Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-01-02
MALTA WOMAN WAS WITH INDIANS DURING REL REBELLION
HELPED GATHER BUFFALO BONES ON NORTH MONTANA PLAINS

ar wildly the Battleford engagement
inch took place just outside the In
Gan encampment.
one morning." she will tell you, IAN
i-1lan rider, coming verv fast, rode
lnto camp and told the chief that the
Hed Coats we're coming. Then we
could see the dust their horses made
ard soon we could see the color of their
Iceats.'
The soldiers and the Indians met at
lre edge of the village and fought
one If the bloodiest battles of the war.
They fought until noon," Mrs. Pru-
Gen continues, land many soldiers
were killed. The Indians knew better
now to fight. They would lie on their
bellies in the coulees or scatter about
u the sage brush. When the Red
Coats charged they would not know
Where to shoot and when they be-
came separated the Indians could pick
them of easily"
Seeing that they were making no
Roadway against the Indians, the SOL
diers withdrew at noon and asked per-
mission TO remove their dead and care
Tor the wounded.
Only Three Indians Killed
Only three Indians were killed"
Mrs. Pruden adds a little proudly.
Many soldiers were dead and they were
all taken away and buried, all but one
they called him sergeant-and later
some of the young braves found him
and scalped him."
Not long after this battle, if Mrs.
Pruden remembers correctly, Reale and
Dumont were decisively defeated and
theIndians who had taken an active
part in the rebellion fled with their
leaders TO the International border.
They were so closely pursued that the
huge party split, half fleeing to the
west and eventually arriving at Fort
AsSinniboine near Havre, and half 60
ing east and south and finally camping
on the outskirts of Minot, North Dako-
ia. The PrudenS were with the latter.
The party spent several months near
Minot and as they numbered between
one hundred and one hundred and fifty,
food 500 became the paramount in
terest. Pruden, who was used to trad
ing with the white men, arbitrarily b.
came the leader. One day he returned
to camp with the news that the entire
party must get ready at once to journey
west as he had made a deal with a
white man for work for them all. The
man was r. M. Traitor, who was
travelling west on horseback looking for
a favorable location for a trading post.
HE said to my man." according to
Mrs. Pruden, Get all the Indians and
breeds YOU can find and follow me-"
Indians Gathered Bones
1t developed that Trafton's scheme
was to hire the Indians to gather the
buffalo bones strewn over the prairie
and stack them along the new rail-
way. Later he shipped them to fertlllz-
ing plants. 4 Bones were SO plentiful
that the Indians gathered them by the
wagon load and before long the strange
caravan had overtaken the newly laid
steel and the piles of bones followed
the surveyors stakes.
Traitor paid the Indians four dollars
a load. A story is told OF how the In
dams became suspicious OF the scales
Traitor used and, convinced that they
were being cheated, drove their wagons
to the river and left them over night.
BY morning they had absorbed con-
siderable extra weight.
The white mar and his struggling
remnant Of the Crees finally reached
the spot where Malta now stands. A
trading post wa established at the
east end of the railroad bridge and a
brisk trade in bones, furs and Indian
goods was begun. The store was built
of bridge timbers recovered from the
the first spring after the bridge
was constructed, a flood having taken
them as far as the Henry Martin place.
Trafton hired the Indians to haul them
back.
The Prudens lived in Malta from the
time they arrived, making a few trips
west and north to see relatives. About
IL years ago John Pruden died. Since
then Mrs. Pruden has lived with a
granddaughter.
All her life Mrs. Pruden has been an
ardent Episcopalian. She was one OF
the first and one of the most enthusi-
astic workers for st. Mary's church
from its earliest mission days. Perhaps
the longest trip she has taken for years
was her journey to Havre to attend the
late Rev. l.. j. Christler's dedication
at st. Mary's church there.