The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1927-09-09
49,

n September 80 of this year will be
the 5Oth anniversary of the first
engagement between General Mel
son A. Miles n Chief Joseph Of
the Nez Perces on creek, ID miles
south of Chinook. On October 6, 1877,
Chief Joseph surrendered. This battle,
known as the battle of the Bears Paw,
is an important one in Montana history
because it was virtually the last armed
conflict between the United States and
the Indians in this state.
All northern Montana is interested in
a movement to have the battlefield set
aside as a national monument. Many
years ago, l.. V. Bogytof Chinook inter
ested himself in the project and through
his efforts the land on which the two
armies were entrenched was withdrawn
from public entry. Since then, however,
no further action has been taken by
congress. Meanwhile, the Lions club OF
Chinook and the Rotary club Of Havre
lave been pushing the proposal for a ma
tiona monument, and Congressman
Scott Leavitt introduced a measure in the
last session, but it failed Of passage.
General Miles in his report of the bat
tie said 20 men and two officers were
killed. A big trench was dug and their
bodies inferred in one grave. In 1908,
these bodies were removed to Fort As
sinniboine, near Havre, and in 1912 there
again exhumed and re-interred in the
military cemetery at the Custer battle
ANCAu III 0AB A4OA4l NONAASyS COAbAA "a I'll
lings.
The story of why the bodies were re-
moved from the battlefield on a
creek to Fort A~ssinniboine has been told
by Fred Oieis, a newspaper man well
known in Havre and Great Falls, o
living in Twin Falls, Idaho. Mr.. Oilers
says:
Had the August, 1903. monthly report
of John A. Mills, chaplain Of the Third
cavalry, Fort Assinniboine, been written
- ALn ~annnor ~ nnwfhfnn hTTf MILITARY
precision and brevity, in addition to
merely ~recounting the stark fact that
the bones of the soldier dead at the bat
tie of the Bears Paw had been rein
tered at the Assinniboine post cemetery,
it might have touched dramatically upon
the incidents contributing to the burial
services he conducted.
Lilly White FalsehOOd"
Had he u known and dared, the
chaplain might have mentioned a lily
white falsehood that started the cum
bersome departmental machinery at the
war Office in Washington to grinding out.
bit by bit, the military order that opened
a burial trench a quarter OF a century
after Gen. Nelson A.. Miles had quit the
battlefield, and transported the Indian
fighters sleeping there to new graves
within sound again of the bugled reveille
and taps.
Had he known, he might have written
of q chicken hunting expedition arranged
for the entertainment of the general OF
the United States army; how that shoot
ing party was the handmaiden Of the
falsehOOd and the vehicle that ultimately
brought the burial service to him. The
SOldier-preachers report does not say
General Miles, just a year previous to
his retirement by virtue of the age limit
had painted for him the unSpeakable
vision OF ghOulish wolves in overt acts al
the graves Of his fallen patriots.
It leaves entirely to the readers mag
inatiOn the aged commander RELIEVING thu
scenes he visualiZed when, as in writing
Of his campaigns in his bOOk Of IndiaI
battles. Miles said of Captain Hale at thu
battle of the Bears Paw: With a sm1l'
upon his handsome face he dashed for
ward to the cruel death awaiting hin
and a little farther on was the bod!
Of the spirited Biddle."
Maybe the general re-sensed the disma.
when "aS a result OF that desperate en-
counter I found that the two officers be-
fore mentioned and 20 soldiers had beer
killed" Or, perhaps Miles caught TIT
echo of Chief Joseph saying: From
where the sun now stands I will fight M
more against the white man"
The chaplain's report does not tell u
so, but the story of the chicken hun
NAV prove General Miles actually did re
call those battle scenes.
The report is dated Fort Assinniboine
September 2, 1908, and its final para
graph reads:
I'm accordance with G.. o. As, Angus
%, 1903, Fort Assinniboine, the remain
of the soldiers killed at Bear Paw noun
tains Sept. 80, 1877. in a fight with In
dians, were re-interred on August q
1908, in the post cemetery at 4 p. n
The second battalion, oath infantry, an
all the officers present at the fort &C
cOmpanied the remains from the hospit;
to the cemetery, where they we're burie
with military hOnOrs. The chaplain, thir
cavalry read the OmmifT CnTVlcR Z
the Protestant Episcopal church; tn
Third cavalry band furnished appropr.
ate music. The firing squad was detaile
from the battalion of infantry as wei
also the pail bearers. The bones repo:
in two wooden collins and are buried j
one grave.
(Signed) JOHN A. MILLS,
"Chaplain. Third Cavalry. U. S. ARMY