The Battle of the Bear's Paw

            The Battle of the Bear’s Paw-1877

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              The account of Louis Shambo

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     Louis Shambo was a Montana pioneer and Scout who guided such legendary figures as General George Crook and Colonel Nelson Miles during the Indian Wars of the Northern plains.

     In 1877, as a guide for Miles, he located Chief Joseph’s band of Nez Perce South of where Chinook, Montana is now located. The Nez Perce had fought a running battle with pursuing US Army forces from Oregon to Montana. Winning all of their battles, by September they were within 50 miles of linking up with Sitting Bull’s Sioux warriors in Canada.

     Thinking General Howard’s pursuing force was far behind, they stopped at Snake Creek to hunt and rest. It was a fatal mistake. Unforeseen by them a new opponent, Col Miles, was fast approaching from the Southeast. If only they had not hesitated.

          In 1916 Louis Shambo, the frontier scout, was living in Havre, Montana. He granted a rare interview where he shared his experience in the battle that followed. Here is Shambo’s account of the fight:

          "I had been one of Crook's scouts and had made a trip to the Redwater, Dry Fork, etc., with 'Yellowstone Kelly.' I was introduced to Miles by Kelly. Miles wanted me to work for him and said he would give me the very best wages. I asked him what they were and he said 'Seventy-five dollars a month.' As I was at that time packing and getting $125, I did not feel that the wages offered were any inducement so I told him that the offer was too low but that I would consider the same price from him that I was getting. His reply was not one that made me feel very friendly toward him as he said in a tone, which I did not like, that he could get good men for forty dollars, placing too much emphasis on good. I turned on my heel and told him to get his forty dollar men, thinking then that I would see him in h(ell) before I would work for him at any price. When we got into the Little Missouri the scouts they had did not know the country. They came to me for information and I told Captain Clark of the Second Cavalry to look to Miles' forty dollar men as I did not wish to interfere with their plans.

     "When we got to the mouth of Powder river a fellow came from Keogh to tell us to come to that post as fast as we could. We went to Keogh to get ready to go after the Nez Perces. We crossed the Yellowstone in two or three days. The night after we crossed the head man came to me and said: 'You will not go on this trip.' I asked him why, and he replied that he wanted me to break in a bunch of mules to pack. My reply was that I might not want to stay; that I might go back to Wyoming.

     “I went to the quartermaster and told him I was going to Miles City and when he wanted me, he could send for me. In the course of four or five days an orderly hunted me up and said the commanding officer wanted to see me right away. I went over and he told me that the Nez Perces had burned a bull train at the mouth of Cow Creek and asked me if I knew where it was. I told him yes. To my answer he said: 'Here is a dispatch and I want you to take it to General Miles.' I told him that I was no scout, that I did not go much on General Miles anyway from what he had said to me, and as they could get forty dollar men they had better get them. He turned to me and said: 'You had better go, Louie, as Miles will be sure to make it all right with you; and anyway there is no one else here that we can depend on.' A little of that kind of talk and I fell for it and told him I would go. 'When will you be ready?' My reply was that all I wanted was a good horse and I would go.

     “I started at once and overtook Miles the third day out at the east end of the Bear's Paw. I had a little trouble to get inside the guards but did so and delivered my dispatch to the General and went to bed. The next morning, so early that I could see no sense in it, they called me to go to Miles' tent.

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                                Bear’s Paw Battle.

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                    Day 1 – September 30, 1877

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     "He explained to me that the guides did not know the country anymore and wanted to know which way the Indians would go, as they were supposed to join the Gros Ventres. I told him that we were in the land of the Gros Ventres right now. He then replied to me that he wanted me to find the Nez Perces. 'I will give you ten Cheyenne scouts, see if you can find any trace of these people, and I will make it all right with you, money will be no object.'

