The Marias Massacre (also known as the Baker Massacre or the Piegan Massacre) was a massacre of Piegan Blackfeet Native peoples which was committed by the United States Army as part of the Indian Wars. The massacre occurred on January 23, 1870, in Montana Territory. Approximately 200 Native people were killed, most of whom were women, children, and older men.
As part of a campaign to suppress Mountain Chief's band of Piegan Blackfeet, the U.S. Army attacked a different band led by Chief Heavy Runner, to whom the United States government had previously promised their protection. This resulted in public outrage and a long-term shift towards a "Peace Policy" by the Federal Government, as advocated by President Ulysses S. Grant. Grant kept the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a division of the Department of the Interior although the War Department was trying to regain control. He then appointed men recommended by various religious clergy—including Quakers and Methodists—as Indian agents, in hopes that they would be free of the corruption he had previously found in the department.[1]
Background
Relations between the Niitsitapi Confederacy (composed of Blackfeet, Blood, and Piegan tribes, although frequently referred to simply as Blackfeet) and white settlers in Montana Territory had been largely hostile for years, as European Americans encroached on Native American territory and resources. In turn, some Blackfeet stole horses and raided white settlements. Rather than a widespread, organized conflict, such as Red Cloud's War,[2] a series of unrelated clashes marked the relations between the groups. By 1870, the Blackfeet had largely retreated north of the Marias River in the territory.
Malcolm Clarke
Malcolm Clarke was a rancher and fur trader who worked in association with the American Fur Company (AFC). Before his life in the West, Malcolm Clarke had attended West Point until he was expelled for fighting.[3]During his time there, he became friends with classmate William Sherman, although they lost touch after he left school. Clarke found success trading with Blackfeet tribes and eventually married a Native woman named Coth-co-co-na and had four children—Helen, Horace, Nathan, and Isabel. This marriage served as an alliance between Malcolm and the Blackfoot tribe, prolonging his fur trade with the tribe.
Clarke frequently argued with prominent AFC member Owen McKenzie throughout his trading career. This interpersonal conflict ultimately led to Clarke murdering McKenzie. After the murder, Clarke left the fur trading business out of fear of retribution from other traders, as well as the decline of the fur trade during the 1860s due to the dwindling population of bison. Clarke then moved his family to the Rocky Mountains and undertook ranching with his second wife, a mixed-race Blackfoot woman named Good Singing. They established the Clarke Horse and Cattle Ranch in 1864.[4]
Murder of Malcolm Clarke
The inciting incident of the Marias Massacre was the murder of Malcolm Clarke on August 17, 1869. He was killed by Owl Child—a young Piegan warrior—and his comrades at the Clarke Ranch. Two years prior, in 1867, Owl Child had stolen horses from Clarke as payback for losing his horses, which he blamed on the trader.[5] Consequently, Clarke and his son, Horace, beat and humiliated Owl Child in front of a group of Blackfeet. There were accounts from Blackfeet claiming Clarke had also raped Owl Child's wife, who was a cousin of Coth-co-co-na.[6] Other Blackfeet oral histories state that Owl Child's wife became pregnant from the assault, and gave birth to a child who was either stillborn or killed by tribal elders.[3][7] The Piegan warriors first shot and severely wounded Horace, who survived. They then proceeded to the house, where they shot Clarke in the chest before Owl Child ultimately killed him with an ax. Clarke's other children and his wife took shelter in the house unharmed.[5]
