Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1929-06-06
Aged Malta INDIAN Woman
Recalls Battle of Moumties
Against Rebelli0us Crees

a white man. r. M. TraftOn, who was
travelling west with a saddle horse and
a pack horse. AS Trafton had journeyed
westward he was astOnished at the
buffalo bones that strewed the prairieS
and had conceived the idea that if they
were gathered and shipped east they
could be sold to a fertilizer plant. The
fact that the Great Northern was be-
ing extended from Minot west gave the
idea strength.
Montana Covered With Bones
One night he accompanied Pruden
to the Indian camp and instructed him
to get all of the breeds and Indians
and come with him towards the setting
sur where the buffalo still darkened
the prairies instead Of, as there, the
bones Of the dead buffalo made the
plains white.
We trade some ponies for wagons
and start the journey" Mrs. Pruden
relates. "All that country, what is
called Montana. was covered with
~bones-bones of buffalo hat our people
have killed in many hunts and bones
of buffalo that the Fort soldiers have
killed for killings and not for food. We
do not see the herds OF ~buffalO-Only
the bones-and our people wonder if
they will come to good hunting again."
Traitor paid the Indians 81 a load
for the bones, which was a princely
sum for them. He had secured food,
blankets and beads in Minot and car
ried on quite a profitable trade. The
party moved slowly westward, not far
behind the extending railroad.
More Bone Trade Found
And then they came TO the Big Bend
country, where for hundreds OF years
the Crees, the Gros Ventres, the AS
siniboines and the Blackfeet had hunt
ed the buffalo. Here in a wide bend
of the Milk river, the country which
now lies between SacO and Malta, had
been the best hunting in all the state.
The white men had made many trips
into the Big Bend and now the buffalo
had disappeared, leaving piles OF whit
ening bones.
Irafton saw hat the Indians could
be kept busy for a long time, and reach
ing the spot where Malta is now To-
Gated, decided to stop there and es-
tablish a trading post. The railroad
had come through the year before and
it was possible that some time in the
future a town would grow up, if not
a town at least a scattered settlement.
The wooden bridge across Milk river
at that point had been destroyed by the
high waters that spring and traitor
put the Indians to work %salvaging the
timbers. Some Of the huge timbers
had been carried so miles down stream,
but enough were secured to build a post
or store with living quarters at n end.
Here for Is years Trafton dealt with
the Indians, buying bones from them
and selling them beads, flour, blankets
and salt pork. Big shipments OF bones
we're sent out over the Great Northern
each year until the prairies yielded fewer
and fewer loads. Then Trafton
branched out into the mercantile bus
mess, built a large brick store and be-
came one of the leading merchants in
what was by then a thriving western
town. The Traitor store is still flour
ishing and Trafton is still alive, al
though a stroke of paralsis has i'm
paired his memory. Until last year the
original trading post building stood
neal the railroad bridge.
Mrs. Pruden lives in her one-room
cabin with a little granddaughter.
Eleven years ago John Pruden died.
There are many descendants Of that
party of Crees living in and about NAL
ia. but very few of the old Indians are
still alive. Most of them intermarried
with the whites and it is not uncOm-
mon to find a family Of breeds" who
have reverted to the Indian life, bear
ing a Scotch or Irish name.