The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1920-10-22

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years ago was a justice of the peace
in the town of Belt, Cascade county
used to nurse a claim against the
government for money and property
belonging to him which was destroy
ed or stolen by Nez Perces Indians
in an attack upon government
freight depot on Cow Island in the
Missouri river below Fort Benton
September %, 1877. The claim was
for 1898 and consisted of the follow
ing items cash $475, trunk So, two
robes $24, two blankets $24, two
suits of clothes $40. The bill was
never allowed by the government and
the recollection of his loss while he
was engaged in defending govern
ment property and his own life al
ways resulted in raising the ire OF
the country magistrate.
The late Robert Vaughn, Montana
pioneer, in his book "Then and Now, y
made brief mention of the fight that
occurred between Chief Joseph's In
dams and some men that were camp
ed on Cow Island. That fight was
probably one of the most remarkable
of the many bloody battles in which
| lie IN6Z TGIC0S 1iu1duS tu6dSCQ dui
ing their retreat from Idaho across
Montana toward the Canadian line.
1t seems almost incredible that 10
men could successfully Withstand re
peated attacks by such a bowling
horde of scalp hunters as composed
Chief Joseph's band at that time.
After Joseph's capture few days
later he told General Miles that the
little band at Cow Island were the
hardest fighters he had ever been up
against.
While Foley was still on the bench
in Belt nearly 20 years ago he related
the details of the battle and prefaced
his story by statement as to how
the name of Cow island was given to
that strip of sand in the Missouri. His
narrative follows:
Away back in the early part of
the Nineteenth century some traders
found lonely, solitary cow on the
island. She was hundreds of miles
away from any others of her kind
and was probably the pioneer COW OF
Montana. Without doubt she had
been stolen from some white settle
ment away down east and driven into
the wilderness by the Indians. The
traders named it Cow island. The
island contained several hundred
acres of land and was covered with
as pretty growth of cottonwoods as
ever 1 saw. 1 have heard that some
| of the Indians made their headquar-
tiers there in the early times and
guess there have been enough pow
vows and war dances and Indian ro-
| mances on the island to make two
or three of Fennimore Cooper's nov
els if they were all known and writ
ten up. Someone was telling me just
the other day that the island is gone;
has been eaten up by the hungry cur
rent of the Missouri river and that
the place don't look like it did when
| we had our little scrap there. l reck-
on that little fight of ours was about
the warmest thing Cow island ever
saw.
about the first of September,
1877, Colonel George Clendennin
appointed me as clerk to ship freight
from Cow island to points in Mon
tana, principally Deer Lodge, Fort
Shaw, Helena and Missoula. At that
time the water in the Missouri was
very low and boats were unable to
reach Fort Benton. The Josephine
Line of steamboats, unloaded at Cow
island and it was this freight that
was looking after. The government
had an engineering outfit working
at Dolphin rapids, a few miles fur
Their up the river. About the goth of
September they moved their commits
sary stores down to Cow island. A
sergeant, a corporal and seven SOL
diers were in charge of the supplies
They piled the stuff up at a point
ebout 100 yards above where the
government supplies were piled and
covered it with tarpaulins and pitch
ed their tent Immediately alongside.
I'VE were not camped on the is
land but along the east bank of the
river. To keep the water from run
ming into their tent and supplies in
case of rain they dug ditch about
IL feet deep all around it. The
dirt from the ditch they threw up on
the outside. To that ditch and wall
of dirt we 10 men, later on, owed our
lives. For 80 hours we lay behind
that little earthen breastwork and,
with our Winchesters, kept death and
bowling horde of savages at bay.
I'VE had heard that the Nez Perces
Indians were heading for Canada,
closely pursued by General Howard,
but we figured they would cross the
Missouri river at Claggett and we did
not anticipate for a moment that we
would see any of them.
About 8 o'clock on the 22nd of
September we saw some Indians COM
ing down the bluffs on the west side
of the river and 1t was not long until
Joseph's entire band had crossed over
to the east side where we we're camp
ed. We got inside the little bank of
dirt and awaited developments.
Joseph, Looking Glass and sew
eral others came down near to us
and made signs for US to come out.
had seen them both in Washington
and knew them both as soon as we
got up to where we could get a gold
look at them. I went out unarmed
to meet them. Joseph had an in
terpreter with him who spoke very
good English. He asked me who was
in charge of the big pile of freight.
told him was and then he wanted
to know who owned it and IL we had
rnv1 III L.