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