Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1931-07-09

fight began. . = = A Grow Indian
who had been chased in the morning
and had heard their firing when they
killed Kimball, rushed over the hills
to Bozeman and Informed the resi-
dents that the Sioux and the white
men were fighting, and a party of
eight mounted and hurried out. The
united parties went back to Bozeman,
and organizing a force of 10 men start
ed after the Indians that night. The
next day they were joined by about
100 Crows, all but ten of these Indians
deserted the party when they came in
sight of the hostiles, which was done
late in the afternoon, just as they
were crossing the Yellowstone. Dark
ness stopped the pursuit.
In September, 1866, a party of SO
men and two ladies proceeded down
the Yellowstone to a point below the
Big Horn, where a camp of Cheyennes
and Arrapahoes was discovered. The
savages exerted every means to get the
party to land, but, owing to the judg-
ment of Cy Mounts and others, the
invitation was not accepted. Near the
lower end of Pease Bottom the Indi-
ans fired on the boats and killed one
of the oarsmen named Randall. Below
the mouth of Powder river the boat
containing the ladies was sWamped.
About this time Charles Rich's train,
bound for Bozeman, was attacked by
Red Clouds party at the Dry Fork of
Powder river.
On September %, 1866, ten Indians
dashed into a herd of cattle within q
few hundred yards of Fort Phil Kear-
ney, established in August, 1866, and
carried off 100 head. Captain Brown,
accompanied by ten men, with fifteen
men of the Standifer party, started
out in pursuit. The Indians were
o~vertaken, the cattle recaptured, and
300 Indians routed.
On December 81, 1866, the massacre
on the Bozeman road, IS miles from
Fort Smith, took place. A number of
Indians approached the fort. Colonel
Fetterman, with 81 men, offered them
battle. The troops unfortunately pur-
sued the red devils beyond the ridge,
out Of sight of the fort, where the bat
tie was continued. Firing sOOn ceased,
and the colonel, with his aides, pro-
ceeded to the scene, when to their
horror they found the Indians scalp
ing the troops. Eighty-one men, the
entire command, were murdered and
scalped by 5000 Indians, bringing the
list OF white men murdered by the In
dians up to 1873 from August to Deem
Der, 1865. Engaged in the massacre
were Crows, Sioux, Arrapahoes and
Cheyennes. Those demons, when
scalping the soldiers, placed powder
in their ears and mouths and setting
of the fuse, blew up the bodies. About
IL months previous to the tragedy,
jeff Standifer left Helena with a large
party Of white men-many of them old
mountaineers-for the purpose of ex-
; plor1ng and prospecting the Yellow
stone and Big Horn country. After
the main party split up, some 35 of
the boys moved down the stream and
loltered and prospected about under
cover OF the troops sent out to estab-
lish Fort Kearney. One by one those
wanderers were picked off by the I'M
err1ng arrow or rifle of the savages, and
scalp dances INDUCED around their
bodies, until there was not a single
n OF the 35 to recite the tale of
their awful persecution and extermina-
ton. One of the last survivors was
Robert Bailey, well known pioneer, who
was carrying the mail between Kear-
ney and Laramie, when he was finally
surrounded by blood-thirsty demons,
just before the fatal raid on the post,
and slain-not, however, without first
killing, with his weapons, Is Of the
savages, as was attested by his COM
rade, who crawled away wounded, and
afterward died. jeff Standifer, with
a party of sever men, again took the
trail down Wind river, where four OF
the party were killed, and one wounded,
by the Arrapahoes. There were five
men IN the next party that went down
the Yellowstone In 1866. They were at
tackled by Arrapahoes just below the
mouth OF Clark's Fork, while in camp
One Of their number was killed and
the others went into the brush AND
escaped; they, having lost their boat
and provisions, had to walk back. A
little above the mouth of Clark'S Fork
they saw another party coming down
in a boat. This they stopped and tolt
their story to, and after discussion al
concluded to go back. In the latter