Clarke's murder created a climate of unrest in the region, as outraged white settlers demanded that the government protect them and suppress the outlaw Blackfeet. In response, the U.S. Army demanded that the Blackfoot Confederacy execute Owl Child and deliver his body to them in two weeks. Owl Child fled North and joined Mountain Chief's Piegan band,[8] which, although known for their hostility toward white settlers, did not conduct raids on the settlements.[2]
When the two-week deadline had passed, General Philip Sheridan sent a squadron of cavalry from the Second Cavalry Regiment, led by Major Eugene Baker,[9][10] to track down and punish the offending party. Sheridan ordered:
If the lives and property of the citizens of Montana can best be protected by striking Mountain Chief's band, I want them struck. Tell Baker to strike them hard.[11]
Sheridan intended that the squadron conduct a dawn attack on the Piegan village; it had snowed heavily, and most of the Blackfeet would be sleeping or staying inside to keep warm. This was a strategy he had used before, as he had directed George Custer to attack Black Kettle's band of Cheyenne in the Battle of Washita River.[12] Following their father's death, Nathan and Horace Clarke intercepted the Second cavalry as they passed through the Prickly Pear Valley and received permission from Colonel Philippe Regis de Trobraind to join the expedition. The two sought revenge for their father and made their expedition known to the press.[13]
The Massacre
A command led by Major Eugene M. Baker left Fort Ellis on January 6, 1870, and stopped at Fort Shaw to pick up two more companies, including scouts Joe Kipp and Joseph Cobell who were familiar with the Piegan bands. These scouts were critical to distinguishing between the unfriendly and friendly Piegan bands, as Baker was to refrain from attacking the friendly bands. Baker needed to wait until Sheridan's division inspector general Colonel James A. Hardie reviewed the situation and reported back to him.
Based on Hardie's January 13 report, Sheridan issued an order to "strike them hard".[2] Baker's command, consisting of four companies of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry, and 55 mounted men of the 13th U.S. Infantry, moved North from Fort Shaw on January 19, looking for Mountain Chief's band, which was purportedly located in the Marias River country.[2]
Baker's command came across a small Piegan camp on January 22 and captured the occupants. These prisoners informed Baker that the Big Horn and Red Horn camps—two Piegan leaders considered hostile—could be found a few miles downstream. Baker ordered a forced march that night and moved his mixed infantry and cavalry forces through rough country, locating a camp of 32 lodges in the low ground along the Marias River just South of present-day Dunkirk, Montana. Baker positioned his men on the high ground above the camp in a "natural firing range" and prepared to attack.[2]
The camp
More than three hundred Piegan people were sleeping in Heavy Runner's camp in the predawn hours of January 23. Smallpox had struck, and many people were suffering from the disease. Most of the healthy men had left the camp to hunt. So, on that bitterly cold morning, nearly all the camp's occupants were women, children, or elderly.[14]
The shooting
Scout Joe Kipp recognized that the camp belonged to Heavy Runner, considered peaceful and not to be attacked per orders from Fort Shaw commander Colonel Philippe Régis de Trobriand. When told that the camp belonged to Heavy Runner, Baker responded, "That makes no difference, one band or another of them; they are all Piegans [Blackfeet] and we will attack them." Baker then ordered a sergeant to shoot Kipp if he tried to warn the sleeping camp of Blackfeet and gave the command to attack.[15] Kipp shouted to try to prevent the attack, and Baker placed him under arrest.