"I started with the Indians and only had gone about four miles when I found their trail. I sent an Indian back telling him the place where the Indians were going and for him to come on. We had only proceeded seven or eight miles when we saw a bunch of them running buffalo, probably ten or twelve of them. They soon discovered us, as they had glasses. I soon noticed that they were the Nez Perces as they had striped blankets—the other tribes had solid colors. I sent another Indian back to tell the General that we had found the Nez Perces and that they had better hurry up. The Nez Perces took what meat they wanted, as we did not crowd, not getting nearer than one-half mile.

     "When they started for camp, we followed but could see no lodges but could see their horses, which were on the northeast side of the creek. We had no business any nearer those fellows, so hung around ‘till Miles came.

     "Finally, he came up and asked me what I had found. I told him what I had seen and that they were camped on Snake creek. He wanted to know how far and I told him about four or five miles. He told me he wanted me to take him to their camp and I told him I could not see the camp but that I knew where they all went in and came out. We got within a mile of them but could not see them. Again, he told me to take him right where I thought they were and had the bugle blow for 'double quick.'

     "We did not see a thing of them till we got within seventy or eighty yards. (This was between eleven and twelve o'clock in the morning.) The Indians were waiting for us and opened fire and Miles stopped his command right there instead of making a charge—and it was right there he made his big loss. (We buried twenty-two men and they were dying all the way back.) I was in the lead and thought that Miles was coming. The Indians shot my horse three times and he fell dead and I was behind him for an hour or more or until the bullets began to come through and made my fortifications no pleasant place to stay. There was a boulder about four or five feet from me and I wiggled to and got behind it. It was not a large rock, only an inch or two above my head when I was lying close to the ground. Pretty soon 'Yellowstone Kelley' and Haddow, (John Haddo, Co B., 5th Infantry) a soldier, came to me and wanted to know if I saw anything. I told them I did and that I was getting some shots that counted. Haddow crowded up close to me and placed his arm around me and I told him to lie low or they would get him. I had no more than told him when a bullet hit him just above the collar bone and ranged down. I looked back and saw that he was shot to die, so I asked Kelley to take him by the legs and pull him off and we would see if we could get him to a place of safety. We started but he died on our hands. (In another accounting of the battle Shambo said he “got” nine Indians from this position using his and Haddow’s ammunition.)

   "Those Indians were the best shots I ever saw. I would put a small stone on the top of my rock and they would get it every time. They were hitting the rock behind where I was lying which made me duck so hard that it made my nose bleed.

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                                Day 2 - October 1, 1877

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     "The next morning after the first day's fight a bunch of buffalo were coming into sight and the soldiers thought it was Sitting Bull's outfit. They could see black horses, pinto horses and every other kind and they called me and said that Sitting Bull was coming.

     "I told them it was buffalo. You see it had snowed that night and the snow had blown into the hair of the buffalo and made them look white and spotted. I told them it was buffalo and look a horse that belonged to Miles and rode over and killed one and brought some of the meat back. Miles gave me fits for it. I believe that if the Indians had charged right then the soldiers would have run like hell. I have been in harder fights than that and will always believe that if we had not hesitated, we would have ended that fight in fifteen minutes as there were twice as many white men as there were Indian warriors.

     "Surely that gives something that has never before been written for the people to think about when they study the fight at Snake creek. The buffalo hunters that they had out had kept the Indians from being surprised, and they had returned to camp in time to be prepared to meet Miles with surprise and with such deadly effect that he waited and gave the Indians time to fortify.”

     This is where Shambo’s account ends, but the battle drug on for a four more days. From other accounts this is how the fight proceeded:

     The Nez Perce were well supplied having just raided a steamboat landing depot at Cow Island on the Missouri. The had also captured a train of freight wagons. They stopped at Snake Creek because of the abundant wildlife, especially the buffalo, they found there. They were busy hunting and preparing the meat for storage. They knew General Howard’s pursuing force was far behind them. They did not know about the troops under Miles approaching from the Southeast.

