The Fetterman Fight , also known as the Fetterman Massacre or the Battle of the Hundred-in-the-Hands or the Battle of a Hundred Slain , was a battle during Red Cloud's War on December 21, 1866, between a confederation of the Lakota , Cheyenne , and Arapaho tribes and a detachment of the United States Army , based at Fort Phil Kearny , Wyoming. The U.S. military mission was intended to protect travelers on the Bozeman Trail . A group of ten warriors, including Crazy Horse , acted to lure a detachment of U.S. soldiers into an ambush . All 81 men under the command of Captain William J. Fetterman were then killed by the Native American warriors. At the time, it was the worst military disaster ever suffered by the U.S. Army on the Great Plains .
188-507: The Lakota alliance emerged victorious and the remaining U.S. forces withdrew from the area. The Fetterman Fight took place on Crow Indian land that was guaranteed to them by a treaty signed with the U.S. government. The Lakota and their allies were operating without the consent of the Crow. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 designated this territory as Crow land. The Lakota, the Cheyenne, and
376-554: A Cheyenne named White Elk, who was interviewed as he walked the battlefield 48 years after the event, the Indians had chosen ten warriors as decoys to tempt Fetterman into the ambush: two Arapaho, two Cheyenne, and two from each of the three Lakota bands present: the Oglala, Brulé , and Miniconjou . About three times as many Lakota participated in the battle as did Cheyenne and Arapaho. White Elk said that more Indians were present than at
564-578: A Cheyenne-Anglo man, said fourteen Indian warriors were killed. White Elk said only two Cheyenne were killed, but he saw 50 or 60 Lakota dead – more, he said, than were killed in the Battle of the Little Big Horn ten years later. Years later, Red Cloud remembered the names of eleven Oglala who had been killed in the battle. Some estimates range up to 160 Indian dead and an equal number wounded. Historians do not believe that Indian casualties approached
752-625: A Crow camp in historic time. The Crows put up 300 tipis near a Mandan village on the Missouri in 1825. The representatives of the US government waited for them. Mountain Crow chief Long Hair (Red Plume at Forehead) and fifteen other Crows signed the first treaty of friendship and trade between the Crows and the United States on 4 August. With the signing of the document, the Crows also recognized
940-507: A Northern high plains, nomadic , bison hunting culture based on the dog travois but in about 1700 they acquired horses and swiftly evolved a horse based nomadic hunting culture. The Kiowa bands migrated southward, and the Crow remained dominant in an extensive area, including the Tongue River, in south central Montana through the 18th century, 19th century and the era of the fur trade. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 confirmed
1128-585: A bluff across the Tongue. A battalion under Captain Anson Mills responded, crossing the river and driving the Sioux force from the bluffs. As a consequence of this engagement, on June 11, General Crook moved his base camp to the junction of Big and Little Goose Creeks, some 7 miles south of the junction of Goose Creek and the Tongue River, where Sheridan, Wyoming is now located. On June 16, after being joined on
1316-495: A canyon near Dayton, Wyoming . The river then flows eastward, past Ranchester, Wyoming , and merges with Goose Creek, after which the Tongue turns to flow northeast into Montana, where it is dammed, forming the Tongue River Reservoir . Continuing northeast from the reservoir, the river flows through a prairie canyon and the Tongue River breaks, passing Birney, Montana . The river forms the eastern boundary of
1504-423: A detail of 80 men marched cautiously out of Fort Phil Kearny on December 22 as the blizzard was approaching and gathered the remaining bodies of those killed. On December 26, the soldiers buried the bodies of Fetterman, his officers and men in a common trench. By January 1, Carrington's fears of an Indian attack on the fort had subsided. The snows were deep and Jim Bridger advised him that the Indians would hole up for
1692-646: A different appearance than the clinker these odd-looking concretions are also formed by the burning coal beds, with the difference in appearance being due to the difference in content of the material in the overlying bed that was heated to very high temperatures. The reddish "clinker" is crushed and used to surface roads throughout the Tongue River basin. North of the Yellowstone, dinosaur fossils have been found in Cretaceous era rock formations , but dinosaur fossils have not been found in any members of
1880-480: A distant second. Cattle ranches in the Tongue River Basin are predominantly "cow calf" instead of "yearling" operations. The yearly cycle of a "cow calf" operation begins with the birth of calves from February to May. At spring roundup the calves are branded. Bulls are put with the cows to start the nine-month gestation cycle to produce next year's calf crop on the month chosen by the rancher, after which
2068-402: A distinguished war record. Although he had no experience fighting Indians, Fetterman criticized Carrington's defensive posture and was contemptuous of their Indian foes. He allegedly boasted, "Give me 80 men and I can ride through the whole Sioux nation." Many other officers shared Fetterman's feelings. Shortly after Fetterman arrived at Fort Phil Kearny, Carrington gave him permission to attempt
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#17327756727782256-437: A fish ladder, which now allows fish from the Tongue and Yellowstone Rivers below the dam to migrate upriver, for the first time in 125 years. Historically, underground coal mines existed along the Tongue River at the communities of Monarch, Kleenburn and Acme, about 7 to 10 miles north of Sheridan, Wyoming. These mines were based on seams of coal that outcropped in this area, in the Tongue River valley or on small tributaries off
2444-463: A force adequate to destroy any group of soldiers sent to chase them. The warriors, possibly numbering more than 1,000, congregated about 10 miles north of Fort Phil Kearny, reconnoitered, and decided the best place to lay the trap was along the Bozeman Trail north of Lodge Trail Ridge. It was out of sight, but only about 4 miles from Fort Phil Kearny. The Cheyenne and Arapaho took up positions on
2632-615: A hundred arrows. The last trooper to die in the battle may have been Adolph Metzger, a bugler who used his instrument as a weapon until it was battered shapeless. Metzger was the only soldier whose dead body was not mutilated. The Indians covered him with a buffalo hide. Some historians interpreted that as a tribute to his bravery in standing alone against several armed enemies. Estimates of Indian casualties vary widely. Historian Stephen Ambrose said Indian dead totaled ten Lakota, two Cheyenne, and one Arapaho, some of them killed by 'friendly' arrow fire rather than soldier's bullets. George Bent ,
2820-642: A large reservation of more than 9300 km despite territorial losses, due in part to their cooperation with the federal government against their traditional enemies, the Sioux and Blackfoot. Many other tribes were forced onto much smaller reservations far from their traditional lands. The Crow were generally friendly with the northern Plains tribes of the Flathead (although sometimes they had conflicts); Nez Perce , Kutenai , Shoshone, Kiowa , and Plains Apache . The powerful Iron Confederacy (Nehiyaw-Pwat), an alliance of northern plains Indian nations based around
