The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1927-05-20

men were rme with Henry rifles. Con-
cealing themselves behind underbrush
and cutbanks they had h Indians at
their mercy; but, much to their sur
prise, instead OF hnding hall a dozen
Sioux in the ravine, there were more
than sixty.
Colonel CIendennin's Strategy
AS soon as the first bullet from across
the stream struck among them, the
Sioux realized that they had lost the
battle. In front of them was the river,
and all around them and on the plain
above, were their white enemies, whose
powerful repeating rifles they could not
hope to escape. Several times they made
desperate efforts to dig shelter for them
selves in the banks. ALI the while one
after another of their number fell be-
fore the inceSSant fire of the men who
had crossed the river. hi main body Of
the whites now charged them on the
other bank and, routed at all points,
they fed to the field, leaving thirteen
of their dead and taking with them sew
eral wounded, of whom 81 afterward
died. The whites Of the settlement lost
Leader and a man by the name of Green
wood was wounded in the shoulder. The
fight had begun at 7:30 in the morning
and it lasted until noon.
BarbariSm
Many of the wounded Indians were
killed and scalped by the whites. The
following day one of the white traders
(Andrews by name) cut off the heads of
ten Of the dead Sioux, and boiled them
till the skull could be cleaned. These
were then impaled at the ends Of sticks
forth at the passengers and crew of the
steamer Importer, which arrived up
stream from st. Louis a day or two later.
This a touched at the wood yard near
Round Butte on its upward journey and
there it had found the mutilated bodies
Of seven woodlands who had been MUIR
dered by the Sioux. This had undoubt-
edly been the work Of the party that wa
routed at Musselshell City.
From that eventful day, the entire
Sioux nation swore eternal vengeance
against Musselshell City n the entire
white race which made possible such
settlements. Many wal parties from the
vicinity Of Fort Peck, or from the camp
Of the famous Sitting Bull then located
on the Dry Fork Of the Missouri, threat.
ened the tow by intermittent raids. b.
this time it had become quite eviden-
that as a freighting point Musselshel
City was destined to be IN utter failure
only n or two upward bound steamer
discharged freight there that season.
By the approach of the next winter
the few inhabitants who had been 81
enthusiastic over the future of the new
town, began to lose their optimism. BuSi
ness had not been profitable; trade wa
lpoor, n they wearied Of the ever pres
ent danger.
An Eccentric Frenchman
Early the following spring (1870) Their
occurred one of the most remarkable in
cidents ever recorded in the annals o
frontier warfare in early day Montana
5 There arrived at Musselshel City an &c
: centric and restless Frenchman. He haJ
! come from Helena to take passage o,
one Of the downward bound river boat
After waiting at the mouth of the Mus
( selshel1 for what had seemed to him t
= be an interminable time, he grew dis
contented and started out on foot to re
turn to helena. Before he had gone ia,
he lost his way in the wilderness an
finally, drifting in a circle, landed bacl
2 more dead than alive, at Musselshel
e After a short period of recuperation, h