The noise alerted the Piegan camp and Chief Heavy Runner. Heavy Runner ran toward the soldiers, "shouting and waving a piece of paper—a safe conduct from the Indian Bureau."[2] He was immediately shot and killed. Scout Joseph Cobell later took credit for shooting Heavy Runner. Cobell was married to the sister of Mountain Chief and wanted to divert attention from his brother-in-law's camp, which he knew was about 10 miles (16km) downstream. After Cobell's first shot, the rest of Baker's command opened fire.[2]
From the ridges above the camp, the soldiers shot into lodges filled with sleeping people. After a while, they charged into the camp. William Birth of Company K boasted that they sliced open lodge coverings with butcher knives and shot the unarmed people inside. He said: "We killed some with axes" and "gave them an awful massacreing. [sic]"[14]
Survivors' accounts
Spear Woman was six years old at the time of the massacre. She remembered waking up to the noise of barking dogs. She watched Heavy Runner run toward the troops, holding his "name paper" above his head. Then the soldiers began shooting. She ran into a nearby lodge and hid behind a bed backrest. While she waited, soldiers moved from lodge to lodge, killing her people. One soldier cut a hole in the lodge where she hid and shot everyone who moved.[14]
Buffalo Trail Woman saw soldiers surround a lodge and shoot into it in unison. They then took blankets, robes, and anything else they wanted. Finally, they tore down all the tipis and set everything on fire. She saw them burn wounded people in the conflagration.[14]
Long Time Calf escaped through the freezing waters of the Marias River, carrying her infant niece. She was eight years old.[14]
Bear Head had gone out of the camp to catch his horses when he encountered soldiers. They took him prisoner. He saw Heavy Runner run toward the soldiers, waving a paper, and then fall as the troops opened fire. He saw soldiers shoot at the tops of lodges, cutting the bindings and collapsing them onto the fire so that they smothered and burned their occupants. He watched them do this to the lodge of his mother, Fair Singing Woman, killing her and his father's three other wives and their four daughters. He saw them tear down all the remaining lodges, shoot the occupants, and burn everything, bodies, and lodges together. Powerless to save his family, Bear Head wished the soldiers had killed him, too. After the soldiers left, a few people returned to the camp from their hiding places in the brush. They buried the dead as best they could. Bear Head counted fifteen men, ninety women, and fifty children dead.[16]
Aftermath
Ninth from left Eugene M. Baker and group of army officers at Fort Ellis, Montana Territory 1871.
Learning of the raid, Mountain Chief's band escaped over the border into Canada. Piegan oral history recounts that the U.S. Army threw every dead Native American man into a fire.[17] A rough count by Baker's men showed 173 dead. Only one cavalryman, Private McKay, was killed, and another soldier was injured after falling off his horse and breaking his leg.[18] The count of casualties was disputed by scout Joe Kipp, who later said the total Blackfeet dead numbered 217.[17][19]
Conflicting reports
Colonel Regis de Trobriand reported to his superior officers on the success of the expedition, informing them that the "murderers, and marauders of last summer" had been killed. Sheridan received de Trobriand's initial report on January 29, which was then forwarded to Sherman with the promise that "this will end Indian troubles in Montana." Sheridan also praised Baker's command: "The lieutenant-general cannot commend too highly the spirit and conduct of the troops and their commander and as one of the results of this severe but necessary and well-merited punishment of these Indians, he congratulates the citizens of Montana upon the prospect of future security."[20][21] However, de Trobriand needed to explain why Baker had attacked the wrong camp. So, he implied that Baker had attacked a "hostile" camp and that Heavy Runner had been killed by "his own fault" because he had left the safety of the trading post in search of whiskey. According to de Trobriand, Mountain Chief had fled the camp with his followers.[22]
Baker filed his official report on February 18. In it, he claimed that he and his men had killed 173 Indians and had captured more than 100 women and children who were later allowed to go free. He also reported capturing more than 300 horses and burning the Piegans' lodges and supplies.[23]
Blackfeet agent William B. Pease reported the massacre to his superior, Alfred Sully, on January 30 after interviewing the expedition's officers. Sully ordered Pease to interview survivors of the massacre. Based on his interviews with officers and survivors, Pease reported a death toll of eighteen older men, ninety women, and fifty children. According to Pease, only fifteen young men aged twelve to thirty-seven were killed. Pease further reported fifty-one Blackfeet survivors: eighteen women, nineteen children, nine young men who had escaped, and five men who had been out hunting at the time of the attack.[14]
