Jack in the Rockies

pped at Fort Buford, above the

ere a number of soldiers, and it looked like a busy place. Away to the left was seen the broad current of the Yellowstone coming down betwee

ome up the river as far as this. Sometimes they used to have great fights out here on this flat, when two hostile tribes would come in to trade and would get here at the same time. I've heard great stories about the way the Indians used to fight here among themselves almost under the walls of the post; and, then, again, sometimes the Indians used to crawl up as near to the fort as they

o you mean to tell me tha

" said

nd out a lot about the Western birds and animals? I've read a lot of Audubon, and he speaks constantly of Fort Union, and about the things he used to s

e big camps of Indians here, and that they got the smallpox in the fall, just before the ground froze, and the Indians died off like wolves about a poisoned carcass; and the ground was hard, and they could not dig graves fo

for smallpox, Hugh? How

o the river to cool off, and the ice was running, and some of 'em never came up again, and some of those that did come up were so weak from the shock that they could not get to th

he boat had cast off and had o

wam rapidly, and with them were many little calves, swimming on the down stream side of their mothers, and going swiftly and easily. Jack shouted to Hugh, who, with him, watched the buffalo, and in a very few minutes the boat was actually in the midst of the herd. The animals did not attempt to turn about, but swam steadily after their leaders, and some of them actually swam against the boat, and, only then seeming to understand their danger, turned about and, grunting, snorting, and bellowing, climbed up on each other in tremendous fright. As they came to the boat Jack at first had started to get his rifle, but Hugh called him back, and they both descended to the lower

t's alive. There'd have been no more fun in shooting one of those buffalo in the water there, than there'd be in shooting a cow on the range. Of course, if a man's hungry, it's well enough for him to butcher; but if he just

o more to shoot one of those buffalos in the water

been just the same thing, and you don

" said Jack

the next time we get close to the bank, and shoot at a knot in some cottonwood tree. I can watch with the gl

heir backs; small boys, naked, save for a pair of leggings and a breech-clout; and little girls, some wearing handsome buckskin dresses, trimmed with elk-teeth, and clinging to their mothers' skirts, made up the assemblage. Most interesting to Jack were the many travois, each one drawn by a dog. Some of these were very wolf-like in appe

be having wagons, and driving them 'round over the prairie. Why, do you know, it ain't so very long ago since these Assinaboines had hardly any horses. They didn't want 'em; they said horses were only a nuisance and a bother to 'em, and their dogs were better. Horses had to be looked after; driven in and caught up whenever they were to be used, and then

Hugh," said Jack. "What t

alked by the Ogallalas and the down river Sioux; but still they can all understand each other, and they

f from the main stock; it must have been a long time ago. But you talk with the Assinaboines, and they'll tell you-just as most of the other Sioux'll tell you-about a time long ago, in the liv

l these things that happened, and what the histo

would," s

mean? Has it any real meaning, like some of these o

much, because pretty nearly all the Indians that I know of used to boil their meat with hot rocks, except those that made pots and kettles for themselves out of clay. Nobody knows, I reckon, when the Pawnees and Mandans first learned how to make pots. I expect that was a long time ago, t

they cooked the hide or paunch it wou

e kettles would only last to cook a single meal; you couldn't use it a second time, bu

awhile, and then he t

, and about this Western country were put in a b

the life he's lived; if he doesn't, he won't amount to nothing. I expect if all

know don't amount to anything, and everybody

m wonderful to me; but I remember one time you were telling me something about catching fish down at the place called

wide bottom was moving toward the Post, a long string of people, men and women and children and dog travois, so that it looked almo

dotted with the scaffolds of the dead. It seemed to Jack that there must be hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of these graves in sight. From the poles of some of them long streamers were blown out in the wind, which Hugh told him w

battlefield. Somebody told me that Custer's gold watch was brought in here by an Indian, who wanted to know how much it was worth:

he Musselshell early next morning

over there where that

said Jack, "and the timber that

with a laugh; "you got scared

hat the Musselsh

heard about it. I meant to tell you last summer, but somehow it slipped my mind. It was there that Liver-Eating Johnson got his name. They used to say that he cut out the liver of an Indian

that the fight took pl

ade was good, some men at Helena formed a company to make a road and start a freight line down to some point on the river that the boats could always get t

and the Missouri. The soil is a bad-land clay, which in summer is an alkali desert, and in spring is a regular bog, in which a saddle-blanket would mire down. Then, all along the Musselshell was a favorite camping and hunting ground for the Indians, and in those days Indians w

d, when a party of Sioux charged in among them, killed two of the men, and ran off every hoof of stock. The thing was done in a minute; and before the men could get out of their houses and tents the stock was gone, and

d ran off eight hundred head of horses. Of course that made a big excitement. The Crows jump

that went out any distance from the town was sure to be shot at and chased. It was a time for a man to travel 'round with his gun loaded, and in his hand all the time. The Indians didn't do much of anything, but they kept the people scar

t and after the Indians, who numbered sixteen. They ran on foot over toward the Musselshell, and then up the bottom, not going very fast, and the white men were gaining o

en, I expect they'd have got every last one of 'em. But Henry McDonald saw what would happen if t

moved back to the settlement; but there were half a dozen men who did not retreat; but getting under cover, within thirty or forty yards of the Indians, held them there. They kept shooting, back and forth, and pre

clothing with which they could cover their gun-locks and bow-strings to keep them from getting wet. After a little of this, the white men began to see that the Indians were practically disarmed, and began to think about charging them; but when they raised up to look, they saw that there was a

at them; so that the three white men who had crossed had to get away and re-cross the Musselshell. By this time half a dozen other men got around on the lower side of the Indians, and then again three men crossed the river and commenced to shoot up the ravine. This was too much for the Indians: they jumped out of their hole and started to get away, and everybody was shooting at them as hard as they could. The fire from the body of men near the town still continued, and obliged the men who were doing the real fighting to keep more or less under cover. The Indians broke for the Mus

es, and in a very much better place, and that was the end of Musselshell City. It was at this same place that Johnson claimed to have made for himself a razor strap from a strip o

fight, and the people called it one of the biggest licki

, and then up by Carroll, and the Little Rocky Mountain, and the B

oach of the steamer, tore through the willow points; deer, both black-tail and white-tail, were often seen, and on several occasions mountain sheep were viewed-on

s before by Mr. Sturgis that Hugh and Jack would be at Benton early in July: and Joe would have with him the horses, a lodge,