The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1923-12-21
BY w. w. CHIEFLY

began when Captain William
| Clark, of the Lewis and Clark ex
petition, in defending his property
on the Marias river, was compelled
to shoot dead Piegan horsethief
Stealing horses among the Indians
of Montana in those days was not
an offense more, it was looked
upon in the light of an achieve
ment The sporting thing to do
was to pick out some member of
the tribe that had helped himself
to your horse, do little thievery
in reprisal, and where the offender
had taken one horse, take two if
possible, and in that way get
doubly even.
Now the Piegans were blood
brothers of the Blackfeet, and
when Clark sent his musket ball
into the brain of this adventurous
horsethief of over a century ago he
started war that lasted, in season
and out, for nearly 20 years. A
race of men who looked upon the
stealing of horse as an offense
justifying the taking of life was
beyond the pale of Blackfeet con-
sideration. So the word went forth
that the Blackfeet and their allies
were to kill white men whenever
and wherever they could get away
with it. They were to use guile
when in the face of superior forces,
but were to kill without mercy the
white straggler who happened to
be found alone in the wilderness.
This war against the whites, how
ever, did not apply as far as the
Hudson's Bay men were concerned,
the Hudson's Bay trappers saw to
that, but Boston men, as the Ameri-
can was called among the redskin,
were enemies.
So, a year or two after Lewis
and Clark had returned to civili-
zation, and trading post had been
at Three Forks, the |
Blackfeet decided to wipe out the
little post and its defenders, and
one day Captain Henry, command
ant at Three Forks, found him
self and his little band in a state of
siege. A few stragglers, going out
% bait their traps, were killed. The
indians remained about the fort in
,orce for some time, killing white
nan whenever the occasion offered.
Finally Henry saw that an attempt
o hold the fort was out of the
question. He abandoned the fort
md retreated over the mountains.
The Blackfeet did not attempt to
ollow him, because he had gone
nto a territory over which they
lad no jurisdiction. But they
,urned the fort, and with its burn
ny the second habitation to be-
'uilt in the state went up in smoke.
How the Story Grew
This occurred about lilo years
go, and to this day is still told !
he legend, based on Henry's aban- :
onment of Fort Three Forks, of
he time when the medicine of the
'lackfeet nation was too much for
he pale face. 1t has grown, too, ]
/ the century of telling, until now |
he forces arrayad on either side /
f this contest are supposed to have |
cen mighty and numerous, the {
rmies of two great nations who /
Tere at war; when as matter of r
act Henry did not have with him /
lore than Is men, while the Black a
Get who drove him out of the d
ountry might have numbered sew n
al hundred warriors. At any 4
lte the prowess of the Blackfeet Il
id not suffer any in this story's k
arration, and the white race we're II
cid as of small account as fighters. a
For fifty years thereafter the +
lackfeet took toll of the lonely B
apper and the too venturesome =
ontiersmen. Of these many en- tt
,unters there is no record, because G
e Blackfeet kept no records, and p
e dead whites could tell no tales. W
<eletons in lonely places told the tt
DRY. w
Then came the gold strikes, to
nich brought thousands of white So
en- to Montana. The Blackfeet til
und that if they killed all the m
mites they had their bloody work hi
t out for them. After the terri er
ry of Montana had been created, di
dney Edgerton, Montana's first
vernon, was called east. During
absence, General Thomas Fran TO
Meagher, territorial secretary, o.
Is acting governor. Blood Ind leo
IS, allies of the Blackfeet, caught w,
expedition of nine white men III
d one negro at the mouth of the of
arias river. They killed them to III