     The site they chose for their camp was in a slight depression, difficult to see from a distance and a natural shelter. They had access to ample water. The hunters seen by Shambo in the morning had warned the tribe of the approaching danger. They quickly set about enhancing the natural defenses of the camp by digging riffle pits and shelters for the non-combatants in the soft alluvial soil of the creek bank.

     By the time Col Miles sent his cavalry and mounted infantry charging toward their camp, the Nez Perce were more than ready. Most of the Army’s casualties occurred in those first few deadly moments as the troopers approached the lines of the Nez Perce. After that, the battle took on the elements of a siege. The Army had two artillery pieces that they tried to deploy. One was a rapid-loading Hotchkiss gun and this was the first time ever in which the gun was used in battle. Their initial efforts to place the guns in firing position resulted in such heavy fire from the Nez Perce that one of the guns was abandoned in the field. After it was recovered, neither gun proved effective against the dug in defenders.

     During the siege, the Nez Perce horse herd had been driven off. This took away a vital means of escape. The Nez Perce had sent messengers to enlist the aid of Sitting Bull in Canada and the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre of Fort Belknap. Sitting Bull never came to their assistance. The other emissaries were reportedly killed by the Fort Belknap Indians. Finally, General Howard showed up, tipping the manpower balance heavily in favor of the Army. Chief Joseph entered into negotiations and on October 5th, he agreed to a surrender. Miles and Howard assured him that he would be allowed to return to his Idaho homeland and that none of his warriors would be executed. Joseph concluded the negotiations with his famous, “From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”

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                        The Aftermath

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     Casualties among the opposing forces were roughly equal, 20-25 killed on each side. Of the 430 or so Nez Perce who surrendered, only 79 were warriors. During the battle about 100 Nez Perce under the leadership of White Bird escaped capture by slipping between the lines in the darkness. They made their way to Canada where their descendants still live today.

     Other escapees were not so lucky. The Gros Ventre and Assiniboine residents of the Fort Belknap Agency proved not to be their friends. Miles had warned them of severe consequences if they helped the Nez Perce. They took this warning seriously. There are accounts of individuals and small parties of Nez Perce escapees being killed by Fort Belknap Indians. One 8-year old girl reportedly did survive and was raised by a family on the reservation.                  Another “very much abused” Nez Perce woman was recovered from a Gros Ventre camp by Canadian Mounties and returned to White Bird’s camp.

     After the battle the citizens of Fort Benton became increasingly apprehensive about the presence of the hostile Sioux and Nez Perce in the nearby Cypress Hills of Canada. Their hastily formed Home Guard and the handful of troops assigned to Fort Benton and Cow Island had proven to be no match for the Indians. As a consequence, Fort Assiniboine was established near today’s town of Havre in 1879. Louis Shambo is said to have helped the Army pick the location. He worked there for a number of years as a scout, interpreter and teamster. Meanwhile Canadian RCMP Major James Walsh had befriended Sitting Bull and was doing an exceptional job of maintaining order amongst the Indians of the Border Country.

     Contrary to what they had been promised, the Nez Perce were relocated to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. During this diaspora, many died of disease. In 1885 the Nez Perce were finally allowed to return to small reservations in Idaho and Washington State. Years later Louis Shambo said, “In my opinion they got a dirty deal.” Miles, a General by now and commanding the Department of the Columbia, took credit for the return of the Nez Perce to the Northwest. Joseph died on the Coieville, Washington Reservation in 1904. Shambo died in Havre, Montana in 1918.

REFERENCES:

In the Land of Chinook: The Story of Blaine County, A. J. Noyes, (1917).

Grit, Guts and Gusto: A History of Hill County. Hill County Bicentennial Committee; (1976).

The Benton Record. (Fort Benton, Mont. Terr.). October 12, 1877.

The Benton Record. (Fort Benton, Mont. Terr.) December 14, 1877.