3008-660: A large area centered on the Big Horn Mountains as Crow lands—the area ran from the Big Horn Basin on the west, to the Musselshell River on the north, and east to the Powder River , and included the Tongue River basin . However, for two centuries, the Cheyenne and the many bands of Lakota people had been steadily migrating westward into the plains, and by 1851 they were established just to
3196-489: A large party of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors moving south and very close to them. The only chance was to turn aside and take a trail near Dayton that led up into the adjacent Big Horn Mountains. The war party followed closely, and after surviving attacks by pursuing Indians, the patrol abandoned their horses and traveled deep into the rough steep terraine of the Tongue River Canyon system on foot. Over several days
3384-555: A long migratory search for sacred tobacco , finally settling in southeastern Montana, where they became known as the Many Lodges or Mountain Crow. By 1490, the Crow were firmly established in a homeland that included the Tongue River valley –in south central/southeastern Montana, and northern Wyoming. To acquire control of this area, the Crow warred against Shoshone bands, and drove them westward, but allied themselves with local Kiowa and Kiowa Apache bands. The Crow were
3572-642: A long confrontation. Crow chief Blackfoot objected to this incursion and called for resolute U.S. military actions against the Indian trespassers. Due to Sioux attacks on both civilians and soldiers north of the Yellowstone in newly established U.S. territory ( Battle of Pease Bottom , Battle of Honsinger Bluff ), the Commissioner of Indian Affairs advocated the use of troops to force the Sioux back to South Dakota in his 1873 report. Nothing happened. Two years later, in early July 1875, Crow chief Long Horse
3760-406: A mile after Fetterman had crossed the summit of Lodge Trail Ridge, the decoys gave a signal and the Indians on either side of the trail charged. Fetterman's infantry took up a position among some large rocks and, in hand-to-hand fighting, he and 49 of his men died. Their bodies were found in a small circle, huddled together for defense. A few of the cavalry were with Fetterman, but Grummond and most of
3948-472: A new Fort Laramie treaty between the Sioux and the U.S. turned 1851 Crow Powder River area into "unceded Indian territory" of the Sioux. "The Government had in effect betrayed the Crows…". On 7 May, the same year, the Crow ceded vast ranges to the US due to pressure from white settlements north of Upper Yellowstone River and loss of eastern territories to the Sioux. They accepted a smaller reservation south of
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#17327756727784136-481: A night ambush. However, the Indians avoided his position and stampeded a herd of cattle on the bank of the Powder River opposite Fetterman's intended trap. On November 22, Fetterman himself almost fell into an Indian ambush. He had accompanied an escort guarding a wagon train gathering firewood and construction timber for Fort Phil Kearny. A single Indian appeared, trying to entice the soldiers into chasing him into
4324-405: A path through our hunting grounds, a way for his iron road to the mountains and the western sea, we were told that they wished merely to pass through our country, not to tarry among us, but to seek for gold in the far west. Our old chiefs thought to show their friendship and good will, when they allowed this dangerous snake in our midst. They promised to protect the wayfarers. Yet before the ashes of
4512-540: A peace agreement with the US. "For the first time in its history, the United States government had negotiated a peace which conceded everything demanded by the enemy and which extracted nothing in return." Indian sovereignty over the Powder River country, however, endured for only eight years. Although he was initially blamed for the Fetterman defeat, Carrington and his author wife, after many years of effort, succeeded in deflecting blame back to Fetterman. Carrington's case
4700-421: A position to attack the Indians from the rear. He says that other than Carrington's accusations, "there is no evidence indicating that Fetterman was anything but a professional officer and a perfect gentleman" with a distinguished combat record. Calitri also suggests controversy about Grummond. On dispatching Grummond and the cavalry to join Fetterman, Carrington explicitly ordered him to stay with Fetterman during
4888-412: A punitive campaign, and Brigadier General Patrick Edward Connor led a column up the Bozeman Trail. On August 29, 1865, General Conner, with a force variously estimated at about 300 soldiers, surprised an Arapahoe village of about 500 to 700 under Chiefs Old David and Black Bear camped on the Bozeman Trail, on the south side of the Tongue near present-day Ranchester, Wyoming . In what is now known as
5076-520: A raid on the Lakota village on the Tongue River , about 50 miles distant. Red Cloud and other Indian leaders, encouraged by their successes, decided to undertake a large military operation against Fort Phil Kearny before winter snows forced them to break up their large village on the Tongue River and disperse. The decoy trick had worked on December 6 and they decided to try it again, this time with
5264-455: A region at peace, while at Fort Phil Kearny Carrington had only five companies in a region at war. Carrington spent the rest of his life attempting to repair his tarnished reputation as a soldier. The Fetterman Fight soured the mood of the nation and eroded the government's will to defend the Bozeman Trail. In 1868, Fort Phil Kearny was abandoned and, in November of that year, Red Cloud signed
5452-715: A reservation for the Northern Cheyenne on Rosebud Creek, with the Tongue River as its eastern boundary. In September 1833 on the Tongue River, a chapter was written in the rivalry between the Rocky Mountain Fur Company (RMF) and the American Fur Company (AFC). Tom Fitzpatrick , a mountain man and fur trader with the RMF, rode to Crow camps on Tongue River with a band of about 30 other trappers to trade for furs and to ask permission of
5640-496: A ruse. Just before the battle, Red Cloud called for the Lakotas' most powerful Winkte , a two spirit who was believed to have special powers, to give advice from the butte overlooking the proposed ambush site. The Winkte rode on his pony in a crazed manner four times between the warriors gathered on the butte and Lodge Trail Ridge, each time gathering more "soldiers" into his hands in a prophetic manner. When he returned to Red Cloud
5828-614: A short time, the signal came that the wood train was no longer under attack. About 50 Indians appeared near Fort Phil Kearny, but Carrington dispersed them with a few cannon shots. Those Indians and others harassed Fetterman as he climbed Lodge Trail Ridge and disappeared out of sight of the fort. About noon in the fort, Carrington and his men heard heavy firing to their north. Carrington gathered together about 75 men under Captain Ten Eyck and sent them out on foot to search for Fetterman. Ten Eyck advanced carefully up Lodge Trail Ridge. Reaching
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6016-460: A treaty right to "establish roads, military and other posts". About 400 of his soldiers and most of the civilians were stationed at Fort Phil Kearny. During the next few months, while Fort Phil Kearny was under construction, Carrington suffered about 50 Indian attacks, losing more than 20 soldiers and civilians. The Indian warriors, invariably mounted, generally appeared in groups of 20 to 100. Several of Carrington's junior officers pressed him to take
