The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-10-21

l1Cd1S o6O q u
in the town of Belt, Cascade county
used to nurse a claim against tn'
government for money and propert.
: belonging to him which was destroy
ed or stolen by Nez Perces Indians
in an attack upon a government
freight depot on Cow Island in thu
, Missouri river below Fort Benton
September 22, 1877. The claim wa'
for $59S and consisted of the follow
ing items: cash $475, trunk So, two
robes $24, two blankets $24, tive
suits of clothes $40. The bill was
never allowed by the government ant
the recollection of his loss while ht
was engaged in defending govern
ment property and his own life al
ways resulted in raising the ire o.
the country magistrate.
The late Robert Vaughn, Montana
pioneer, in his book "Then and Now
made brief mention of the fight that
occurred between Chief Joseph's In
dians 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
the Nez Perces Indians engaged dur
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 a 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 a 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 a 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 a growth of cottonwoods as
ever l saw. I have heard that some
of the Indians made their headquar-
tiers there in the early times and /
guess there have been enough DOW
vows and wal 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. 1 reck-
on that little fight of ours was about
the warmest thing Cow island ever
saw.
About the first of September,
1877, Colonel George C%lendennin
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 [
looking after. The
a an engineering outfit working
at Dolphin rapids, a few miles fur
ther 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
dlers were in charge of the supplies. |
Ihey piled the stuff up at a point
0 loo 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 put along the east bank of the
river. 10 keep the water from run
ming into their tent and supplies in
case OF rain they dug a ditch about
z IL feet deep all around it. The
Dirt from the ditch they threw I'D on
the outside. To that ditch and wall
OF dirt we 10 men, later on. owed our
lives. For 80 hours we Law behind
that little earthen breastwork and
with u Winchesters, kept death and
a bowling horde of savages at bay.
w had heard that the Nez Perces
Indians were heading for Canada.
closely pursued by General Howard,
we figured they would cross the
Missouri river at Claggett and we did
anticipate for a moment that we
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 it was not long until
J oseph's entire band had crossed over
the east side where we were camp-
ed. We got inside the little bank of
art n awaited developments.
Joseph, Looking Glass and sew
eral others came down near to Ms
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 good
at them. 1 went out unarmed
meet them. Joseph had an in
Lerpreter with him who spoke very
good English. He asked me who was
m charge of the big pile of freight
told him | was and then he wanted |