Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-12-06
INDIAN AGENT PIONEER
SURVIVED TWO DAYS AND
NIGHTS 0M "A BLIZZARD

day, their suffering intensifioA by hun
ger. When the second night settled
down about them, in the darkness they
heard the roar of a cataract that re-
vealed their nearness to the falls of the
Missouri. 1t was somewhat encouraging
to learn definitely their locality, if they
had not also discovered they were farther
from Fort Benton than when the storm
first struck them.
Finding an overhanging cliff that
would slightly protect them from the
wind, they dismounted and tried TO rest.
Faint and exhausted from cold, lack OF
sleep and food, they had not been long
under the cliff when they began to feel
Sleepy, which, under such conditions is
the sure precursor of death. Not too far
gone to realize this, they left their shell
ter, ounte their horses and again set
out, the colonel in the lead.
After a time the latter called TO the
interpreter, who failed TO reply. Soon
after that Colonel Vaughn became un-
conscious, but managed to keep his place
in the saddle, the reins dropping from
his stiffened hands. His horse, with
that sixth sense which seems 20 gov
ern animals at times, finding itself UNI
checked, took its way back to the agency,
bearing the half dead agent.
On his arrival, he was borne into the
house and every means taken by those
there to bring him back to life. Although
they at length succeeded in restoring
consciousness to the almost dead man, it
was almost a miracle. he having been exr
posed to the blizzard for two days and
nights. Only a hardened mountaineer
could have lived through it.
Interpreters Horse Home
The horse of the Interpreter reached
the agency before the colonel, and must
have caused its jewellers to apprehend
that both of the men who had started
out for Fort Benton so care free and
full of life, had persisted in the storm.
When he was recovered sufficiently
to walk, the colonel told of his wander
ings, and Of his last seeing the interpre-
ter near the Great falls. 1t was decided
that someone should go in search of him,
and if he had died, as seemed likely,
bring in the body. The storm was still
raging. but 1t being the third day, the
worst was over. Even then, anyone who
braved 1T would run great risk. No
white man volunteered for the journey
and finally an Indian was detailed to un.
dertake 1t.
With the directions given by Colonel
Vaughn, and his own knowledge of the
country. the indian set GU on the back
trail, now completely obliterated by the
snowfall. Guided alone by the same
marvellous instinct the horses had ex-
hibited, which led them through the
binding storm back to the agency. he
passed rapidly over the route followed
by the colonel's horse when given its
freedom to choose its own course, and
at length came upon the body of the
interpreter sitting bolt upright in the
snow. 1T was as solid" adds the mar
rator. w. B. Napton. to whom Colonel
Vaughn told the story, "as the boulders
by which it was surrounded"
Thus ends the account of Vaughn's
experience. But one with a legal mind
would be inclined to go farther in search
of what happened to those starving
Piegans on the Marias. They we're also
In the blizzard. Did they survive or per-
ish? We have no means of knowing.