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

NlOiitciio ~ NoAA NdJ VIM VIZ
fail to call to mind the stirring
scenes in the northern part of the
state 40 years ago. Few there are
who have forgotten the general
Thanksgiving spent in 1880, be-
fore proclamation had yet reach
ed the prairies of the northern part
of the state, but which is recorded
in state history, as the elimination
of years fear of white extermina-
ton at the hands of the starving
Indians of various tribes in the
Milk river valley and adjacent ter
ritory. Who is there among the
number yet left to recount the
hardships of the past and to tell
of the forging of civilization over
a district that is now one of the
most prosperous in all the states,
but will recall the fervent prayers
offered on November rs, 1880, at
Fort Benton. Who is it that has
not preserved some memento or
writing from the east offering sup
plications for the safety of those
near and dear who for months had
been at the mercy of wild savages
driven from force of hunger to the
verge of committing depredations
worse than any that had been prior
to that season.
1t was for the relief that had
been sent the whites, in the fur
nishing to the Indians of food, that
services of general thanksgiving
were held in every hut and hamlet
in northern Montana in that early
day, and it is handed down that for
miles and miles the settlers came
to add their presence and their
prayers of thanksgiving.
Sioux Were Responsible
For many months, or more pro-
perly speaking from the fall of
1879, the conditions of the Indians
in all northern Montana was be-
coming worse. The real cause was
the invasion of hunting grounds in
northern Montana by the hostile
Sioux from across the Canadian
border. The winter had been
hard one and game, with the ex-
ception of buffalo, was scarce. The
Canadian government was not at
tending to the wants of its proteges t
and the cold blasts of the Canadian |
winter was forcing the game fur /
ther south, across the line into t
Montana. 1t was not, therefore,
to be wondered at that the Cana II
dian Sioux should follow it and in h
the beginning of that awful period a
this invasion was the cause. n
From time to time the attention 5
of the government had been called e
to the fact that the condition of 5
the Montana Indians was growing
worse and that unless some aid was
furnished them there would be n
trouble. In the spring of 1880 the fl
various bands assembled in the F
vicinity of the Milk river valley W
and as early as May of that year d
threatened an alliance with the T
Sioux who by this time had practi- a,
cally corraled all the buffalo, I'm 10
less the United States government c
should take their cause in hand and c
furnish them with food or drive al
the Sioux across the line into their AZ
own homes. to
The Sioux were unfriendly to- w
ward the whites on general prin- ar
ciples and were holding the hunt ri
ing grounds and game, preventing to
the Montana Indians, who were ii,
friendly with the whites, from be
getting what properly belonged to ar
them unless they would consent to to
Join forces and rid this part of the be
of the hated whites and to of
control it for Indian USE dr
Held Border People in Fear w;
The mounted police, across the We
border, made an attempt to get tn
he Sioux to return but without CHI
-esult. The American government
vas appealed to-, that in case it of
would not drive them back at least no
t would deprive the Sioux of their da
rms and horses and place them COZ
where they would cease to be an ths
to the friendly reds. we
'ood was beginning to get scarce
n many of the white settlements. The
hundreds of settlers, in order to fri
void what seemed to be inevitable, ten
lad divided what they possessed vic
Nth the friendly tribes in the hope in
hat they would not form the al TIL
ance which was feared and thus ma
xterminate them of
There were here also at the same onl
me many other tribes, besides the hat
ioux, that belonged in Canada, spe
ut some of them had been here wit
Or long time and all were con- enc