Gros Ventre Stories, continued.
Gros Ventre story told to Thomas Bad Road by Peter Capture, who was a member of this war party in which Yellow Teeth was the defender of the party.
There was a branch of the Gros Ventre encampment camped on Big Rock Creek, Big Peoples Creek, up near Many Buttes Mountains, now called Bear Paw Mountains. On the eastern extremity of these Many Buttes Mountains there is a mountain that sets out to the north end of the east end of the mountains that is called, Butte Off To The Side by the Gros Ventres, now known as the McCann Butte. Just below the butte was where this encampment of Gros Ventre were camped, and from there Red Man and Cuts The Rope gathered together a party to take out in a war path, and in this party were Owl Head, Last Capture, and a young man named Capture, who was later called Peter Capture, and Yellow Teeth. Capture was 18 years old at the time. They started out early in the night and reached the creek called Red Mountain Creek, now known as Lodge Pole Creek, which heads in the north side of the Fur Caps Mountains, Montana about daylight or a little later. They ate their lunch and rested awhile, and then they started out again. They were headed east in quest of the Sioux. Immediately east of Red Mountain Creek is a big high ridge that heads from these mountains running north. The west slope is pretty steep, but the east slope runs down gradually, and is broken up into small coulees and low hills until it becomes a valley between it and a timbered ridge east of it.
Between the two ridges is about three or four miles as the Crow flies. Toward the western end of this timbered ridge, as the Gros Ventre calls it, is a small canyon cutting this ridge through where the Big Warm Creek flows as it runs north from the Fur Caps Mountains. This timbered ridge runs east and west. In this Big Warm Creek canyon on the south end of it was a party of Sioux. They numbered about 10 or more. They also were heading west, but were evidently resting and scanning the surrounding when they spied the party of Gros Ventre coming from the west off the ridge across from where they were resting. The Sioux watched and waited to let this party get closed to them before they charged them, but there must have been one of the Sioux scouts out in that direction sometime right soon before the Gros Ventre were sighted, because as the Gros Ventre were going down off the ridge towards the bottom of the ridge one of them went over a low rise and down into the coulee, and there he saw as if something had messed up the small streams of water that was draining from the snow banks. It was still dirty and muddy so he rushed back up and called to his party and they all went down and looked around and there they saw a foot print of a moccasin down below a ways. They became suspicious and were on alert. They scanned the country in the direction the footprints were heading. Now the Sioux were watching and must have known n by the actions of the Gros Ventre that they knew someone was around close, so seeing that their chances of surprising the Gros Ventre was lost, they charged then right now.
The Gros Ventre seeing that they were outnumbered turned and fled back up the ridge the way they came. The young man, Capture, being that this was his first time out, was badly frightened, and when the Sioux charged them and began shooting, he just simply lit out. He was fast, and in no time at all he was away ahead of the rest of the party. Then Yellow Teeth shouted at them, or him, and asked him where he was going, and when he heard Yellow Teeth saying that to him, Capture, the remark woke him, to the realization of what the remark meant, so he stopped and waited until the rest of the party caught up to him, but nevertheless, he stayed ahead and kept the party between himself and the Sioux. The Sioux were gaining on them fast, and before they reached the top of this ridge, Yellow Teeth and Owl Head stopped and held the Sioux back to give the Gros Ventre chance to gain distance. They would chase up to their party again. Yellow Teeth and Owl Head repeated this for about two or three times together, then Owl Head was getting tired so it was left up to Yellow Teeth to defend the party the rest of the way back to Red Mountain Creek, Lodge Pole. Yellow Teeth being fast and long-winded stood him in good stead and by which he saved the entire party from the Sioux; otherwise, they would have been massacred.
They entered the brush just below where the present site of Lodge Pole Sub-agency now stands. Of course, once the Gros Ventre entered into the brush they were safe, but the Sioux hung around until about dusk, shooting into the brush occasionally. When the Gros Ventre heard the Sioux calling to one another, the Gros Ventre knew that the Sioux were leaving. Giving themselves time enough to be safe, Yellow Teeth and Owl Head scouted to make sure the Sioux were gone, and finding that they were, they called their party out and they fled home.
Stories are courtesy of Morris "Davy" Belgard, Hays, Montana
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