Glacier County chief., 1939-09-08

few settlers were there in the imme-
date vicinity that no attempt was ever
made to find or identify the bodies
No one but Indians is known to have
seen or counted them during the time
when Identification might have been
possible.
Almost the only detailed information
ever obtained came from Joseph Henry
Taylor. itinerant printer, writer, wood
cutter, and trapper, who later ranched
in the Painted Woods neighborhood
In his book Frontier and Indian Life
Taylor gave the Sioux version Of the
killing, which he obtained from an in
telligent Santee woman in 1868. This
woman, Red Blanket, told of the flight
from SibleyS army and of the several
camps on the Missouri. from one OF
which she and other women had gone
out. on the day in question, to wash
clothes. There was narrow swift chute
near the shore, with a hidden bar and
deep water beyond. she said; an old
SiSSeton buck was sitting at the en-
trance to the chute, fishing, when the
mackinaW came in sight.
Run From Boat
Seeing the white people, the women
blanket signal to keep out in the main
stream. either because he knew the bar
and the chute were dangerous OF
simply to avoid trouble. But the min
erS misunderstood, shot and killed the
old man, and came in toward shore
More Indians ran out of the woods, the
Montanans fired their cannon, which
made the redskins think Sibley was re-
turning. The cannon discharge caused
a leak in the boat. That was why, Red
Blanket explained, the whites had to
stay until all were dead.
In mid-afternoon, the old man in
black, who had killed many Indians
coll No iclyi 20 h
him a medicine man and now sWarmed
upon the boat to finish the killing
The Santee woman said that she helped
kill the woman in the boat, for she
had already lost some OF her own
family, but that she did not see the
little girl at any time The deaa body
Of the man in black was not visible but
in the corner Of the boat where he
had been, there was a similar body
with white whiSkerS and long, White
hair, dressed, however, in stained yell
low buckskin shirt and trousers.
Had the Canadian, either during the
fight or earlier, exchanged clothes with
the old man? Was that why the old
man had seemed to be the best marks
man? Could the Canadian have thus
escaped? And what happened to the
AS 10 the gold, Red Blanket said
that the Indians found many belts
lull Vi MIluV bIIOy IOOtN " w Wv "a
bad powder, and threw them away
Some 80 Indians were killed and all
Later. in 1876, Taylor learned more
details from an educated Arikara Wom-
an, Long Hair Mary, and an influen-
tial Indian, Whistling Bear. The lat
ter said that some Uncapas came. to
Fort Berthold about two weeks after
the massacre and told the people all
about it. The trader, brother-in-law
of Whistling Bear, told him to take
a small party to the scene, for the
Sioux did not know what gold was and
might have left it there. Girard gave
him a sample so that there would be
no mistake.
Sunken Boat Found
The Arikaras found the big boat
partly sunken, but did not see the
cannon. Some of the bodies lay in the
sand, eaten by buzzards. Belts had
been cut open, the dust splitting out;
others still remained on the bodies
untouched. There was a coffee pot In
the boat which the Indians filled with
the gold Back in the timber, they dis