Pease's report sparked public outcry. Vincent Colyer, the secretary to the Board of Indian Commissioners and a noted humanitarian, wrote a letter to board chairman Felix Brunot alerting him to Pease's claim that only 15 men of fighting age had been killed; in contrast, the rest had been women, children, and elderly.[2] The New York Times published the letter, it was read in the House of Representatives, and news of the massacre spread nationwide. In retaliation, de Trobriand accused Pease of slander and claimed that he had filed a false report. Pease responded by demanding a full investigation to explain the discrepancy between the military and the Piegans' versions of events.[14]
When General Sherman received Baker's initial report, he ordered him to give a complete account, including "exactly the number, sex, and kind of Indians killed." Sherman wanted "to meet the public charge that of the number killed the greatest part were squaws and children." In response, Baker claimed that his men had killed 120 "able men" and 53 women and children. He also reported capturing 140 women and children who were later released because of smallpox. Baker claimed, "I believe that every effort was made by officers and men to save the non-combatants, and that such women and children as were killed were killed accidentally." Sherman's order to specify the age, sex, and condition of those killed was ignored. Baker's reports became the official military record.[22]
The army justified Baker's attack and portrayed him as a hero. De Trobriand claimed that many of the Piegan women had been killed by their husbands to protect them "from tortures among the white men which are inflicted upon white women when captured by those Red fiends." Major General Winfield Scott Hancock claimed that it was necessary for the troops to "fire into the lodges at the outset to drive the Indians out to an open contest." Hancock also claimed that fewer than forty women and children had been killed.[14] The Army and Navy Journal editorialized that "Colonel Baker's report of his scout against the hostile Piegan and Blood Indians shows incontestably that the march itself was a heroic one." The editorial further explained that it "was not known how strong the Indians might be, and huddled as they were indiscriminately in the camp, the first fury of the attack fell alike on all ages and sexes." The editorial surmised that the warriors "it seems, fled; at all events, the great majority of those left were women and children."[22]
When the Inspector General of the Military Division of the Missouri, James Allen Hardie, asked de Trobriand how they could be certain of the number, age, sex, and condition of the people killed, de Trobriand responded that "Baker never know the state, age, sex or condition of the Indians he killed. How could he?" De Trobriand deflected further questions by raising his estimates of casualties to 220 killed, of which 70 were warriors. This claim contradicted Baker's earlier reports and implied 150 non-combatant deaths. Still, de Trobriand stated that the attack was a "complete success." When Hardie ordered de Trobriand to interview guides Horace Clarke and Joe Kipp and mail their testimonies to him, de Trobriand ignored the order.[14]
For his part, guide Joe Kipp claimed that he had counted 217 casualties, mostly older men, women, and children. He also claimed that Baker was drunk on the morning of the attack. When writer Frank Bird Linderman requested an interview for a story, Kipp refused because the military would hang him if he told what he knew about the massacre.[14]
Impact on the Blackfeet
The conflict between settlers and the Blackfeet declined after the massacre. The Blackfoot Nation, weakened by smallpox, did not have the numbers to retaliate and feared the Americans as a brutal people.[19] Baker's attack facilitated the dispossession of the Blackfeet Nation. At the time of the massacre, the Blackfeet Reservation stretched across most northern Montana. In 1872 and 1873, President Grant issued executive orders reducing the size of the reservation. In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Act, which stripped an additional 17 million acres from the Blackfeet.[14]
Impact on Baker's career
Many blamed Major Baker for the massacre, the failure to capture Mountain Chief's band, and the failure to report the massacre's scale accurately.[24] The news that many in the camp had been suffering from smallpox added to the outrage about the army's attack on non-combatants. Despite the subsequent controversy, General Sheridan expressed his confidence in Baker's leadership while struggling to protect the U.S. Army politically. He succeeded in preventing an official investigation into the incident. Following the Marias Massacre, Baker was widely viewed as a strong military commander and was selected to command Fort Ellis by General Sheridan. At Fort Ellis, Baker was in command of surveying expeditions into Yellowstone in 1871 and 1872, culminating in a skirmish between his forces and Indian warriors led by Sitting Bull at Pryor's Creek on August 14, 1872.[25] Baker was later arrested by General Hancock for drunkenness in October 1872. He was never charged but was relegated to purchasing horses for the army.[25] Baker died at age 47 on December 19, 1884, at Fort Walla Walla, Washington;[20] a January 1885 obituary listed his cause of death as "general debility."
