Show THEY POISONED 300 How Mont Pioneers Retaliated Upon Murderous Sioux Helena Independent The early history his-tory of the west is made up of thrilling thrill-ing stories of privation and adventure arid there still remain many who took part in those stirring times when the plains swarmed with hostile Indians v and the mountain regions were under f the control of the still more savage outlaws who robbed and murdered with little restraint Montana has among its residents hundreds of pioneers pio-neers each of whom could tell of interesting in-teresting personal experiences that go to make up the history of the country I Some of these stories find thtir way into the newspapers and are presrved but the vast majority of them will die with the men and women to whom they I are personally known The State Historical society has long made an effort to preserve stories of the west in which residents of Montana were in any way interested Every contribution con-tribution of an historical nature is preserved pre-served but while the collection of the society is steadily increasing there is still a vast amount of material that might he secured to it if the pioneers would take more interest in recording early day incidents The last issue of the Bozeman Avant Courier which was received by the society yesterday contained con-tained a story of frontier hist > ry that it is believed was never before published pub-lished although it records no less an event than the killing of almost COO Indians In-dians Here is the story Ed Ald ison has just added to his collection of curios at this office an arrowhead ar-rowhead with a history I killed a man back in the early days of 64 when the Indian in all his war paint and savage splendor roamed the whole west I is about three inches in length J cut from the shank of a spade or shovel shov-el and ground almost as carefully to an edge as a well made knife or razor much liner finished that the usual run of Indian arrowheads I was brought to this country by Peter Le Beau of Salesville who tells the following interesting 1 in-teresting story In 1864 Mr Le Beau in company with something over a hundred other emigrants and an escort of nearly 00 soldiers left Minnesota for Idaho all the present states of Idaho and Montana Mon-tana being then comprised under that name The train was in command of Captain Fisk elected captain of the expedition by the emigrants The troops were under Lieutenant Smith About 50 miles from the Little Missouri in the Bad Lands of Dakota one of the train thought he saw two Indian heads peering over the bank of the stream on I which they were encamped The train I was doubled and guards put out but I no attack was made In crossing the stream one of the army wagons containing con-taining the officers stores was overturned I over-turned and a detail of six men was left to get it out while the train went on The Indians soon began a desultory attack at-tack on the train without however I I doing much damage As the one wogan I did not appear it was finally decided I to return for I Not a man was left alive They had been scalped and the bodies were hastily buried in one common I com-mon grave Later the grave was dug open by wolves and when the expedition I expedi-tion returned that way only the skeletons skele-tons were found Mr Le Beau found I this arrow which had been driven I through one poor fellows heart and I kept it until giving it to the present owner On breaking camp the soldiers took I a gruesome revenge on their pursuers The hunting had been very poor that year and the Indians were well nigh 1 starving This the soldiers knew and they laid their plans accordingly Taking I Tak-ing a box of hardtack they put strychnine strych-nine in every piece then nailed up the box and put it in the smolderms campfire as they got ready to leave knowing that the hungry Indians would soon find it They did and almost 00 of them as was afterward learned I were killed by the deadly drug Afterward I Af-terward when the party returned to I the east having given up the thought of going farther west in the face of the Indian opposition they found numbers 1 of grinning skulls gnawed bare by wolves to corroborate the ghastly taleCaptain Fisk despatched 13 soldiers General Sully who had a large company com-pany of soldiers at Fort Rice in Dakota Da-kota for aid A strong force was immediately im-mediately sent out for that purpose In the meantime the emigrants had been undergoing a regular siege xney had left their river camp and been caught out in the open prairie where for 1 days they had no water but what they found in buffalo wallows In one of the fights two Indians were very troublesome Mr LeBeau succeeded suc-ceeded in killing them both and capturing cap-turing a fine horse with a beautifully ornamented buckskin saddle which had followed them The saddle was given to Lieutenant Smith the gallant young officer who had led in that attack at-tack The horse he was persuaded to sell to Captain Fisk for the govern sel ment to replace some cavalry horse 1 that had been killed The government neverpaid the bill and 11 LeBeau still has the warrants When aid finally came to the party General Sully sent along peremptory orders for all the soldiers to return to Fort Rice Captain Fisk who still wished to proceed had no choice but to obey Mr LeBeau with seven companions com-panions sold off their ox teams and floated down the Missouri to Omaha then little more than a thriving village lage A year later he came to this country and not Ions afterward purchased pur-chased his fine farm where he still resides The corroboration of the killing of the 300 warriors by means of strychnine f j strych-nine forms in itself an interesting romance I ro-mance A Mrs Kelly who had been I traveling west had been capturedthe sole survivor of the partyand held by I this band of Indians for heavy ransomS ransom-S The Indians opened negotiations several 1 sev-eral times but never fulfilled the promises I prom-ises they made They were in camp five days ride from Fort Sully Fi i nally a daring Indian scout attached i to the garrison volunteered to rescue her Taking the best two horses in the garrison private property of the officers he rode to the camp early in the afternoon when the braves were all out on the hunt took the woman i from the chiefs tepee and fed to the I post In a few moments the prairie j was covered with howling pursuers > but the Indian ponies were no match ft for the thoroughbred racers and the I two reached the post in safety Mrs Kelly had personal knowledge of the i number who died from the effects of I the deadly drug as she was with the attacking party She was sent rejoicing re-joicing to her friends in the east |