PApAa'lsf ^OKT PIERRE II — SMITH 105 



a serious offense in native eyes. Before this could be arranged, the 

 Indians outside had killed all the dogs and horses of the hostile camp. 

 Gallineaux recounted numerous other details, adding that had it not 

 been for the influence of Primeau upon the hostiles within the post no 

 settlement of the affair could have been made. The situation had been 

 very dangerous for Primeau because the f riendlies, being well armed, 

 could have "cleaned out" the hostiles within the stockade. Finally, 

 allowing the latter a length of time to leave the post, the other Indians 

 pursued them for 3 days' time. 



La Plant and Claymore were also actual witnesses, the former 

 having caught Bear's Rib as he fell ; the chief had been struck while 

 standing some 20 feet south of the southeast "bastion corner" of the 

 post, where La Plant and others were preparing coffee over a campfire. 

 The body of Bear's Rib was later buried near the post by its employees 

 and numerous friendly Indians. The individuals who had killed the 

 chief were identified by Claymore as Ousta (One that limps) and 

 Tonkalla (Mouse) (DeLand, 1902, p. 368) . 



The killing of Bear's Rib is associated in one local tradition of 

 doubtful validity with a large boulder located at the base of the bluffs, 

 west of, and visible from, the site of Fort Pierre II ; according to this 

 tradition the victim was there murdered with arrows. No attempt can 

 be made to explain the confusion over the weapon responsible for the 

 killing, but it is possible that, rather than marking the site of the kill- 

 ing, the boulder actually marks the site of the burial of Bear's Rib. 



Another noteworthy event in the history of Fort Pierre II was the 

 liberation of the Lake Shetek captives and their return to safety here 

 in late November 1862. As part of a broad campaign of bloodshed, 

 on August 20, 2 days after the outbreak of the Santee Dakota in Min- 

 nesota, an attack was made on a small White settlement on Lake Shetek, 

 in Murray County, Minn., one of several such advanced frontier settle- 

 ments. Indiscriminate killings there left only 10 women and children, 

 who were made captive and were taken toward the Missouri River. 

 (The events are fully detailed, from contemporary evidence and sur- 

 viving witnesses, Indian and White, by Robinson, 1904, pp. 301-313.) 



Galpin, returning downriver with a party of miners from Idaho, 

 and accompanied by his Dakota wife, came upon Indian bands with 

 these prisoners from Lake Shetek near the mouth of Beaver Creek (in 

 present Emmons County, N. Dak.) in November, but his party was 

 fired upon, and only narrowly escaped. At the trading house of 

 Charles Primeau (i.e., at Fort Pierre II) he told of his encounter with 

 the hostile band that held the captives. A group of 10 young war- 

 riors of the Two Kettle (Teton) tribe — probably members of the "Fool 

 Soldier" military society — was organized by Waneta (also known as 

 Martin Charger, and reputedly the grandson of Meriwether Lewis) , 

 and obtained provisions from Primeau for the purpose of going to 



