CHAPTER XVII 
Appie Creek A Nortu Dakota Historic STREAM 
—Some Account oF THE Braver T'HERR— 
An Oxp CitizEn’s STATEMENT— 
A TRAPPER’S Story. 
PPLE CREEK, although but a small North Da- 
kota stream is a historic one, accepting as we 
must many of the Indian traditions concerning events 
whose corroboration we find from statements left by the 
first traders among the Mandans who claimed the valley 
as their own for a hundred years or more. It was in 
the days of the spear, bow, arrow and war club, and 
with these in their hands a large body of Sioux invad- 
ers massacred the Mandan inhabitants of the two vil- 
lages, the ruins of which are plainly marked on a raise 
of ground a mile south of the creek and about three 
miles from the present site of the Bismarck penitentiary. 
The writer visited the Mandan ruins there in the sum- 
mer of 1872, for the first and last time, and its location 
isamatter of memory only. More specimens of Mandan 
Indian relics such as pottery were found there than at 
any other of the abandoned Mandan villages on either 
side of the Missouri. The cause of which is easy to 
understand after the history of the same is known. In 
these two ill fated villages all were massacred except a 
few comely women and some infants. Their conquer- 
ors being a nomadic people, did not bother themselves 
about carting away property they had little use for— 
hence what was not destroyed at once was abandoned. 