6204-590: Is Apsáalooke ( [ə̀ˈpsáːɾòːɡè] ), also spelled Absaroka , are Native Americans living primarily in southern Montana. Today, the Crow people have a federally recognized tribe , the Crow Tribe of Montana , with an Indian reservation , the Crow Indian Reservation , located in the south-central part of the state. Crow Indians are a Plains tribe , who speak the Crow language , part of
6392-636: Is also in the permitting stage. Undeveloped but extensive coal deposits exist along Youngs Creek and adjacent creeks, which flow into the Tongue River just upstream from the Tongue River Reservoir. This large and (as yet) untapped deposit of coal is just a few miles south of the large open pit coal mines already being operated by Kiewit. The upper 15 miles of Youngs Creek lies on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana, and
6580-568: Is best known for its coal . The Tongue River member has approximately 32 coal seams with a combined thickness in excess of 300 ft. The thickness of the separate coal seams varies radically from place to place—in some places the beds are thick but over a relatively short distance the seam can pinch out to nothing. Where these coal beds are thick and also close to the surface in the Powder River Basin in northern Wyoming and southern Montana they are mined in large open pit mines , like
6768-505: Is fed by winter snowpack from the higher elevations of the Big Horn Mountains, early snow runoff of the lower elevations in the drainage basin , and ground water from springs in the drainage basin. The river level rises in March and April due to snowmelt in the lower elevations, and again in June as summer weather melts the higher-elevation snowpack. The flow of water in the upper river during
6956-520: Is now celebrated yearly on the third weekend of August, with wide participation from other tribes. A group of Crow went west after leaving the Hidatsa villages of earth lodges in the Knife River and Heart River area (present North Dakota) around 1675–1700. They selected a site for a single earth lodge on the lower Yellowstone River. Most families lived in tipis or other perishable kinds of homes at
7144-528: The Battle of the Little Bighorn , which would indicate an Indian force of considerably more than 1,000 men. Eyewitness testimonies and historians stated that Red Cloud was present in the battle, although his role during the fighting is unknown. Indian armies rarely had a single leader or a command structure. Red Cloud was one of those who planned much of the attack, but Hump (High Backbone), a Miniconjou,
7332-587: The Battle of the Tongue River the soldiers charged into the Indian camp firing indiscriminately, surprising the Indians who were breaking camp. The Indians first fled up Wolf Creek, but then regrouped and counter-attacked. The soldiers destroyed about 250 lodges, then retreated down the Tongue River Valley driving from 700 to 1000 captured horses , repulsing attacks of Arapahoe warriors seeking to get back some of their horses. Two days after
7520-540: The Big Horn Basin on the west, to the Musselshell River on the north, and east to the Powder River ; it included the Tongue River basin . But for two centuries the Cheyenne and many bands of Lakota Sioux had been steadily migrating westward across the plains, and were still pressing hard on the Crows. Red Cloud's War (1866–1868) was a challenge by the Lakota Sioux to the United States military presence on
7708-798: The Bozeman Trail , a route along the eastern edge of the Big Horn Mountains to the Montana gold fields. Red Cloud's War ended with victory for the Lakota. The Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868 with the United States confirmed the Lakota control over all the high plains from the Black Hills of the Dakotas westward across the Powder River Basin to the crest of the Big Horn Mountains. Thereafter bands of Lakota Sioux led by Sitting Bull , Crazy Horse , Gall , and others, along with their Northern Cheyenne allies, hunted and raided throughout
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7896-530: The Kiowa in the second half of the 17th century. When European Americans arrived in numbers, the Crows were resisting pressure from enemies who greatly outnumbered them. In the 1850s, a vision by Plenty Coups , then a boy, but who later became their greatest chief, was interpreted by tribal elders as meaning that the whites would become dominant over the entire country, and that the Crow, if they were to retain any of their land, would need to remain on good terms with
8084-503: The Köppen climate classification system, the Tongue River has a semi-arid climate , abbreviated "BSk" on climate maps. The Tongue River basin is part of the larger geologic structure known as the Powder River basin . The term Powder River basin can refer to the topographic drainage basin lying to the east of the Tongue River drainage basin, but the term is used in this part to denote the larger geological structure which stretches from
8272-558: The Missouri River . Since the 19th century, Crow people have been concentrated on their reservation established south of Billings, Montana . Today, they also live in several major, mainly western, cities. Tribal headquarters are located at Crow Agency, Montana . The tribe operates the Little Big Horn College . The autonym of the tribe, Apsáalooké or Absaroka, means "children of the large-beaked bird" and
8460-571: The Northern Cheyenne , allied with the Lakota, were ordered south to a reservation in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma ) with the related but separate Southern Cheyenne tribes. Plagued with disease and malnutrition, in 1878 a group of 279 Northern Cheyenne made a desperate attempt to return to the northern plains. After a running battle from Indian Territory to Montana, the battered remnants of this group arrived at Ft. Keogh, at
8648-603: The Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation from about 25 miles (40 km) north of the reservoir to a point 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Ashland, Montana , after which the river continues to flow in a broad valley to its mouth on the Yellowstone River near Miles City, Montana . The Tongue River Valley near Decker, Montana also contains the southeast corner of the large Crow Indian Reservation . The Tongue River headwaters are on
8836-564: The Paleozoic Fort Union Formation , including the Tongue River sandstone. However plant fossils are common in the Tongue River sandstone , and many imprints of leaves and fronds have been found and collected by scientists and fossil hunters. In about 1450, Crow leader No Intestines received a vision and separated from the ancestral tribe, which remained along the Missouri River as sedentary farmers known as Hidatsa . No Intestines led his band on
9024-528: The U.S. states of Wyoming and Montana . The Tongue rises in Wyoming in the Big Horn Mountains , flows generally northeast through northern Wyoming and southeastern Montana, and empties into the Yellowstone River at Miles City, Montana . Most of the course of the river is through the beautiful and varied landscapes of eastern Montana , including the Tongue River Canyon, the Tongue River breaks,
9212-840: The Valley of the Yellowstone River and its tributaries on the Northern Plains in Montana and Wyoming , the Crow divided into four groups: the Mountain Crow, River Crow, Kicked in the Bellies, and Beaver Dries its Fur. Formerly semi-nomad hunters and farmers in the northeastern woodland, they adapted to the nomadic lifestyle of the Plains Indians as hunters and gatherers, and hunted bison . Before 1700, they were using dog travois for carrying goods. From about 1730,
