Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1942-05-29

employ of the post quartermaster.
stepped into the breach, scorning pay
for the Job.
Phillips died at 81 in Cheyenne on
Nov. ID, 1883. 1t was not until 80 years
later that the government took official
recognition Of his heroism. At that time
congress voted compensation of 5000
Tor Mrs. Phillips, as partial recogni-
ton OF the services Of her husband
and as a settlement OF claims for
horses and cattle shot or run off by
the Sioux and Cheyennes. The redskins
held long grievance against Phillips
for getting past them and bringing re-
lief to the fort.
John Golfer also figured in a race
with death but his was run without
benefit of horse and with a savage
breathing on his neck. In getting away
from band of Blackfeet in the Three
Forks country some 1876 years ago
Golfer probably suffered more than
any man in the United States could
today without dying.
But hardship never daunted this
youth. 1t seemed sometimes that he
actually invited it. When the Lewis and
Clark party was making its return trip
down the Missouri to civilization, with
everyone else champing at the bit to
get out of the wilderness, Golfer left
the expedition at Fort Mandan to join
fortunes with couple of trappers. Col
ter had seen danger aplenty with Lewis
and Clark but it was after he got into
the fur business that things really
perked up-and the race with the In
dams was the highlight.
He Joined Manuel Lisa after about
year. Lisa was heading a trading
party of the Missouri River Fur Co
and was remarkably shrewd French
man. He saw at once that In Golfer,
familiar with the upper Missouri coun-
try because of his trip with Lewis and
Clark, he had a real asset.
They established a fort at the mouth
of the Big Horn river and Lisa sent
Golfer on a solitary journey to inform
the Indians Whereabouts OF the white
mems arrival and their desire to trade.
This was no job for man who set any
value on his life. Not only was the
country alive with Indians, but there
were swarms of wild animals and the
perils of rugged mountain region to
contend with.
Golfer Left Alone
Golfer, unconcerned by it all, tray
eled about 500 miles to the Crow ma
ton. His wanderings took him to
Pierre's Hole, on the west of the Te-
ton range. Here he and some Crows
who were accompanying him encoun-
tered band of Blackfeet. The latter
were beaten off, thanks to Golfers val
liant scrapping, but the Crows were
frightened and fled back home, leav-
ing the frontiersman, who had been
wounded in the leg, to. fend for him
self.
1t was several hundred miles back to
Lisa's fort and perhaps no wounded
man on earth but Golfer could have
made it. Enroute back he discovered
Yellowstone park, an accomplishment
that put his name in the history books,
and he must have thought, after gaz-
ing in awe at geysers, boiling springs
and the like that the privation he was
undergoing had added his brains.
The following spring Lisa, still seek
ing the good will of the Blackfeet, sent
Golfer and man named Potts to the
Three Forks of the Missouri to mingle
with the red men. Potts failed to sur
vive the ordeal and Golfer wouldn't
have either had he not apparently
possessed a charmed life.
Potts and Golfer trapped until the