The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1927-09-09
"Whjte Lie" Caused Reburja1 of Soldiers
.HMN General Niles Indignant When H e Heard Bodies TropesK HNnB Battle of Bears Pau Had H6
wv Been DHtrbaS So H Brought About their Dsnrmentm and emUdt todd Fort smmnbome w

ground for several years prior to his visit
with General Miles. Later developments,
he added, disclosed that If there were any
human bones there at any time, they
could have been only those Of Chief
Joseph's warriors.
General Miles declared that as soon as
he returned to Washington he would take
steps to a " h soldiers remains re-
moved to the Assinniboine cemetery. Late
the following summer officers at Assinni-
boine informed Mr.. Devlin orders had
been received from the war department
directing reburial Of the Bears Paw SOL
diers in the post cemetery. There was
no public ceremony in connection with
the orders execution. Few of the peo-
pie Of either Havre or Chinook knew Of
the reburial at the time. The only in
terest revealed seems to have been that
mentioned in Chaplain Mills report.
Cowboys Were Guardians
There is slight doubt now that The
sleep of the Miles soldiers in their trench
grave on a plateau overlooking the Snake
creek valley ever was disturbed. Cow
boys riding the plains as early as 1888
assumed custodianship Of the burial
ground and the only marker the grave
ever had, if we credit information avail
able today, was the heap Of rocks placed
there by the riders. 1t was the custom
of the boys on h range to make fire.
quent pilgrimages to the trench, m
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With each trip the riders added more
rocks to the growing heap atop the
grave. Gopher holes were filed and
other disturbances noted and corrected.
One Havre man said that as a range
rider he had made his first visit to the
grave in 1890, and he was told then that
the custom established by the cowboys
two years previously had become a re-
ligious rite.
L. V. Bogy Of Chinook, who has made
frequent trips to the battlefield during
the last 25 years, says there never was
any indications that the grave had been
disturbed. Until the time it was opened
by the detachment from Fort Assinni-
boine, he says he had always found it
covered with rocks so heavy and so close
ly placed that no animal habitating the
locality could possibly have disloged them
to burrow beneath the surface.
A young man now living in Havre saic
recently that as a boy Is years ago he
n his youthful companions had otter
there had discovered baskets containing
Indian beadwork n that sometimes
human bones had been found near TIT
baskets.
The remains Of the Miles soldiers wert
again diSinterred n October, 1912, when
following the abandonment Of Fort AS
sinniboine, the 179 bodies in the pos
cemetery were removed to the militar,
cemetery at Custer battlefield. James G
Holland, senior member Of Holland {
Son, undertakers at Havre, showed in tn
burial records of the establishment tina
the work of removing h bodies wa
completed October IL. These records ais
revealed a discrepancy of which eXplana
ton will be attempted.
General Miles reported 20 soldiers an
two officers killed at the battle Of tn
Bears Paw and, quoting again from hi
book, THE work Of securing the arms c
the Indians, burying the dead and pre-
pairing the wounded for the long journe
occupied the entire day." would indicat
that all his men killed in the battle WEI
buried at the same time and place. How
ever, the Holland & Sons records disclOs
that only 81 bodies were contained i
the two caskets mentioned in the char
lain's report. The government contrac
under which the undertakers were Ell
gagged specified the disinterment Of tV
d caskets containing the remains of 81 so
diers killed at the battle of the Bear
e Paw. A clerical error may have entere
J somewhere i n the accounting.