Impact on the Clarke family
As an interracial family, the Clarkes struggled to find their place in both white and Native communities. In the latter years of his life, Horace Clarke would say the two central events of his life were the murder of his father and the military campaign that followed. As a result of his role in the campaign, he would be haunted by visions of Indians while traveling in Canada. Much of his life was spent repressing memories of the slaughter and attempting to forget the details of that day.[26] Horace—who was half-Indian—was ultimately pardoned for his role in the massacre by the Native community, who viewed his participation as justified by a desire to avenge his father and because of his social and economic standing in the community.
Nathan Clarke was "stabbed to the heart" on September 19, 1872 in Deep Creek, Montana by James Swan, a Métis man. Clarke's death was reported in the Helena Weekly Herald with the cause: "Clark wanted Swan's daughter, to which both Swan and the girl objected."[27] Andrew Graybill's The Red and the White portrays Clarke's stabbing as an expression of the "self-loathing" of "some people of mixed ancestry," asserting that James Swan preferred his daughter marry "a white man."[28] This accusation lacks credibility, given the Swan family's hosting of Louis Riel at their home during his time in Montana[29] and the family's subsequent participation in the North-West Resistance. The daughter in question was likely Adelaide Swan, as she married Alexandre Azure (a Métis man) on November 26, 1872.[30]
Historical significance
Sheridan had been attempting to replace Indian agents with military personnel, as he believed that they could better control the Indians. Sheridan reported to Congress that he could save the government $3.5 million in annual transportation costs alone. Although the Army Appropriation bill in 1870 allowed Sheridan to take over Indian affairs, his involvement in the massacre prevented him from advancing.[21] Following the massacre, President Ulysses S. Grant adopted a "Peace Policy." and ended discussions about returning control of Indian affairs to the U.S. Army.[31] In an attempt to raise the quality of appointees, Grant appointed as Indian agents numerous Quakers and other persons affiliated with religious groups.[32][citation needed]
Order of battle
United States Army, Major Eugene M. Baker, commanding.
For many years, students and faculty from Blackfeet Community College have held an annual memorial on January 23 at the site. One year they placed 217 stones at the site to commemorate the victims, as counted by Joe Kipp.
In 2010, the Baker Massacre Memorial was erected at the site.
In popular culture
Fools Crow, a novel written by Native American writer James Welch, culminates with the Marias Massacre.
Gustavus Cheyney Doane was honored for participation in the first geological survey of what became Yellowstone National Park by naming one of the peaks "Mount Doane". The mountain was renamed in 2022 to First Peoples Mountain.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hutton, Paul Andrew (1985). "Forming Military Indian Policy: 'The Only Good Indian Is a Dead Indian'". Phil Sheridan and His Army. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. pp.181–200. ISBN0-8032-2329-3.
1 2 Andrew R. Graybill, The Red and the White: A Family Saga of the American West, Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2013. p. 57.
↑ Graybill, Andrew (2013). The Red and the White: A Family Saga of the American West. New York: Liveright Publishing. p.92.
↑ Wilson, Wesley (Winter 1965). "The U.S. Army and the Piegans: The Baker Massacre on the Marias, 1870". North Dakota History. 32: 40–59.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Henderson, Rodger C. (Spring 2018). "The Piikuni and the U.S. Army's Piegan Expedition: Competing Narratives of the 1870 Massacre on the Marias River". Montana The Magazine of Western History.
1 2 Hutton, Paul (Spring 1982). "Phil Sheridan's Pyrrhic Victory: The Piegan Massacre, Army Politics, and the Transfer Debate". Montana The Magazine of Western History. 32: 32–43.
1 2 3 Wylie, Paul R. (2016). Blood on the Marias: The Baker Massacre. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN9780806151571.
↑ Black, George (2012). "The View from Mount Washburn". Empire of Shadows: The Epic Story of Yellowstone. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp.3, 429. ISBN9780312383190.
