156 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLy. 185 
couriers and messengers. Often the scouts traveled to Montana points 
such as Poplar, Plentywood, and even as far up the Yellowstone River 
as Glendive. 
The band could have returned to the reservation at any time during 
their exile. Indeed, all of them at one time or another visited the 
Agency headquarters, where they were given presents such as coffee 
and tea. One such visit was described by Sperry (1875, p. 241). 
A band of Gros Ventre seceders, numbering about 100, spend nearly all their 
time near Fort Buford, one hundred and thirty-five miles above this place, and 
although considered as belonging to this agency and entitled to its privileges, 
are not enrolled here. Small delegations from their camp visit us occasionally 
and receive the regular ration as long as they remain. 
Crow-Flies-High himself sometimes visited the Agency. Murphy, the 
agent, recorded one such visit (1890, p. 30) : 
Two or three days ago the Chief Crow-Flies high came to the agency accom- 
panied by a few of his men, one of whom wanted his horses shod. 
The original reasons for the exodus were more or less forgotten over 
the decades. Instead, new obstacles faced them in making an adjust- 
ment to reservation life. They chose to remain away rather than con- 
form to the program of integration which was being followed by 
governmental officials. If they returned to the reservation, for ex- 
ample, they would have had to give up their children to go to school, 
and they would have been required to assume an allotment of land 
and its cultivation. Moreover, a tribal court, consisting of an “in- 
telligent Indian with Judicial ability” from each of the three tribes 
on the reservation, was given powers to break polygynous marriages 
and to mete out punishment for other customs which white men found 
offensive (Gifford, 1888, p. 42). None of these prospects appealed to 
the band. Thus, the cause of their departure was one thing, but the 
reason for their absence from the reservation for 25 years was another 
matter. 
By 1884 relationships between the exile band and the military post 
at Fort Buford had deteriorated. In autumn of that year the exiles 
were ordered away by the commanding officer. According to the In- 
dian A gent they settled on the Little Knife River (Gifford, 1888, p. 29). 
More than likely this settlement was across the Missouri River from 
the mouth of the Little Knife River at Crow-Flies-High Village. Two 
years later John Goodall built a homesteader’s cabin about 1 mile 
west of the village, but his presence does not seem to have bothered 
the Indians. 
In 1889 an Indian agent, Thomas H. B. Jones, and Col. W. W. 
Junklin met with Chief Crow-Flies-High and discussed the return of 
the band to the reservation. Jones (1889, p. 147) reported the meet- 
ing thus: 