9400-653: The Yellowstone . After about 1860, the Lakota Sioux claimed all the former Crow lands from the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Big Horn Mountains of Montana. They demanded that the Americans deal with them regarding any intrusion into these areas. The Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851 with the United States confirmed as Crow lands a large area centered on the Big Horn Mountains: the area ran from
9588-405: The battle with Conner, on August 31, 1865, warriors from the same Arapahoe village attacked a large wagon train of road-builders led by "Colonel" James A. Sawyers, who were traveling on the Bozeman Trail, improving it as they went. The wagon train was besieged for 13 days at the Bozeman Trail ford on the Tongue River about halfway between Ranchester, Wyoming and Dayton, Wyoming. As
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#17327756727789776-470: The siege dragged on and a number of men were killed, Sawyers faced mutiny from his employees . Sawyers had started to retreat down the trail , when he met a contingent of army cavalry moving up the trail , who agreed to escort them to the Big Horn River , after which the wagon train proceeded on to the Montana gold fields. In 1866, the army determined to erect a series of forts along
9964-497: The 18th and 19th centuries, the era of the fur trade . Their historical territory stretched from what is now Yellowstone National Park and the headwaters of the Yellowstone River (E-chee-dick-karsh-ah-shay in Crow, translating to "Elk River") to the west, north to the Musselshell River , then northeast to the Yellowstone's mouth at the Missouri River , then southeast to the confluence of the Yellowstone and Powder rivers (Bilap Chashee, or "Powder River" or "Ash River"), south along
10152-475: The 81 soldiers died of gunshot wounds. Captains Fetterman and Brown are reputed to have committed suicide by shooting each other in the head to avoid capture, but the official army autopsy report gives a throat wound as the cause of Fetterman's death. Indian accounts credit a Lakota warrior named American Horse with killing Fetterman by slashing his throat. Fetterman may have shot himself just before American Horse cut his throat. The Indians stripped and mutilated
10340-458: The Arapaho accepted it as such. Following the dwindling herds of buffalo, the three tribes soon began ignoring the treaty boundaries and hunting on Crow land. By 1860 these traditional enemies of the Crow had taken control of their hunting grounds west of Powder River. In June 1866, Colonel Henry B. Carrington advanced from Fort Laramie into the Powder River country, now the hunting grounds of
10528-596: The Big Horn Block on the west created a flat, swampy low-lying plain, with slow moving rivers flowing northwest to deltas along a shallow sea. At this time the climate in the area was subtropical, averaging approximately 120 inches (3,000 mm) of rainfall a year. For some 25 million years, the floor of this plain was made up of thick deposits of sandy silt from the surrounding mountains, with many rivers, deltas, backwaters and swamps, all covered by forests and vegetation. At that time, from 35 to 60 million years ago,
10716-953: The Bighorn National Forest. On forested buttes lying between the Tongue River and Pumpkin Creek is the Ashland Ranger District of the Custer National Forest , which has three separate ranger districts, the other two being the Beartooth Ranger District located in the area of the Beartooth uplift, and the Sioux Ranger District located in the southeast corner of Montana and the northwest corner of South Dakota. The term "Tongue River Canyon" can refer to either
10904-434: The Black Hills to the Big Horn Mountains and which includes the Tongue River drainage area. The Powder River basin is shaped like a large shallow bowl, with its westernmost rock formations lying against the Big Horn Mountains. As these mountains uplifted over eons of geologic time they lifted and tilted the sedimentary rocks from the Powder River basin, which were then eroded away, creating the plains that stretch eastward from
11092-746: The Blackfoot Confederacy and the Lakota-Cheyenne-Arapaho alliance. In the 18th century, pressured by the Saulteaux and Cree peoples (the Iron Confederacy ), who had earlier and better access to guns through the fur trade , the Crow had migrated to this area from the Ohio Eastern Woodland area of present-day Ohio, settling south of Lake Winnipeg . From there, they were pushed to the west by
11280-516: The Blackfoot. In 1813, a force of Blood warriors set off for a raid on the Crow in the Bighorn area. Next year, Crows near Little Bighorn River killed Blackfoot Top Knot. A Crow camp neutralized thirty Cheyenne bent on capturing horses in 1819. The Cheyenne and warriors from a Lakota camp destroyed a whole Crow camp at Tongue River the following year. This was likely the most severe attack on
11468-530: The Bozeman Trail and soldiers at Fort Phil Kearny and Fort C. F. Smith . These bands often located their base camps on the Tongue River because they could camp far enough down the river from the forts to be secure from counterattack, and the lower Tongue River Valley afforded a wide variety of camp sites with the three necessities of the nomadic Indians – wood for fires, abundant water , and adequate grass for grazing their large horse herds . Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer , with Companies A and B of
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#173277567277811656-426: The Bozeman Trail. The scout Jim Bridger recommended a fort site in the Tongue River Valley, near Ranchester, Wyoming . Col. Henry B. Carrington rejected the Tongue River site for a site to the south on Little Piney Creek, in the Powder River drainage, where Fort Phil Kearny was erected. From 1865 through 1868 during Red Cloud's War , Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux bands harassed, attacked and killed travelers on
11844-596: The Cheyenne and subsequently the Sioux , also known as the Lakota. To acquire control of their new territory, the Crow warred against Shoshone bands, such as the Bikkaashe, or "People of the Grass Lodges", and drove them westward. The Crow allied with local Kiowa and Plains Apache bands. The Kiowa and Plains Apache bands later migrated southward, and the Crow remained dominant in their established area through
12032-439: The Cheyenne. Both the Crow and the Cheyenne were pushed farther west by the Lakota, who took over the territory west of the Missouri River, reaching past the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming and Montana. The Cheyenne eventually became allies of the Lakota, as they sought to expel European Americans from the area. The Crow remained bitter enemies of both the Sioux and Cheyenne. They managed to retain
12220-408: The Crow Tribe owns the coal beds underlying this portion of the creek. The last 3 miles of the creek lie between the reservation boundary and the Tongue River, in Wyoming. As to the coal beds on the Crow reservation, the Secretary of the Interior approved a coal lease negotiated by the Crow Tribe with Shell Oil Company in 1983 to develop this coal resource. The lease had extensive long term benefits for
12408-445: The Crow camp, reclining on his bed covered with robes, his face handsomely painted". Crow woman Pretty Shield remembered the sadness in camp. "We fasted, nearly starved in our sorrow for the loss of Long-Horse." Exposed to Sioux attacks, the Crows sided with the U.S. during the Great Sioux War in 1876–1877. On 10 April 1876, 23 Crow enlisted as Army scouts . They enlisted against a traditional Indian enemy, "... who were now in