1 2 Lubetkin, John (Summer 2006). "'No Fighting Is to Be Apprehended': Major Eugene Baker, Sitting Bull, the Northern Pacific Railroad's 1872 Western Yellowstone Surveying Expedition". The Magazine of Western History. 56: 28–41.
↑ Graybill, Andrew (2013). The Red and the White: A Family Saga of the American West. New York: Liveright. pp.143–161.
↑ Utley, Robert M. (1973). "Grant's Peace Policy, 1869–74". Frontier Regulars the United States Army and the Indian, 1866–1891. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. pp.191–192. ISBN0-8032-9551-0.
The Piegan are an Algonquian-speaking people from the North American Great Plains. They are the largest of three Blackfoot-speaking groups that make up the Blackfoot Confederacy; the Siksika and Kainai are the others. The Piegan dominated much of the northern Great Plains during the nineteenth century.
The Blackfoot Confederacy, Niitsitapi, or Siksikaitsitapi, is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Blackfeet people: the Siksika ("Blackfoot"), the Kainai or Blood, and two sections of the Peigan or Piikani – the Northern Piikani (Aapátohsipikáni) and the Southern Piikani. Broader definitions include groups such as the Tsúùtínà (Sarcee) and A'aninin who spoke quite different languages but allied with or joined the Blackfoot Confederacy.
The Sand Creek massacre was a massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho people by the U.S. Army in the American Indian Wars that occurred on November 29, 1864, when a 675-man force of the Third Colorado Cavalry under the command of U.S. Volunteers Colonel John Chivington attacked and destroyed a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho people in southeastern Colorado Territory, killing and mutilating an estimated 69 to over 600 Native American people. Chivington claimed 500 to 600 warriors were killed. However, most sources estimate around 150 people were killed, about two-thirds of whom were women and children. The location has been designated the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site and is administered by the National Park Service. The massacre is considered part of a series of events known as the Colorado Wars.
The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were initially fought by European governments and also by the colonists in North America, and then later on by the United States government and American settlers, against various American Indian tribes. These conflicts occurred in the United States from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the end of the 19th century. The various wars resulted from a wide variety of factors, the most common being the desire of settlers and governments for Indian tribes' lands. The European powers and their colonies also enlisted allied Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; some entailed cycles of violent reprisal.
The Battle of the Washita River occurred on November 27, 1868, when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's Southern Cheyenne camp on the Washita River.
Peta Nocona, also known as Puhtocnocony, or Tah-con-ne-ah-pe-ah, the son of Puhihwikwasu'u, or Iron Jacket, was a chief of the Comanche Quahadi band. He married Cynthia Ann Parker, who had been taken as a captive in a raid and was adopted into the tribe by Tabby-nocca's family. Among their children was Quanah Parker, the last war chief of the Comanche.
The Colorado War was an Indian War fought in 1864 and 1865 between the Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho, and allied Brulé and Oglala Sioux peoples versus the U.S. Army, Colorado militia, and white settlers in Colorado Territory and adjacent regions. The Kiowa and the Comanche played a minor role in actions that occurred in the southern part of the Territory along the Arkansas River. The Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux played the major role in actions that occurred north of the Arkansas River and along the South Platte River, the Great Platte River Road, and the eastern portion of the Overland Trail. The United States government and Colorado Territory authorities participated through the 1st Colorado Cavalry Regiment, often called the Colorado volunteers. The war was centered on the Colorado Eastern Plains, extending eastward into Kansas and Nebraska.
The Battle of Whitestone Hill was the culmination of the 1863 operations against the Sioux or Dakota people in Dakota Territory. Brigadier General Alfred Sully attacked a village September 3–5, 1863. The Native Americans in the village included Yanktonai, Santee, and Teton (Lakota) Sioux. Sully killed, wounded, or captured 300 to 400 Sioux, including women and children, at a cost of about 60 casualties. Sully would continue the conflict with another campaign in 1864.
Running Eagle (Pi'tamaka) was a Native American woman and war chief of the Blackfeet Tribe known for her success in battle.
