Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1927-10-14
impetus Given Movement
for Shaft to Chief Joseph

ering. / had been ou on a scouting
trip and had been looking for General
Miles party for six or seven days.
AS If it was yesterday, / remember
that day. l was getting my breakfast Of
coffee and antelope that / had shot. when
some soldiers rode up and told me Of the
battle. That morning was bitter cold
and raining and showing q little. /
didn't have an overcoat-just an old
raincoat that had been given to me by
IN army officer. The officer had weighed
about $50 pounds and the coat was too
large, but it was a good thing, for I
could double one hand up in the sleeves,
while ! held the reins in the other. AS
/ rode along / saw an Indian with seven
or eight horses and gave chase. / wanted
one of those horses, for my W was
nearly tired out. But I didn't catch up
with him. Afterward I learned he was
a Nez Perez trying to get away to Can
ada"
Sent for Looking Glass
After the battle, Boyd was a scout
chosen to go out with 100 picked men
from the second cavalry to find Looking
Glass, one of the leaders Of the Nez
Perces under Chief Joseph. They never
found him, and for a long time it was
believed he had escaped into Canada.
But he did not escape. When she was
at Wolf Point recently, Mrs. James Stu
art. a niece Of Looking Glass, told Mr..
Boyd of seeing her uncle fall in battle.
She was o terrified little girl of 8 at
the time, hidden with other children
and women of the tribe in a large circu-
lar cave.
Someone asked General Miles after the
battle what he thought of Joseph. Tell
ing of the incident, MIR. Boyd says:
General Miles answered, If Chief Jo-
seph were a white man, he would be
commander-in-chief of the United States
army" The Indian general had the
interests of his people at heart, and,
when driven from his home in Idaho, was
looking for a new lane for them. 1t is
now generally believed that his trek was
a pilgrimage in search Of a new home,
rather than to make war. Mr.. Boyd says
he knows that two years before the bat
tie of the Bear Paws. there were Nez
Perces scouts who visited all tribes in
northern Montana.
Visited Sitting Bull
MIR. Boyd recalls many interesting
events in connection with his work as a
scout. He tells about the time early in
1879 when he was sent to locate Sitting
Bull. There had been a conference be-
tween General Sherman and General
Miles at Fort Buford. General Miles was
then stationed at Fort Keogh. His wife
and nieces, daughters Of General Sher-
man, accompanied him to Fort Buford,
making the trip by boat down the yell
lowstone. After the conference, Miles re-
turned to Fort Keogh and Sherman went
east.
Scout Boyd was sent to look for Sit
ting Bull. He found him camped with
his party near the LeGare trading post,
In what is now known as the Woody
mountain country. The Indians we're al
most starving and were subsisting on
fish they caught in the lakes. AT that
time, says Mr.. Boyd, the hills near the
Missouri river were black with buffalo.
He suggested that they would have bet
ter hunting II they moved farther south.
Then something changed the course Of
the buffalo and they roamed into Can
ada and Sitting Bulls band had plenty
of meat.