Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1939-03-24
By ELMO

The steamer Huntsville, Benton
bound, plOwed up the Missouri
river one summer day in 1870 and
pulled to the wharf at Musselshen
City to give its passengers and
crew weird scene Of wilderness
shOwcraft.
A row of stakes along the waterfront
each bore an Indian skull, bare and
grinning like veritable deaths heads,
occupying the place of footlights upon
primitive stage. The crude buildings
of the settlement were the back props,
with the sagebrush and timber enclos-
ing the rear.
Star of the scene was Liver Eatin'"
Johnson, clad only in a bright red
undershirt that reached barely below
his hips, with his bare shanks cleaning
in the sun that We'd with the crisp
atmosphere for control of the season,
Liver Eattn' was leaning upon a pair
OF homemade crutches, all unconscious
OF the unusual appearance he offered
his astonished audience. He was recov-
erlng from some injury to a foot, and
aid OF crutches and. hearing the steam
boat come round the bend, and giving
no more thought to his dress than
would any wilderness creature, he
rushed out to get look at the new
corners.
But the story of the skulls is the
story of an Indian battle only a short
time before.
About May l, 1870, some so men.
mostly wolfers, trappers and wood
choppers, had gathered at Musselshell
City to await the arrival of the first
boat. Two squaws lived in a building
attached to one of the stores of the
settlement. Early one morning they
went out toward the Musselshell river
10 gather wood. They were attacked by
a band of Sioux, who were haunting
the region of the settlement hunting
scalps. One of the squaws was wound
ed. but both managed to gain the
safety of the post.
When they sounded the alarm every
man turned out with his rifle. Shots
were exchanged with the war party,
but because of the distance no one was
hurt. Many times such situations had
occurred-the Indians hanging about
the protective cottonwood grove near
the Musselshell and the whites hug
glng the shelter of their buildings. But
TINS affair was destined for a different
ending.
Never before had the Sioux seen so
many white men gathered at Mussel-
shell City. Here they saw an oppor-
tunlty for many scalps; and, the white
men, feeling the strength of security
OF numbers, decided 1t was a chance
10 even the score for previous attacks
by the Sioux.
The white men enmasse approached
the Indians. who dropped back toward
the MuSselShell, where the cut banks.
10 to 20 feet high, were crumbly and
hard to negotiate. But lateral ravines
cut back from the river to higher
ground
As the white men approached one of
the ravines fully 100 Sioux rose sud
denly in their front. Jake Leader was
Killed. man named Greenwood was
wounded. The whites scattered to the
safety of nearby trees.
The Indians in the ravine held an
impregnable position. They could hold
1t until dark and then slip away un-
detected: But they could not fire at
the whites without exposing them
selves. So far, however, the whites had
the worst of the battle.
Up the river some distance was the
rest OF the Sioux band singing and YELL
ing In the woods to lend courage to
their embattled warriors.
A storm of the ravine might have
routed the red warriors, but some white
lives were sure to be lost.
1t was decided that if a few men
up the opposite bank, protected by the
timber, they might enfilade the ravine
and force the Indians out to an open
fight
Frank Smith, Jim Wells, Henry Nc
Donald and Joe Bushaway succeeded
In crossing the river from a point
downstream. They carefully crept up
opposite the mouth of the ravine. They
were armed with Henry rifles, and the
entrenched Sioux were now at their
mercy.
When the first bullet from across the
river struck, the Sioux saw their game
was up. They faced a perilous disad-
vantage in leaving the ravine for high
er ground, with the whites on all sides:
they could not face the rain of bullets
from across the river.
They sought the shelter of pockets in
the banks of the ravine and lighted
and passed their pipes. They sang their
death songs. Then some of them leaped
out and tried to get away by various