Bozeman avant courier. [volume] (Bozeman, Mont.) 1872-1882, 1879-04-10
INDIAN EXPECTATIONS ON THE
YELLOWSTONE.

J. The news tkat has reached us from til,
: Yellowstone country during the past weel
has been considerably alarming in its ma
ttrc. and is anything but assuring for tllt
= peace and safety of the Sparse a,ni scat
n tered settlements of Eastern Montana
There is no Disgusting the fact thai. dur.
= ing the coming summer the Yellowstone
t valley is liable TO be overrun by I,dding
parties Of hostile Indians; and unle, $
measures are speedily adopted by the War
, Department for the piDmpt interceptiDn
Of small 'war parties" and their summary
punishment. our eastern border, from pres
cnt indications. will probably remain the
theatre of many a bloody conflict during
the present year. The Indians have ap-
parently started in on their ,nurtlcrous
work earlier than usual this Spring. Here
tOfore they have generally postponed OPP
eratiOns until the green grass was suffi-
Gently advanced to furnish good pasturage
tor their horses. but this Spring, before the
end of March. the startling intelligence
reaches us that they made a das! into
Pease Bottom and succeeded in stealing a
! large number of horses. and that two
days afterwards. and still further up the
| river, the red devils murdered two cirizens
and. perhaps. MORALLY wounded a third
And on the morning of the sd inst. as
will be seen by an extra published on the |
fourth page Of this issue. it was discover
ed that all the stage stock. and other hOrs- |
es belonging to private parties i'm the !
vicinity of Countryman's had been stolen
during the night Previous. and that the in
dicatiODS were sufficient to warrant the
general belief that the theft was commit
tel by Indians.
1t is possible. of course. that this last
depreciation may have been committed by
other than Indian raiders. as there is
ground for the general impression. now
prevalent. of the existence of "a regular
organized band of horse-tliieyes-white
men - with headquarters somewhere be-
tween lockwood. Dakota. and the eastern ,
settlements of Montana. and whose circuit 4;
Of operations embraces the Black Hills. |
the valley of the Yellowstone and the
Whoop TIP country on the Canadian bor-
de:s. However. we incline to the opinion {
that they are not the guilty parties in this +
instance. but that the horses which recent l.
~ disappeared from Saltwater were stolen f
BY Il ''war party" Of Sioux or Cheyennes. 7
1t is extremely unfortunate that. just at q
he time when every one had reason to feel !.
hat the savage boards had been effcct,lally a
ubd'led or driven beyond the borders and :.
when the brave pioneers of the Yellow u
tone could REASONABLE, hope for peace and d
n unprecedented influx of thrifty settlers II
Turing the coming season. the general feel :.
ng Of safety and bright prospects for q
prosperity in the near future should find e,
uch Il sudden termination and bitter dis NJ
ppOintment. h,
The settlers in the Yellowstone country :,
re brave band and richly deserve bet
,r fate. The country is now toler,bly y,
7ell provided with military posts and -
nited States troops. and if the authori- l..
es move promptly in the matter of sup -,
ressing few of the earliest petty raids IL
nd punish the raj lcrs with deserved =,
,verity. we shall not anticipate any gen. In
al or serious outbreak. otherwise we are -
able to have warm" times on the Vel ~
wstone during the coming Summer. l.,