The Battle of Pease River, also known as the Pease River Massacre or the Pease River fight, occurred on December 19, 1860, near the present-day town of Margaret, Texas in Foard County, Texas, United States. The town is located between Crowell and Vernon within sight of the Medicine Mounds just outside present-day Quanah, Texas.
Darrell Robes Kipp was a Native American educator, documentary filmmaker, and historian. Kipp was an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana and was instrumental in teaching and preserving the Blackfoot language as the director of the Piegan Institute.
Gustavus Cheyney Doane was a U.S. Army Cavalry Captain, explorer, inventor and Civil War soldier who played a prominent role in the exploration of Yellowstone as a member of the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition. Doane was a participant in the Marias Massacre of approximately 200 Piegan Blackfeet people.
John Louis Clarke was a Blackfoot artist and woodcarver from East Glacier, Montana who was deaf and mute, he was noted for his wildlife carvings related to Glacier National Park. His Blackfoot name was "Cutapuis".
James Willard Schultz, or Apikuni, was an American writer, explorer, Glacier National Park guide, fur trader and historian of the Blackfeet Indians. He operated a fur trading post at Carroll, Montana 47°34′25″N108°22′24″W and lived among the Pikuni tribe during the period 1880-82. He was given the name Apikuni by the Pikuni chief, Running Crane. Apikuni in Blackfeet means "Spotted Robe." Schultz is most noted for his 37 books, most about Blackfoot life, and for his contributions to the naming of prominent features in Glacier National Park.
Fort Shaw was a United States Army fort located on the Sun River 24 miles west of Great Falls, Montana, in the United States. It was founded on June 30, 1867, and abandoned by the Army in July 1891. It later served as a school for Native American children from 1892 to 1910. Portions of the fort survive today as a small museum. The fort lent its name to the community of Fort Shaw, Montana, which grew up around it.
The fur trade in Montana was a major period in the area's economic history from about 1800 to the 1850s. It also represents the initial meeting of cultures between indigenous peoples and those of European ancestry. British and Canadian traders approached the area from the north and northeast focusing on trading with the indigenous people, who often did the trapping of beavers and other animals themselves. American traders moved gradually up the Missouri River seeking to beat British and Canadian traders to the profitable Upper Missouri River region.
Helen Piotopowaka Clarke was a Piegan Blackfeet and Scottish American actress, educator, and bureaucrat who pioneered as a mixed-race woman in her fields, becoming one of the first women elected to public office in Montana.
The Cracon du Nez occasionally also misspelled as the Crocon du Nez, is a sharp sided ridge that divides the Teton River and the Missouri River in Chouteau County, Montana, at a point where the increasing erosion at a large bend of the Missouri River has caused the two rivers to be a mere third of a mile apart. The Cracon du Nez ridge is an example of Missouri River stream bank erosion developing toward a future "stream capture" of the Teton River flow. A trail runs along the top of the ridge, where in 1865 Little Dog, a chief of the Piegan Blackfoot tribe was ambushed and killed by rebellious and jealous warriors from his own Piegan band. An abandoned railroad tunnel runs under the ridge, part of the former Montana Central Railway branch line of the Great Northern railroad running from Havre to Fort Benton, Great Falls, Helena and Butte. U.S. Highway 87 passes by the ridge and allows the traveler to see the Cracon du Nez. The name is derived from the French and means bridge of the nose, and was probably given by the French boatmen who comprised keelboat crews in the fur trade in the upper Missouri River in Montana during the early decades of the 1800s.
Mountain Chief was a South Piegan warrior of the Blackfoot Tribe. Mountain Chief was also called Big Brave (Omach-katsi) and adopted the name Frank Mountain Chief. Mountain Chief was involved in the 1870 Marias Massacre, signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868, and worked with anthropologist Frances Densmore to interpret folksong recordings.
Eugene Mortimer Baker was a major in the United States Army, and served as an officer in the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in the Western Territories of the United States. He is most known for his role in the Marias Massacre in early 1870 and from the lack of discipline he faced following the event.
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