The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-08-14
WHERE INDIANS ROAMEO
The Sun River Valley Was a
Great Hunting Ground.
BURIED RELICS FOUND
Where the Buffalo Were Slaughtered.
The Deadly Strife Between Piegan
and row Tale OF a Fierce
Battle Told by Little Plume.

Great Falls, Aug. 13.-Just about a
hundred years g a band of Piegan
warriors might have stood on the crest
of a line of cliffs that walled in the
River of the Sun, the Medicine river, on
the south. Their lodges were hidden in
the trees along the bottom by the river,
where were the squaws and papooses,
eagerly anticipating the feast, while the
braves were s%training their eyes to
catch the movements of an Irregular |
mass of brown that, half hid len in tLe
tall grass, was moving through the
plain to the south of their position
That the sight was full of interest TO
the watchers goes without saying. All
through the winter they had sem their
stock of pemmican slowly diminishing;
their ponies had been decimated by the
cold and the deep snows; their supply
of food had at last been exhausted, ana
with them there must be either an inn
mediate remittance of buffalo meat or
starvation. So they keenly watched the
churning mass of buffalo to the south.
Later dark bodies crept up from the
draws and coulees in the far back
ground and their appearance seemed
to throw the brown mass into a ferment.
lIlu ttiu tit oeANs
the front, believing, while the cows and
calves sought protection in the center
of the mass. Then the dark bodies In
the rear, fellow brave mounted on the
few remaining ponies, closed in upon the
herd of startled buffalo.
The braves took their stations. On
the plateau which broke sheer off to
meet the river the Piegans had pre-
yiously arranged two lines of bouldeIs,
each large enough to conceal an In
dian, If not a white man. These lines
converged toward the plain and the vic
time like the sides of the letter V, and
at their point of nearest contact they
led to a cut bank 40 feet high. Each
rock concealed an Indian with a strung
bow, a culver full of arrows, flint-point-
ed, and perhaps W or three spears.
Soon a low rumbling was both heard
and elt-th buffalo herd was in mo-
tion. The hoof beats of thousands OF
frantic animals sounded, not one by
one, but combined into a roar like that
of the falls of the Missouri. Occasion
ally the shrill cries of the pursuing
horsemen penetrated above the road,
but only for a moment. The vast nero
of buffalo swept onward, craZed win
fear and oblivious to everything save
the strange horses in pursuit, which,
from time to time, seemed to select a
fat bull and string his vitals upon a
winged shaft. Tn trampling hoofs beat
"A deepening roar anu lit diilbuSilCd
braves could distinguish the tossing
names and short, black horns of the
leaders. Finally, the shaggy veterans
of the van had entered the wings OF
the chute. A minute more and the ulk
of the herd was inside. Then the In
dams behind the rock at the extreml-
ties sprang to their feet, yelling and dis
charging flights of arrows, prancing like
the demons they were. This blu hur-
ried the animals to the brink, and the
successive appearance of new foes has
tened their mad flight. on the crest OF
the precipice the leaders hesitated but
a moment. The press of the panic
stricken behind forced them over. There
was a plunge and from that time until
the last had toppled over there was a
brown cascade of believing buffalo. The
few that escaped death by the fall met
an end by the arrows of braves en-
sconsed on the top of a little hillock just
beyond the slaughter pile.
Then the Piegans Toasted. Up from
the lodges swarmed the squaws, flint
skinning knives in hand.
hearts and livers were hacked from the
still quivering masses of flesh and de-
youred raw. From a gaunt band of
starved manikins the Piegans became
epicures. Only the best portions of the
animals were taken, but the banquet
lasted for days and what was left, food
TO feed regiments, was given over 10
the sun to putrefy and the coyotes 10
devour. If anything was saved for a
needy day it was what the squaws
sliced into strips and scattered upon the
prairie to dry, covering many an acre
with the jerked beef. By far the larger
part of the kill lay in the pit at the
foot of the hill to rot n to make late
generations wonder.
AS the robber barons of the Middle
Ages had each his armourer, so the
Indian had his weapon-maker. Though
the latter might be a skilled hunter
and in times of war a warrior he was
ant to find ii easier to manufacture the
weapon which others might use. and
for his pay, many a fat quarter of
venison or hump of buffalo hung in his
tepee. He gathered his material from
every part of the country. The obsidian
came from what is now the national
mark. while the water flints were
brought from the Yellowstone. Each
mart of the country contributed its par
ticular kind of stone. With a fire of
dry wood and a dish of water he
wrought from these materials the eX-
quisitely-shape spear points and ar
rock. a drop of water caused a chip to
fy, another heating, another drop of
water, another chip. until the flint as
sumed the dagger-like proportions.
These points he dashed with dampened
deer sinew to the shafts and the
apo were complete. 1t was a pro-
cess involving time. but time
was not a consideration to the
Indian. Flint knives for skim
ming and stones for feshins