Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1927-09-09

view in that direction. Entirely oblivious
of any danger the doctor and his sutler
friend were not aware of the stealthy
tread OF an approaching red menace.
Suddenly from the top of the small hill
nearby two shots rang out to break the
stiffness Of the scene beyond the low
conversation OF the two unprotected men.
Leading his men in a rush to lay the
coup stick upon the bodies OF DR.. Huntz-
niger and Mr.. Balaran, Northumberland
hurried down into the depression formed
by the spring and was about to proceed
with the task of removing the scalps OF
the men, when he was interrupted by
the sound Of the approach of the rear
guard. The shots had been heard and,
sinking the spurs into the TANKS of
their horses, the troopers of the rear
guard galloped forward just in time to
prevent the removal Of the scalp locks
from the tops of the heads of the dead
men. Rain-in-the-face anS his little
band Of braves quickly made their
escape.
The bodies Of the two men were ten
derby lifted upon improvised filters and
carried fifteen miles farther to the west
where the troops were to bivouac for the
night. After the arrival Of the rear guard
with its burden of death, arrangements
were made for the carrying out OF sim
pie funeral rites. A grave was dug and
the bodies placed therein. A long rope
was stretched between two cottonwood
trees to which facing each other the
horses were tethered. 1t passed directly
over the double grave. During the night
the trampling Of the feet of the horses
removed all traces of q burial place. Be-
fore the coming of the Chicago, Milwau-
kee and st. Paul railroad with the build
ing Of its Puget Sound extension, the eff
fects Of the friction Of the ropes on the
trees were discernible. A fire destroyed
the trees on an occasion when the rail-
road construction crew had camped in
the same place.
Here in the cacophony Of the myriad
insect life, the list of the birds by day
and through the still watches Of the
night in a lonely and unmarked earthly
sepulchre lie the victims Of the ~vengeful
wrath of an Indian chief. No memorial
services have ever broken the monotony
of the long years since the bodies were
inferred. No slab of marble, MOI even the
crudely marked wooden cross, are raised
above the surface to indicate that here is
a site Of the buried dead.
The thread Of memory has run through
the years with the recital of the circum-
stances by Michael Kearns, a member of
the Seventh Cavalry, to Jack Hawkins,
pioneer and early day sheriff of Custer
county, who remembers the details with
a vividness that has not been dimmed
by passing time. Following his honorable
discharge from the military, Kearns en-
gagged in business in Forsyth with
Thomas Alexander, living In that city for
a number of years prior to his death.
Only the charred trunks of the cotton
wood trees to which the ropes were fast
ened remain as a monument to these two
men who believed that to go unarmed
was a protection against the wrath Of
the Indians who roamed off the reserva-
ton and Joined war parties that was
climaxed in the zenith of the power Of
the allied Sioux and Northern Cheyenne
at the Battle of the Little Big Horn on
June 25, 1876.