Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1942-12-19
John Observation-Disclosures

II fight it must be, the country Of the
I Powder river and its minor streams
was an inviting battlefield.
{ IN April, 1867, Bozeman. Tom
( Cooper and others. on their way down
the Yellowstone, enroute TO Fort c. F.
Smith, made a camp where they en-
I countered Indians who stole many OF
/ their horses. The following day. April
10. after this attack, while cooking
the noon meal. five Indians entered
the camp leading the stolen horses Of
the day before BoZeman. believing
the Indians to be friendly Crows. In
wited them TO the meal. when without
warning, two Indians shot Bozeman
through the body. Cooper escaped into
the bushes. The Indians stole the
! horses and blankets but did not scalp
Bozeman. It was afterward learned
that these Indians were Blackfeet,
fugitiveS from their own tribe on &C
count OF having killed one Of their
chiefs, and at this time they we're
living with the Grows.
Buried &C BOzeman
According to Nelson Story. ST.. who
caused a monument to be erected in
the Bozeman cemetery over the grave
Of John NJ Bozeman, a grave that
stands at the brow OF a bluff which
the cemetery crowns. and overlooking
the beautiful city which has grown up
since Bozeman ushered in its first
settlers, BOzeman was a reckless man
and refused TO see danger ahead when
the Indians came to his camp, though
his companions warned him. He good
naturedly set TO cooking a meal for
the redmen, talking with them as he
cooked. Suddenly an Indian from be-
hind the shelter Of the one to whom
Bozeman was talking. fired at Boze-
man. The ball struck him in the abdo-
men. killing him instantly. He was
80 years old at the time of his death.
Mountain Chief. according to Mr..
Story. was one OF the renegade Black
feet, and he was seen at Fort G. F.
Smith the next year By w S. Nc
Kenzie who was a member Of the
Bozeman party at the time Of the
murder. Mckenzie asked the COM
manding officer to put Mountain
Chief under arrest. but the officer
according to McKenzies narrative to
Mr.. Story. feared the Indian would be
hanged and trouble would ensue. so
he refused the request.
A newspaper correspondent writing
from Union City. Montana Territory,
Oct. 81, 1867, few months after the
Bozeman murder, made this COM
ment:
THE three murderers OF Colonel
Bozeman came in and received their
annuities recently at Fort Benton, and
bore their gifts straightway to hos
tile camps. Two Of them we're sons Of
chief who processes to be at peace
with the whites. He does the part Of
diplomacy, while his sons and fol-
lowers rob and butcher. A large por-
ton Of the annuities received by this
tribe go to those who are on the war
path; he shields the fraud and aids
the merciless enemy"
Trail Precipitated Wars
The city of Bozeman was estab-
Fort Ellis, located about three miles
east Of the city, was built to guard
the Bozeman pass which was within
16 miles Of the ground Of thousands
Of hostile Indians to the east. A com
mand Of three companies Of United
States troops was stationed at the
fort.
The Bozeman trail brought on
complications for the government. It
started at Fort Sedgwick on the North
Platte, and then northwest into the
Powder river country, along the east
side Of the Big Horn mountains, across
the Powder, Crazy Woman's Fork,
and Tongue river to the Big Horn.