The Kevin review. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1929, 1923-03-01
David Viewers Story Of
Battle With the Sioux
Continued from Feature Page)

I, (OOHGlnueu from Feature Page)
where l discovered the numerous ar
roWheads as mentioned. Theil
method of fighting was to ride a
first slowly towards the white men
keeping to the north of Townsend's
party, between the men and the foot
hills at the north; then as they came
nearer, increasing the speed of their
animals, they swept past in a some
what circular course, hanging over
the sides of their horses and shoot
ing as they rode.
The mounted party, as soon as at
tackled, turned back to the corral and
fought their way back without the
loss of any of their number, but one
of the men was severely injured by
! an arrow in his back which had to
be cut out.
The Indians then attempted to
keep up a sort Of long distance at
tack on the camp. 1t happened, how
ever, that some of Townsend's men
were armed with the then new Henri
breech-loading rifle. This weapon
could not only be loaded much more
rapidly than the muzzle leaders but,
what vas more important in the sit
%uation, it had an effective range of
at least twice that of any of the In
dian guns.
1t did not take the Indians long to
discover this fact, as they soon found
out that their warriors were being
shot down long before they got near
compelled them to their
distance h,r tLo ;noroo.1J &c
the new rifle; but at such distance
their arrows were useless and they
could do little effective fighting with
their guns. To this was due the fact
that T~ownsend's men escaped with
SO few injuries. One of his mem
bers, however. a man from Ohio,
whose name I am unable to obtain,
was so severely wounded that he died
the following night Gully 9-1O).
When the Indians found that they
could not stampede or dis1odge the
train by an open attack, they at
tempted to do SO by fire. They be-
gan setting fire to the long grass
surrounding the camp. Captain
then directed his men to
take shovels and make a shallow
cutting off the grass in a
swathe extending roughly in a semi
circle from the river bank above the
corral to the bank below as noticed
by us a few days later. He also
ordered the wash tubs which some
Of the emigrants had with them to
be- filled with water and kept in read
mess. The attempt to spread the fire
to the camp was not successful. The
Indians, however, kept up their at
tack for several hours. Then they
passing down the river,
and keeping we'll to the north close
The guns as much as possible. Early
in the day, before commencing the
attack, they had requested permits
sion of Townsend to be allowed to
pass down the river past his camp;
but Townsend's guides, already con-
.inced of the hostile intentions of
the savages, advised against allow
them to come near the camp, as
suspected that 1t was simply a
to get close enough to stampede
he stock.
Townsend remained in camp until
hours after the departure of
he Indians. He then decided to move
lis camp to a higher location, but
1t inadvisable to attempt
proceed through the ravine as
would be necessary ii he continued
~ the Bozeman trail. He accord
ngly kept to the south, crossing to
he south side of the river, and re-
further up.
After proceeding some distance.
he train came upon the bodies of
he two men who had gone on ahead
the morning and been killed by
he Indians.
Just how great were the losses OF
he Indians in this engagement is, Of
unknown, as they removed
heir dead and wounded. But only