Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, D.T. [N.D.]) 1878-1884, 1879-07-26
NEWS FROM UP The RIVER
OF MAN''
(GEN. MILES,) TO THEFRONT.
a Shrmish which Causes Fifteen
Indians to Bite the Dust---The
Massacre Of the Lambert
Family--Sun-Dance.
TROUBLE AHEAD. z

- F-4'#'# r TROUBLE AHEAD.
The steamer Eclipse arrived Wednes-
day evening in a thunderstorm, and
brought Indian news of a serious charac-
ter. 1t is here given as it came to the
Eclipse on her way down the Upper Mis-
souri,. When within thirty.fve miles of
the mouth of the Musselshell, where
Camp Loder is located, the steamer was
hailed and asked to stop. She landed
and took on board Lieut.. George H..
Wright, of the Seventh Infantry, who had
been out on successful scout. Wright
had brush with small band and killed
one of them At Camp Loder the Eclipse
learned of another scout up the Mussel-
shell with unknown results. At Ft. Peck
a courier from Gen. Miles camp came on
board with dispatches for headquarters in
St. Paul. Frank Moore brought them to
Buford, where they were put on the wire.
The courier stated that Miles had had
s. -.~.- A FIGHT .......,-..-... .....
with party Of Sioux and whipped them.
The casulties were limited to fife en- dead
Indians and three wounded soldiers.
Within twenty miles of the troops there
were reported sixteen hundred lodges of
hostiles, and an engagement with them
was daily expected Upon reaching the
woodward of Joseph Lambert, six miles
above Wolf Point, Lambert's partner re-
ported that Joe and his
WHOLE FAMILY WE'RE WIPED OUT,
except one little child, who was carried
into captivity. Lambert was two miles
and half back on the prairie with his
family hunting, when the Indians came
upon them and commenced firing. He
only had three cartridges left in his belt,
and with these he stood the party off for
a few minutes. There are few details of
the massacre, as the only Survivors were
two boys, who were more dead than alive.
Lambert, his wife and four children were
killed and scalped. One of the little boys.
was shot in the side, the ball making a
hole in his body large enough to admit
mans arm. The other was shot in the
back and beaten in the head with the
hatchet OF SquaW. BON were unuOuDt-
edly left for dead. They were ferried
over to Wolf Point or a log raft, and were
still living when the Eclipse passed down
Monday. Lambert was a halfbreed, noted
for his friendliness to the whites and
thrift as a ''wood-hawk." He was born
in the country, and was considered one of
the reliable men of the Upper Missouri.
e THE MOTIVE tl f.
for numbering him is unknown, unless it
was on account of his civilized proclivi-
ties and the pure cussedness of the mur-
derers. A. party of fifty Assinnaboines,
returning from a hunt after the massacre,
surrounded visiting party Of Yanktonais
and threatened their lives in the plainest
language their tongues could command.
They thought the Yanktonais were the
guilty parties, and their humanity
prompted revenge. The supposed offend
ers slid away as quietly and quickly as
possible. The wood choppers are all ex-
cited, end talk about war as freely as the
average citizen talks about the weather
here. Indian war parties arc upon every
butte, and the smoke of their camp fires
cloud the horizon in every direction.