Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1901-10-16
A Deep and Inaccessible Canyon in
the Bad Lands Which L. Well
Manned and Guarded.
CAMP COOK GIVES INFORMATION
A Number Of Cree Indians With the
Desperadoes-In a Position
to Resist Capture.

In their efforts to capture the gang
which held up and robbed a Great
Northern train at Malta, Mont, on
July 3rd, the detectives have learned
of the existence OF an organization
that bids fair to rival the James
gang In its palmiest days, says a
Denver correspondent oftheS st. Louis
Post Dispatch.
Like the famous Missourians, the
latter-day desperadoes depend upon
the people of the vicinity In which
they operate to help them In avoid
Ing capture.
Rewards aggregating $4,000 have
been offered for this gang and leading
detective agencies have sent men into
the bad lands. Some OF them went
up the Milk River valley, where the
train was held up, and Others went
to Butte to look for suspects. The
only authentic Information CLEANED
thus far came to the detectives
through the agency OF Fred Voliquet.
q cook, and a.corps of plainsmen are
arming In Denver to invade the
stronghold Of the outlaws.
Voliquet was cook for a time at
the stronghold. He got there by ac-
cident. Having been discharged from
a hotel In the Bitter Root valley, he
undertook to beat his way east, and
the trainmen, to teach him a lesson,
put him of In the bad lands, forty
miles from a water tank. 1t was
while in this p~redicament that he
had the fortune to meet Billy Longa-
baugh and another OF the gang, who
were taking some stolen horses to
their rendezvous.
On learning that Vollquet was a
cook they hired him to work for
them.
After riding forty-fve miles from
the place where Voliquet was dis
covered, the men came to a narrow
canyon, r the opening OF which
were stretched huge chains. On the
way there the party met a number
Of Cree Indians, who saluted and
rode silently by. The new cook was
hardly installed In his duties before
he became aware that he was having
the adventure OF his life, and that his
employers would shoot him without
conjunction II he attempted tn
escape. Bill Longabaugh, LonnIe
and Bob Curry and a Cherokee youth,
generally known as Dalton, were the
only white men on the place. There
were Cree Indians ranging In number
from twenty to forty, about the four
cabins and the four cOrrals most oil
the time. These Indians were all
splendidly mounted and armed, in
that particular differing from all the
rest OF the tribe. for the Crees are the
Ishmaels OF the plains.
They are nominally wards OF the
Canadian government, but their
reserve ton Ia 80 bleak and cherries
that they sneak across theforty-ninth
parallel 0ftener than they can be
taken back. The men are the most
murderously inclined and the women
the prettiest Of the northwest tribes.
The Indians live In their own tepees
and do their own cooking, although
their supplies IN furnished from the
general storehouse.
One feature OF the everyday life at
the camp Ia the practice Of rife and
pistol shooting. The canyon Ia
"blind," or n which has but a
single opening. At the upper end Of
the gulch the Indians and white men
engaged In target shooting. Their
favorite method Ia firing while riding