The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-11-03
FIERCE BATTLE IN WYOMING
BAD LANDS.
TWO OFFICERS ARE KILLED
indians Heavy Losers-sixteen Dead,
Many Others Wounded-More
Trouble Feared.

received today from the scene of Sat
nrday evenings battle between a band
of rs Sioux Indians under Eagle
Feather, an educated Indian ano
graduate of the Carlisle Indian school,
and a sheriffs posse OF II,
confirm the early stories OF the con
hict, and it now appears that the
battle was more bloody than at first
supposed and also that the situation
is more grave than early reports indi-
Gated. NJ"
Dead and Wounded.
Sheriff w. H. Miller of Newcastle,
who led the officers against the In
dians, was killed; also Deputy Sheriff
Charles ~Falkenburg, a wolf hunter OF
Weston county.
Black Kettle, a notorious Sioux dis
sturber, and five others were killed.
Eagle Feather and nine others were
seriously wounded.
The bodies of Miller and Falken-
burg, two wounded Indians and pris-
oners reached Newcastle this fore
noon, when the Iull details OF the bat
tie on Little Lightning creek were
secured.
Sheriff Miller and his deputies had
been in pursuit of the Indians for
~ days. A portion of the band was
captured a week ago and semitic
Newcastle, but the main band was
reinforced by others hunting wild
!. game in the Cheyenne river country,
and kept out of reach OF the sheriff
land his deputies until Saturday.
just as night was falling Sheriff
Miller and his IL deputies, six OF
them ranchmen, picked up on the
a overlook the Indians near the
beaver dam on Lightning creek. The
warriors had stopped tor the night
an a tract of bad lands and evidently
were expecting trouble.
Battle Opens.
Inspired by the lead of Eagle
Feather and Black Kettle, a notorious
Sioux warrior, they opened fire and in
the gathering darkness a pitched bat
tie ensued. The Indians fired rapidly,
but wildly, the whitemen deliberately
and with steady aim. The battle de-
yeloped into a skirmish, the combat
ants firing from tufts of grass, from
gullies and from. slight depressions
in the ground. For an hour the shots
followed one another closely, spurts OF
fame coming through the darkness
like lightning, while the demoniac
whoops of the Indians and the chant
ing death song of the wounded, added
w%eirdness to the scene.
Black Kettle Killed.
At the first fire Black Kettle, stand
ing conspicuously in the open, fell
and expired without a groan. The
Their time was given wholly to shoot.
ing to kill. They required no yelling
or demonstration to keep up their
courage. AS warrior alter warrior fell
confusion seized the Indians and they
fired more wildly toward the flashes
that revealed the whereabouts of the
whitemen, and forgetting their Gun
ming, exposed themselves to the dead
ly aim of the ranchmen.
Head Nearly Shot Off.
A bullet took ~Falkenburg ~squarely
in the neck, tearing a gaping wount
thai almost divided his head from his
body. He died almost instantly. Sher
if Miller was shot in the thigh ant
his life went out in gushing spurts o
blood that could not be checked. jim
Davis went to his assistance. but wa
poWerless.
Death of Sheriff.
In less than half an hour he es
pired with a message to his wife an,
children half spoken on his lips. Eagl
Feather was struck by two bullet
41F[ - .
simultaneously and went down wit
legs pierced. His fall disheartene
his followers and the few survivor
fed into the darkness, leaving 81
dead and ten wounded on the sanguil
ary field. The yictors then dispatche
q messenger to the nearest ranch
carry tidings of the battle to town
from which posses could be dispatche
after the fugitives.
Indians Captured.
Five %uninjured Indians and 20 hea
Of ponies were captured. Sufferin
alma Eagle Feather laid on til