12596-476: The Crow tribe, and required payments to the tribe to start at a future point of time even in the event the coal was not mined. Shell paid the tribe a bonus to cancel this lease in 1985, because of poor market conditions, and because of Shell's uncertainties on how Montana's severance tax would be applied to coal owned by the Crow Tribe. Compared to Otter Creek these coal resources are easier to develop—the coal resources of Young's creek lies within five to ten miles of
12784-402: The Crow. The first trading post in Crow country was constructed in 1807, known as both Fort Raymond and Fort Lisa (1807–ca. 1813). Like the succeeding forts, Fort Benton (ca. 1821–1824) and Fort Cass (1832–1838), it was built near the confluence of the Yellowstone and the Bighorn. The Blood Blackfoot Bad Head's winter count tells about the early and persistent hostility between the Crow and
12972-436: The Indian forces driving them back up the Tongue River. The battle is officially referred to as the Battle of the Wolf Mountains, although this is a misnomer. The battle is also referred to by various other names, including the Battle of Pyramid Butte, the Battle of the Butte, and Miles Battle on the Tongue River. The Wolf Mountains are actually several drainages to the west from the battle site, but General Miles' report stated
13160-450: The Indian leaders and army officers who participated in the Battle of Honsinger Bluff were present at the more famous Battle of the Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876, three years later. In a June 9, 1876 engagement called the Skirmish at Tongue River Heights, during the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 General George Crook was camped on the Tongue near the mouth of Prairie Dog Creek with about 950 soldiers, when Sioux fired into his camp from
13348-414: The Indians beyond Lodge Trail Ridge, two miles north of Fort Phil Kearny. Powell returned safely, having followed orders and accomplished his mission. Carrington reemphasized to his soldiers his policy of caution until reinforcements and additional horses and supplies arrived from Fort Laramie. On December 20, Carrington turned down Fetterman and Captain Brown's proposal that they lead 50 civilian employees in
13536-575: The Jesuit missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet. From 1842 to around 1852, the Crow traded in Fort Alexander opposite the mouth of the Rosebud. The River Crows charged a moving Blackfeet camp near Judith Gap in 1845. Father Pierre-Jean De Smet mourned the destructive attack on the "petite Robe" band. The Blackfeet chief Small Robe had been mortally wounded and many killed. De Smet worked out
13724-406: The Lakota claimed all the lands lying east of the Big Horn Mountains and required the whites to deal with them regarding any intrusion into these areas. Red Cloud's War (1866 to 1868) was a challenge by the Lakota to the military presence on the Bozeman Trail , which went to the Montana gold fields along the eastern edge of the Big Horn Mountains. Red Cloud's War ended in a complete victory for
13912-419: The Lakota was reassured right from the start of the 19th century. The Crow killed a minimum of thirty Lakota in 1800–1801 according to two Lakota winter counts . The next year, the Lakota and their Cheyenne allies killed all the men in a Crow camp with thirty tipis. In the summer of 1805, a Crow camp traded at the Hidatsa villages on Knife River in present North Dakota. Chiefs Red Calf and Spotted Crow allowed
14100-427: The Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho. His orders were to protect European-American emigrants traveling west along the Bozeman Trail. Carrington had 700 soldiers and 300 civilians in his command. He established three forts along the trail, including his headquarters at Fort Phil Kearny, near present-day Buffalo, Wyoming . All three forts were located in what was treaty-designated Crow territory. The army used
14288-432: The Lakota, and the 1868 Treaty of Ft. Laramie confirmed their control over all the high plains from the crest of the Big Horn Mountains eastward across the Powder River Basin to the Black Hills . Thereafter bands of Lakota led by Sitting Bull , Crazy Horse and others, along with their Northern Cheyenne allies, hunted and raided throughout the length and breadth of eastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming , including
14476-660: The Missouri River Valley branch of Siouan languages . Of the 14,000 enrolled tribal members, an estimated 3,000 spoke the Crow language in 2007. During the expansion into the West, the Crow people were allied with the United States against its neighbors and rivals, the Sioux and Cheyenne . In historical times, the Crow lived in the Yellowstone River valley, which extends from present-day Wyoming , through Montana and into North Dakota , where it joins
14664-617: The Plains tribes rapidly adopted the horse, which allowed them to move out on to the Plains and hunt buffalo more effectively. However, the severe winters in the North kept their herds smaller than those of Plains tribes in the South. The Crow, Hidatsa, Eastern Shoshone , and Northern Shoshone soon became noted as horse breeders and dealers and developed relatively large horse herds. At the time, other eastern and northern tribes were also moving on to
14852-507: The Plains, in search of game for the fur trade, bison, and more horses. The Crow were subject to raids and horse thefts by horse-poor tribes, including the powerful Blackfoot , Gros Ventre , Assiniboine , Pawnee , and Ute . Later they had to face the Lakota and their allies, the Arapaho and Cheyenne , who also stole horses from their enemies. Their greatest enemies became the tribes of
15040-463: The Powder River Basin, producing 14% of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. Where the Tongue River now flows in Montana and Wyoming, the sedimentary rock formation that is today known as the Tongue River sandstone began to form about 60 million years ago, when mountain uplifts began rising from a shallow sea. The Black Hills uplift on the east, the Hartville uplift on the southeast, and
15228-552: The Seventh Cavalry, engaged and held off a larger Sioux force, including Hunkpapas, Oglalas, Miniconjous and Cheyennes at the Battle of Honsinger Bluff on August 4, 1873 about 7 miles (11 km) above the mouth of the Tongue on the Yellowstone River. Custer's command was part of the Stanley military column which was accompanying and protecting Northern Pacific Railroad survey parties in the summer months of 1873. Many of
15416-511: The Sioux and their Cheyenne allies. Crow warriors enlisted with the U.S. Army for this war. The Sioux and allies were forced from eastern Montana and Wyoming: some bands fled to Canada, while others suffered forced removal to distant reservations, primarily in present-day Montana and Nebraska west of the Missouri River. In 1918, the Crow organized a gathering to display their culture, and they invited members of other tribes. The Crow Fair
15604-570: The Sioux overpowered a barricaded war group of 30 Crow in the Big Dry area. The Crow were killed to either last or last but one man. Later, mourning Crow with "their hair cut off, their fingers and faces cut" brought the dead bodies back to camp. The drawing from the Sioux winter count of Lone Dog shows the Crow in the circle (the breastwork), while the Sioux close in on them. The many lines indicates flying bullets. The Sioux lost 14 warriors. Sioux chief Sitting Bull took part in this battle. In
15792-963: The South Fork of the Powder River, confined in the SE by the Rattlesnake Mountains and westwards in the SW by the Wind River Range . Their tribal area included the river valleys of the Judith River (Buluhpa'ashe, or "Plum River"), Powder River, Tongue River , Big Horn River and Wind River as well as the Bighorn Mountains (Iisiaxpúatachee Isawaxaawúua), Pryor Mountains (Baahpuuo Isawaxaawúua), Wolf Mountains (Cheetiish, or "Wolf Teeth Mountains") and Absaroka Range (also called Absalaga Mountains). Once established in
