Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-11-15

soaring and marking Of the flesh OF his
arms and prayed and tasted as he made
medicine to insure the safety OF the
warriors.
WeakIIngs Died Young
In speaking OF the longevity OF many
OF the Crows, John Frost once remarked:
The life on the plains was a hard n
and weaklings died as children. II the
tribe was moving, a woman would stop
by the way to bear a child and would
catch up with the camp by evening. Only
those Of exceptional strength and ply
siuue were likely to reach manhood"
Once young Frost and his uncles were
with a band OF Crows who were in the
~neighborhood OF where Big Timber now
stands when some Flathead Indians stole
their horses. They followed them and
the warriors gave chase when they came
upon the raiders. Shortly afterward the
Crows came back with two freshly lifted
scalps.
AS a boy of 10, he went with an uncle
to the Pacific coast where he rode as a
Jockey in horse races which were COM
mon in the frontier own where gambl-
ing and betting were rife. On his re-
turn, he found work as a cowboy With
some of the cattle outfits coming into
the country at that time. The govern
ment for several years had been send
ing promising Indian youths to Carlisle,
and Frost tool the opportunity offered
him to receive an education, although
he had to travel -four days to reach the
railroad.
Under Military Discipline
Carlisle had been a military prison
during the Civil war and in the strong
battlements and walls there were still
grim reminders of it's original purpose.
rry,a et,,dantr utoro trndar military dtSct-
pline and the rules were very strict.
Young Frost in time came to be the
captain in one of the military compa-
MES into which the students were or
ganized.
He was also a member of the first
football team ever organized at Carlisle.
He was Their 10 and weighed 1876 pounds
of which every ounce was Done and
muscle, while he stood more than six
feet tall. He played center in those days
of mass formation when gains were made
through the head-on ramming of the
two sides. 1t was not until about 10
years later. however, that the Carlisle
Indians reached their greatest fame In
the days of Jim Thorpe, the most famous
OF all football players, and Coach Pop
Warner.
A flare of the old enmity came at the
time of Sitting Bulls death IN the
Wounded Knee fight following the ghost
dance uprising in 1890. Young Frost,
reading an account of the incident in
the newspaper, gave vent to some whoops
Of Joy which offended a nephew OF Sit
ting Bull. whom he did not know was
in the room. The. Sioux jumped at him
and Frost met him on his W ground,
and it was give and take around and
across the tables until the monitors
!, separated them.
Frost was called before General Pratt,
the head of the school and a strict dis.
c%iplinarian, and Frost fully expected to
be sent home. But he told of his fathers
death and his pledge of hatred to the
Sioux. The general had known the elder
Frost when he was an army surgeon
and he let his fighting son go with G
light reprimand and words of praise fol
his fathers record.
Becomes School Official
After three years at Carlisle, Frosi
went back to the Grow reservation with
the position of disciplinarian in n OF
the dormitories In the government schoo
at Crow agency. He resigned this posi-
ton at the end Of the school year to en-
ter army service at Fort Custer as 6
, scout and interpreter, where he remained
for several years
While at Fort Custer he found oppor
tunities to help his own people. At one
time, he found o white man had sole
hay Under contract at the army post foI
more than twice what he had paid tn,
Indian owners for 1T. John sent for three
chiefs, Pretty Eagle, Medicine Grow ant
/, Spotted Horse, and told them how the,
could deal directly with the commissar,