649 
April 27, 1907 ] 
asked General Meagher what was expected 
me as marshal, and he replied, “Keep order, 
that the chiefs are seated in their allotted 
ces, and that the interpreters are ordered to 
mg all chiefs and principal warriors to the 
iuncil.” 
|At the -appointed time, all had come except 
JJ'j Gros Ventres. Tunica, the interpreter, re- 
j.rned from the camp, saying that the Gros 
ntres chiefs were afraid to come. The Com- 
‘ssioners commanded me. as sergeant at arms, 
bring the chiefs and head men of the tribe 
the council. I was armed at all points. Dick 
is saddled, and I went to the village. I got 
of the leading chiefs, who wanted to bring 
jeir arms with them, but I gave them to 
derstand that this would not be permitted by 
e white chiefs in council, that no one could 
ter the council chamber armed, except my- 
f. I gave them assurance that no harm would 
me to them in council, and soon returned with 
! e chiefs, and placed them on the left of the 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Indians understand their meeting as an Apache 
would know of Latin. 
My eating house now did a rushing business, 
for that evening I was asked to give supper to 
all the chiefs. It would have been amusing to 
any one with a knowledge of Indian character 
to see the warriors who came to me, when they 
heard I was going to give all the chiefs their 
supper, and claimed to be chiefs. We did feed 
perhaps a dozen leading warriors besides the 
chiefs. I notified the cook to be prepared to 
feed about forty Indians. We had plenty to eat, 
but no fancy dishes. The cook was well up in 
his business. 
After supper, the Commissioners called the in¬ 
terpreter and me to council with them, for they 
saw that some change must be made in the pro¬ 
ceedings. We told them that they must con¬ 
dense, must leave out “party of the first part,’’ 
“party of the second part,’’ “for and in con¬ 
sideration of, etc.,” and must state in as few 
words as possible what they desired of the In- 
concluded by 5 P- M. All the Indians un¬ 
derstood what was wanted of them and the pre¬ 
liminaries were thus shortened by at least thirty- 
nine days. The treaty was not satisfactory to 
all the Indians, but they had to abide by it. 
Without the influence of some of the moun¬ 
taineers—who never received any credit for the 
part they took in bringing it about—that treaty 
would not have been made at that time. 
The next day began the distributing of the 
goods. It would take the pen of a Mark Twain 
to describe the scenes that took place. Two 
days were required to get through this distribu¬ 
tion, and the goods that remained and were to 
he issued to half breeds were put in my charge 
for distribution when the breeds had all arrived. 
The next morning, the Commissioners paid 
me out of the Indian goods for feeding the In¬ 
dians and for my trip across the country, and 
I had Jack paid for his time, also from the 
goods. The Commissioners then left for Helena 
with Agent Gad. E. Upson. He knew as much 
A BULL TEAM IN FORT BENTON. 
A MULE TEAM IN FORT BENTON IN 1877. 
egans. They had been acquainted with each 
her before the war, and had been good 
ends. 
It was 1 P. M. when the clerk produced a roll 
! closely written sheets of paper. It looked to 
p to be two quires; the treaty which came 
>m the Indian Commissioner at Washington. 
1 ie clerk began reading it by sections, and then 
i lited to have it interpreted. The Piegans, Bloods 
| d Blackfeet needed but one interpreter, but 
1 Gros Ventres had to have their own inter- 
iter. It took fifteen or twenty minutes to get 
| 'ough with one sentence, and even then neither 
j erpreter nor Indians understood one tenth of 
meaning. I saw that it would take forty 
ys to get through, if a change was not brought 
out. Little Dog, the Piegan chief, told his in- 
preter to inform the Commissioner that the 
uncil adjourned until next day in order to 
i uncil adjourned until to-morrow in order to 
! nsult on the mode of procedure to be used 
I ereafter and the language to be employed in 
! "rying through a treaty with a wild, untamed 
I' of Indians, ninety per cent, of whom had no 
[ sire to mix with or deal with any whites, 
j cept to trade for certain commodities which 
I ;y stood in need of. The Commissioners 
1 ew as little of how to proceed in making those 
dians. The clerk got to work and in half an 
hour had the forty closely written sheets of 
paper condensed to less than one which con¬ 
tained the meaning of the whole. 
At 9 o’clock next morning, the council met 
again, all the chiefs being in their seats. The 
Small Robe band of Piegans claimed the land 
on the south side of the Missouri River as far 
as Musselshell River. They ceded in the treaty 
all their rights to this territory. Other Piegans 
and the Blood Indians claimed territory along 
the summit of the Rocky Mountains south to 
the Little Blackfoot River and thence southeast 
to the Missouri River. In the treaty they ceded 
all the territory from the mouth of the Marias 
River up the Marias to the Teton River, follow¬ 
ing the midle of that stream to its source, for 
a stipulated sum to be given them for twenty 
years. The Gros Ventres had no land to cede. 
The Blackfeet also had no land to cede, and 
according to the views of many they had no 
business in this treaty because they lived in, and 
claimed to belong to, what they called Red Coat 
Land, namely, that belonging to King George. 
Some of them wore King George’s medals, and 
showed that they felt proud of them. All the 
country east of the Teton River was set apart 
for a Piegan and Blood reserve.. The treaty was 
about an Indian as I did about the inhabitants 
of Jupiter. 
About 10 A. M., one hour after the Commis¬ 
sioners had left Little Dog* Chief of the South 
Piegans, came into town and found us. 1 his 
man was one of the noblest and bravest chiefs 
living at that day. He was a friend to the whites, 
and had killed four of the under chiefs of his 
tribe for warring against the whites. He could 
muster about 250 warriors. When he found me 
he told me that the North Piegans under Moun¬ 
tain Chief, the Bloods and the Blackfeet had se¬ 
cured some whiskey and were getting ugly and 
singing their war songs. Little Dog advised the 
whites to remain in their houses. He believed 
that these northern people would attack the Gros 
Ventres camp and might also shoot at the whites. 
Some Indian women had warned 11s of the situation 
just before Little Dog came in. Now the agent 
had a 12-pound brass cannon. We put this in 
a doby building which was used as a ware¬ 
house, and through the wall knocked a hole 
about twelve inches in diameter for the muzzle, 
as well as several port holes for rifles. There 
was no one present who knew much about 
cannons, but we loaded the piece with six 
pounds of powder rammed tight, twenty pounds 
of one ounce balls, and some smaller bullets, for 