15980-473: The Tongue (Pumpkin Creek, Ottor Creek, Hanging Woman Creek, Prairie Dog Creek) all have gravel roads branching off the Tongue River Road and running along their length, providing access to local ranches. In Wyoming, the major tributary is Goose Creek, which flows out of a basin with Sheridan, Wyoming at its center, and so this entire basin area has well-developed paved and gravel roads. In addition to
16168-676: The Tongue River Basin at Prairie Dog Creek and crossed over to Goose Creek and went on to the Tongue River beyond present day Ranchester, Wyoming then up the Tongue River to the Pass Creek divide. After the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado in November 1864, depredations by Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Sioux increased along the Oregon Trail and the Bozeman Trail, which was then closed to civilian traffic. The army launched
16356-537: The Tongue River Cantonment to discuss terms of surrender for their bands. The Sioux were the hereditary enemies of the Crow, and the five Sioux were suddenly attacked and killed by some of the army's Crow scouts . The attack occurred within sight of the Cantonment, but was so swift and unexpected that the army could not intervene to save the chiefs. The Crow scouts involved immediately fled from
16544-509: The Tongue River Reservoir, followed by 10 miles of pavement to the Montana/Wyoming state line. In Wyoming a network of paved roads follow the Tongue river westward to Ranchester and Dayton, where the Tongue comes out of the Big Horn Mountains. A road from Dayton goes up the Tongue for a short distance into the mountains, after which contact with the Tongue River and its mountain branches is by hiking trail. The lower major tributaries of
16732-611: The Tongue River basin. The Tongue River Sandstone is the youngest of three "members" which form the Fort Union Formation , the other two members being the Lebo Shale Member and the Tullock Member. The buff-colored sandstones and shales of the Tongue River sandstone are visible all along the greater part of the Tongue River from Dayton, Wyoming to a point north of Ashland, Montana . In this stretch,
16920-413: The Tongue River sandstone caught fire , probably from prairie fires that started by lightning. The fires burned from the outcropo back into the coal seams, and the fire finally went out when they burned so deeply into the coal seam that the fire was smothered. These fires burned for a long time and they were extremely hot, and they baked and changed the structure of the sedimentary rocks that lay just over
17108-401: The Tongue River valley, starting from Miles City and going up the river there are about 30 miles of pavement to the community of Garland, then 35 miles of gravel, followed by about 7 miles of paved road into Ashland, where U.S. Highway 212 is encountered. South of Ashland, continuing up the valley, there is another 20 miles of paved road, then another 38 miles of gravel roads to the pavement above
17296-556: The Tongue about 13 miles (21 km) above the mouth of the river, and extends for 71 miles (114 km) into the Custer National Forest; the small community of Sonnette, Montana is at the headwaters. Otter Creek enters the Tongue River near Ashland, Montana , about 68 miles (109 km) upstream of the mouth of the river, and its headwaters are near the Wyoming–Montana state line about 40 miles (64 km) to
17484-424: The Tongue by some 260 Crow and Shoshone scouts, Crook moved his forces north, across the Tongue, and on June 17, 1876 engaged a large Sioux and Cheyenne force at the Battle of the Rosebud . After the battle Crook returned south of the Tongue River to the base camp on Goose Creek, and he was still there on June 25, 1876 when General George A. Custer was defeated at the Battle of the Little Big Horn , some 65 miles to
17672-567: The Tongue leaves the mountains it flows through younger formations, including the distinctive thick red Chugwater Formation , deposited during the Triassic time, 250 to 199 million years ago. Shortly after leaving the mountains, the Tongue River enters an area dominated by a thick layer of buff-colored sandstones and silty clay. This sedimentary layer is named the Tongue River Sandstone, because its outcrops are so predominant in
17860-575: The U.S. could not enforce respect for the treaty borders agreed upon 15 years before. The River Crow north of the Yellowstone developed a friendship with their former Gros Ventre enemies in the 1860s. A joint large-scale attack on a large Blackfoot camp at the Cypress Hills in 1866 resulted in a chaotic withdrawal of the Gros Ventres and Crow. The Blackfoot pursued the warriors for hours and killed allegedly more than 300. In 1868,
18048-411: The United States. Large undeveloped private and federally owned coal deposits are located along Otter Creek, a tributary of the Tongue River. These coal deposits are located south of Ashland, which is at the junction of the Tongue River and Otter Creek. These coal deposits are sufficiently thick, and are located under sufficiently thin overburden, as to be economically viable. Drawbacks for production are
18236-541: The Yellowstone. The Sioux and their Indian allies, now formally at peace with the U.S., focused on intertribal wars at once. Raids against the Crows were "frequent, both by the Northern Cheyennes and by the Arapahos, as well as the Sioux, and by parties made up from all three tribes". Crow chief Plenty Coups recalled, "The three worst enemies our people had were combined against us …". In April 1870,
18424-610: The area around the Tongue River Reservoir, near the small town of Decker, Montana about 20 to 23 miles northeast from Sheridan, Wyoming. These mines are operated by the Kiewit Corporation and produce subbituminous low sulfur Powder River basin coal. There are no electrical generating facilities at this site. A rail spur line extends to the mine sites from the BNSF main line near Sheridan, Wyoming allows this coal to be shipped by rail to coal-fired electric generating plants all over
18612-605: The area of the Tongue River Valley, until the Great Sioux War of 1876–1877. Although early in the war on June 25, 1876 the Lakota and Cheyenne enjoyed a major victory over army forces under General George A. Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn , the Great Sioux War ended in the defeat of the Sioux and their Cheyenne allies, and their exodus from eastern Montana and Wyoming, either in flight to Canada or by forced removal to distant reservations. In 1877,
18800-632: The area where the Tongue River now flows would have appeared as a dense swampy jungle. Over long periods of time, the heavy plant growth died and accumulated as peaty layers in the large backwaters and swamps all across the basin. Periodically more sandy silt deposits would wash in from the mountains, completely burying the layers of organic peaty materials. Eventually the climate became drier and cooler. The area passed through more long periods of geologic time, during which new sedimentary layers buried this entire sandy silty layer along with its deposits of peat, under thousands of feet of newer sediments, compressing
18988-496: The area. This episode delayed surrender of Sioux and Cheyenne bands, and extended the Great Sioux War of 1876–1877. On January 8, 1877 Colonel Miles and infantry units engaged in one of the last battles of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 near Birney, Montana in the Tongue River Valley. Colonel Miles, leading elements of the 5th and 22nd infantry , avoided an ambush by Oglala Sioux under Crazy Horse , and segments of Cheyenne under White Bull and Two Moons , and then engaged
