The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1923-01-19
(By Alex Cruikshank.)

/ Following the fight with Gibbons
troops on the North Fork of the Big
Hole on August 9, 1877, the Indians
under Joseph continued on their
way, arriving at Horse Prairie creek
August IL. There they massacred
a number of settlers and party of
freighters and ran off all Of the
horses belonging to the whites that
they could gather. With several
other white men who escaped death
at Horse Prairie creek, rode to Ban
mack to help organize a posse to re-
venge the settlers who had been kill
ed, and to try to recover the stolen
horses.
General Howard arrived at Ban
mack few days after the Horse
Prairie massacre, and about 125
miles behind the hostile Nez Perces.
He Immediately took charge of the
organization of a company of scouts.
I took a commission with him, with
orders to follow the Indians and re-
port the direction they were taking,
1t not being known then whether
they were going into the Salmon
river country, were following the old
Medicine Lodge trail or were headed
out on the Birch creek trail. In case
they went down either the Medicine
Lodge trail or the Birch creek trail,
1t was Towards intention to head
them off at Sand Hole crossing.
Find Agency Deserted
We left Bannack on August IT,
there being in my party Pat Demp-
sey, Charles Turner, George Sperry,
Charles Mcintosh and myself. Head |
ing up Horse Prairie creek, we took |
up the Indian trail and followed it |
Ger the side of the mountain to the
head of the Lemhi valley. We ar
rived there the following day and
concluded that the wisest course
would be to go down to the Lemhi
agency after a reinforcement of
friendly Lemhi Indians. However,
in arriving at the agency, we found
it deserted. All of the Lemhis had
gone down the Lemhi river to Salmon
City at the approach of the Nez
Perces.
We rested our horses and slept :
for few hours, as we had been in
the saddle all night. While we were
Colonel George l.. Shoup
and a man known as "Red" McDon-
aid came along and informed us they
were going to Junction, where Col
onel Shoup expected to meet five of
his 12-mule teams, loaded with gen
eral merchandise from Corinne, the
nearest shipping point on the Union
Pacific for the Salmon river mines.
He feared that his freighters would
De caught at Birch creek by the Nez
Perces. We decided to accompany
lim, and started up the river. At
Eight Mile we found where the In
iians had camped the night before.
Nez Perces Avoid Settlement
The next day we arrived at juno
ion, where the settlers were found
o be strongly fortified and unmolest-
ID, as the Nez Perces were not look
ng for trouble. They had gone
round the settlement.
Dempsey, Turner and Sperry re-
urned to Bannack to report. Nc
ntosh, Dan Osgood, man from the |
JUNCTION and I, with an Indian we'll |
.nown as major JIM and fourteen I
Iemhi warriors, headed for South J
1edicine Lodge, as the settlers said
hey thought Joseph's warriors had )
one up Hawley creek for the Medi- I
inc Lodge trail. We had gone but
short distance up Hawley creek l
Ihen we met Frank Price, pros
ector, coming into Junction for .
rub, totally unaware of the Indian I
aid. This showed us that the In
ians were heading up for Lemhi a
)r Birch creek, so we turned back :
nd took the trail for the Birch :
reek divide.
We had proceeded only a short
stance when we met two Cinnamon,
no made us understand that the
ez Perces had attacked Colonel !
1oup's freight outfit on Birch
eek the night before. The Chinese,
no had been with the freighters,
ere unable to tell us much about
10 massacre. The Orientals only
lew that they had escaped, but said L
of the white men had been killed.
afterward developed that they CT
ere nearly correct, as only one m
bite escaped. ia
Old Squaw Found Scalped nj
Osgood and I started back with ia
rice, the prospector, toward juno dl
On, when we met a party of fifteen sy
h1tes whom Colonel Shoup had or in
mixed and was leading. With them =
ere Chief Tendoy, his two sons, dy
opompy and Jack, and 25 Lemhi dr
arriors. We joined them and pro- WI
eded on the trail to Ten Mile, tn
here we found some exceedingly go