Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-08-01
nUCH CHUCK.

5151G152G152515151 Observation-Disclosures
All day long and every day while
was at the agency he sat upon the
traders stoop or Iounged upon his
counters. I often wondered at Bon
hOmme's tolerance, and set it down
to the easy-going ways Of the French
American. Of all the eros Ventres
at Yellow Water, Much Chuck seemed
to me the nearest to a useless vaga-
bond.
Then one evening, for silver quar-
ter, the trader sent him to the camp
of the agency's "boss farmer" six
miles away. Much Chuck carried
fifty pounds of side pork on a Shout
der, and the rate at which he loped
across the prairie was surprising. Bon
homme laughed as he saw me looking
after the awakened Gros Ventre.
Didn't think there was so much
action there, heh?" he said. "Much
Chuck is like the rest of our In
dians-pay one for doing what he
knows how to do, and away he goes.
That fellow was on the police force
here twenty-five years ago, and did a
service to this agency that no white
soldier could have done.
"After Sitting Bull had been run
off to Canada the troops were with
drawn from this neighborhood, and
soon we began to have trouble. First
a Gros Ventre stole a pony from the
Crows; then young Grow shot a
eros Ventre in the hand. After that
there was stealing and skirmishing
back and forth. till at last the Gros
Ventres made grand coup, and
came in with two hundred Crow
ponies.
Worse than all, the rascals ran
their booty into the government cor
raj Mccall, the agent, sent ten of
his Indian police out to turn the herd
loose. His men came back present
ly without their guns, reVolvers and
ammunition belts.
s'Much Chuck, then young fellow,
was the only policeman to retain his
arms. He had been kept on duty at
the office. AS there were only half
dozen old needIeguns left in the
armory, Mccall found himself in
poor way to enforce authority He
hadn't even telegraph communication
with the posts five hundred miles
away.
"The eros Ventres herded those
stolen ponies, and kept lookout in
daytime, and at night shut them in
the big corral under guard. The
agert then occupied the vacated bar
racks opposite what is now the Gray
Sisters School, and the government
coral was in a loop Of the river be-
low. where a deep channel, cut into
the rocks, protected it on all sides
except that facing the agency. The
fort. or barracks, was a log quad
rangle built upon a little height over
looking the corral and the flats below.
My store stood outside, next to the
left wing of this quadrangle. The
Gros Ventre lodges, for the most part,
were strung along a fringe of tim
Der below the loop.
''For a number Of days things went
on smoothly to all outward appear
ance Then the Crows came. About
four hundred-all of Broken Kettles
band and some of the mountain Grows
beyond-rode down to the agency at
sunrise. They were mostly armed
with breechloaders, and when they
summoned Mccall out to them, rec
kon his hair stood on end.
Through their Interpreter they &C
cused him of sending his Indians to
steal their horses, and they demanded
the return of the animals and lot
of goods and rations for indemnity.
And Mccall could only tell them with
a great show of indignation that he
was not responsible for any sort OF
Indian thievery. He told them how
he had tried to turn their ponies loose
and what the eros Ventres had done
This was openly admitting that he
had no authority over his Indians. But
he was a new man out here, and he
was scared and excited. When he
had finished, The Crows set up a howl
of wrath, and shook their guns at him.
They told him that they were going
to wipe out his GrOs Ventres and then
burn the agency.
The Grows Outnumbered our IN
dians two to one, and we had at the
barracks less than dozen half-arm-
ed employees. Broken Kettle had Sc
cured men and ponies from Gray
Bulls mountain Crows-the worst lot
OF untamed sayages north of Mexico.