19176-479: The army determined to garrison the area, and Colonel Nelson A. Miles and elements of infantry units constructed the Tongue River Cantonment at the mouth of the Tongue River. A community formed nearby named "Milestown" after Col. Miles who banished the settlement to a point three miles away from the cantonment . In the following year, after a vigorous winter campaign, the army increased
19364-550: The arrival of a Blackfeet band. The episode seems to be the worst armed conflict between the Crows and a group of whites until the Sword Bearer uprising in 1887. The death of chief Arapooish was recorded on 17 September 1834. The news reached Fort Clark at the Mandan village Mitutanka. Manager F.A. Chardon wrote he "was Killed by Black feet". The smallpox epidemic of 1837 spread along the Missouri and "had little impact" on
19552-403: The basin are usually irrigated from diversion dams, and produce crops which support the livestock industry—hay and feed stocks (corn, barley, alfalfa). Dry land wheat farming, which is prevalent elsewhere in eastern Montana, occurs only in limited and scattered acreages in the Tongue River basin. Cattle represent the great bulk of the total livestock production from the Tongue River basin with sheep
19740-474: The battle was in the Wolf Mountains, and that name has stuck. The battle site is about 4.5 road miles west of the town of Birney, on the Tongue River road. A sawmill operates at Ashland, cutting timber which is harvested from the broken highlands, between the stream valleys in the surrounding area. The Tongue River basin is prime livestock country. Limited farm lands that exist along flowing streams in
19928-413: The best remaining horses. Phillips accomplished the 236-mile ride to Fort Laramie in four days. A blizzard began on December 22, and Phillips rode through a foot of snow and below-zero temperatures. He saw no Indians during his ride. He arrived at Fort Laramie late in the evening on December 25 during a full-dress Christmas ball and staggered, exhausted, into the party to deliver his message. Carrington and
20116-402: The bulls are again separated from the herds. The herds are moved to summer pasture, and in June and July attention focuses on cutting and storing hay for the next winter. Feed crops are harvested in late summer or fall. The late fall roundup separates the calves which are sold to cattle buyers and shipped by truck. The herd is moved to the pasture where they will be fed for the winter, and in about
20304-477: The case of Captain Tenodor Ten Eyck, who was sent by Carrington to support or rescue Fetterman when the sounds of battle were heard at Fort Phil Kearny, the captain was accused of having been slow to march to the aid of Fetterman, taking a longer route to reach him. Ten Eyck was accused of cowardice and drunkenness and was permitted to retire from the army. Even if he had taken the shortest route, Ten Eyck
20492-454: The cavalry apparently remained in good order, leading their horses and presumably firing at the Indians all around them. Because of the steepness of the hill covered with ice and snow, the Indians, mostly on foot, were hampered in their attempts to come in close quarters with the cavalry, but soon succeeded. Grummond probably was killed at this point, after he had personally decapitated at least one warrior with his saber before being overwhelmed by
20680-410: The cavalry had to retrieve its mounts before it could follow and catch up. According to Carrington, his orders were clear. "Under no circumstances" was the relief party to "pursue over the ridge, that is Lodge Trail Ridge". Lieutenant Grummond's wife, in her memoirs, confirmed Carrington's statement. She said these orders were given twice, the second time by Carrington from the sentry walk after ordering
20868-406: The cavalry were apparently a mile ahead of the infantry, near the flat along Peno Creek and possibly chasing other decoys. When attacked, the cavalry retreated uphill and southward, toward Fetterman and Fort Kearny. Civilians Wheatley and Fisher and several cavalrymen, "knowing it was fatal to retreat from Indians", halted and took shelter among several large rocks, where they were killed. Grummond and
21056-416: The chiefs to make his fall hunt in their country. The Crows invited Tom to camp with them. He cautiously declined and pitched his camp three miles off. Then he rode over with a few men to visit the chief, who received and entertained him cordially. The AFC was a rival of Tom Fitzpatrick's RMF Company and they had agents in the Crow villages including the notorious James Beckwourth , who was an adopted member of
21244-554: The coal seam until it became a hard "clinker" substance and turned a reddish brick color. These red "clinker" beds are often more resistant to erosion than the silty sandstone, so they appear on the higher parts of bluffs, and buttes on either side of the valleys of the Tongue River basin are often capped by beds of this baked and fused rock that are five to twenty feet thick. Besides the beds of reddish "clinker" larger concretions can be found that appear at first glance to be similar to melted glass or even pieces of volcanic rock. Although of
21432-455: The commitment of forces and Col. Miles constructed Fort Keogh about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of the Tongue. After the fort was finished, Miles permitted civilians to settle on the eastern bank of the Tongue. Immediately, Milestown moved 3 miles (4.8 km) west forming Miles City. Today, the Tongue joins with the Yellowstone within the city limits of Miles City. On December 16, 1876 five Sioux chiefs from Crazy Horse 's village approached
21620-531: The council fire are cold, the Great Father is building his forts among us. You have heard the sound of the white soldier’s ax upon the Little Piney. His presence here is an insult and a threat. It is an insult to the spirits of our ancestors. Are we then to give up their sacred graves to be plowed for corn? Dakotas, I am for war!” Less than seven days after that speech, the Sioux went to Fort Phil Kearny,
21808-545: The eastern edge of the Big Horn Mountains, where Sheridan and Big Horn, Wyoming are located. The drainage basin to the west is the Rosebud Creek basin. The drainage basin to the east is the Powder River basin. Both rivers, like the Tongue, flow in a northerly direction into the Yellowstone River. The Tongue and its tributaries flow through parts of Custer , Powder River , Rosebud and Big Horn counties in Montana, and Sheridan County in Wyoming. According to
21996-472: The first week of December enough snow accumulates to start the process of feeding hay to carry the herd through the winter. Ranch chores, repairs and maintenance, work on building projects, doctoring cattle and the like go on all year round. One of the oldest irrigation projects on the Tongue River is the T&;Y Ditch, which dates from 1886. The diversion dam from the T&Y ditch was recently altered to include
22184-521: The fort in 1851. In 1851, the Crow, the Sioux, and six other Indian nations signed the Fort Laramie treaty along with the U.S. It should ensure peace forever between all nine partakers. Further, the treaty described the different tribal territories. The U.S. was allowed to construct roads and forts. A weak point in the treaty was the absence of rules to uphold the tribal borders. The Crow and various bands of Sioux attacked each other again from
22372-491: The fort. Following the Fetterman Fight, that evening Carrington prepared for an attack on the fort, ordering all his men to stand watch, three to a porthole. All extra ammunition and explosives were deposited in a powder magazine ringed with wagons. If the Indians attacked, the ten women and children at the fort were ordered to go into the magazine. Soldiers were told that, in the last extremity, they were to retreat to
22560-472: The fourth time, he declared that in his vision he had 100 blue-coat soldiers in each hand — too many to hold. The Lakota saw this as the good medicine that won the battle and thereafter called it the "Battle of the Hundred-in-the-Hands". A total of 81 American soldiers and civilians died in the battle. The battlefield was examined briefly and the bodies of soldiers removed quickly. According to
22748-601: The fur trade, developed as enemies of the Crow. It was named after the dominating Plains Cree and Assiniboine peoples, and later included the Stoney , Saulteaux, and Métis . By the early 19th century, the Apsáalooke fell into three independent groupings, who came together only for common defense: Apsaalooke oral history describes a fourth group, the Bilapiluutche ("Beaver Dries its Fur"), who may have merged with
22936-453: The fur trader Francois-Antoine Larocque to join it on its way across the plains to the Yellowstone area. He traveled with it to a point west of the place where Billings, Montana , is today. The camp crossed Little Missouri River and Bighorn River on the way. The next year, some Crow discovered a group of whites with horses on the Yellowstone River. By stealth, they captured the mounts before morning. The Lewis and Clark Expedition did not see
23124-467: The group was able to evade the Indian force, after which they walked over thirty miles out of the mountains and back to the Goose Creek camp, arriving worn out and fatigued but with no casualties. The "Sibley Scout" became another incident of the Great Sioux War of 1876 that took place along the Tongue River. In the fall of 1876 following the defeat of Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn ,
23312-568: The higher estimates. The Plains Indians rarely mounted a direct charge at a foe capable of defense. Rather, they struck at the rear and flanks of an opponent, using mounted mobility to probe for weaknesses and attempt to cause disorganization and panic, backing off if they encountered a stout defense, and closing in for the kill when they could do so with little risk of heavy casualties. Counting Fetterman and his men, in less than six months at Fort Phil Kearny, Carrington had lost 96 soldiers and 58 civilians. More than 300 soldiers were still garrisoned at
23500-414: The lack of a rail spur to transport the coal, and the lack of an established community of sufficient size in the area to support the work force needed to develop the coal mines. A railroad spur line, if built, would have to come up the Tongue River from Miles City, a distance of some 65 to 70 miles. Extensive infrastructure improvements would have to be added to the community of Ashland before it could support
23688-400: The length and breadth of eastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming , which had been for a time ancestral Crow territory. On 25 June 1876, the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne achieved a major victory over army forces under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in the Crow Indian Reservation , but the Great Sioux War (1876–1877) ended in the defeat of
23876-466: The magazine. Carrington would then blow up the magazine to ensure that no Americans remained alive to be captured by the Indians. That evening, a civilian, John "Portugee" Phillips, volunteered to carry a distress message to Fort Laramie. Carrington's message to General Cooke told of the Fetterman disaster and requested immediate reinforcements and repeating Spencer carbines . Carrington sent Phillips and another messenger, Philip Bailey, out that evening on
24064-540: The mid-1850s. Soon, the Sioux took no notice of the 1851 borders and expanded into Crow territory west of the Powder. The Crows engaged in "… large-scale battles with invading Sioux …" near present-day Wyola, Montana . Around 1860, the western Powder area was lost. From 1857 to 1860, many Crow traded their surplus robes and skin at Fort Sarpy (II) near the mouth of the Bighorn River. During
24252-514: The mid-1860s, the Sioux resented the emigrant route Bozeman Trail through the Powder River bison habitat, although it mainly "crossed land guaranteed to the Crows". When the Army built forts to protect the trail, the Crow cooperated with the garrisons. On 21 December 1866, the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho defeated Captain William J. Fetterman and his men from Fort Phil Kearny . Evidently,
24440-407: The mines along the Tongue in the vicinity of Decker, Montana . Tongue River coal is low in sulfur content and coal-fired electric generating places throughout the United States demand Tongue River coal so they can meet federal emission standards. Because of this demand, about 40% of the coal now used to generate electricity in the United States is mined from the Tongue River sandstone coal seams in
24628-523: The more remote areas of the basin, during the pulses of intense winter cold common to this area, there is a real risk of death or injury by freezing. The Tongue River basin does not have the "gumbo" type mud that affects road travel in wet weather on the north side of the Yellowstone River. Traffic on the gravel and dirt roads of the Tongue River basin is a problem at sharp corners, blind hilltops, concealed entrances to side roads, and when suddenly encountering oversized slow ranch/farm vehicles. In warm weather it
24816-457: The mountains into the basin. Generally there are older sedimentary layers closer to the mountains and younger layers farther away. As the Tongue flows out from the Big Horn Mountains it passes over the uplifted layers of increasingly younger sedimentary rocks. In the Big Horn Mountains the Tongue flows in its mountain canyon of Madison Limestone , which was deposited during Early to Middle Mississippian time, about 359 to 326 million years ago. As
25004-421: The mouth of the Tongue, where a Northern Cheyenne band under Two Moons remained which had yet not been sent south. General Miles allowed Ft. Keogh to become a gathering point for the scattered Northern Cheyenne people. Over time Cheyenne families began to migrate south from the fort and establish homesteads up the Tongue River and on the Rosebud. By executive orders in 1884 and 1900, the federal government carved out
25192-664: The mythical Thunderbird . The early home of the Crow Hidatsa ancestral tribe was near Lake Erie in what is now Ohio. Driven from there by better armed, aggressive neighbors, they briefly settled south of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba . Later the people moved to the Devil's Lake region of North Dakota before the Crow split from the Hidatsa and moved westward. The Crow were largely pushed westward due to intrusion and influx of
25380-515: The new place. These Indians had left the Hidatsa villages and adjacent cornfields for good, but they had yet to become "real" buffalo hunting Crow following the herds on the open plains. Archaeologists know this "proto-Crow" site in present Montana as the Hagen site. Some time before 1765, the Crow held a Sun Dance, attended by a poor Arapaho. A Crow with power gave him a medicine doll, and he quickly earned status and owned horses as no one else. During
25568-406: The new sentinel of the Bozeman Trail. A grand attack had been planned with care and nearly every well-known Sioux chief had agreed to strike the invaders. Crazy Horse was put in charge of the attack, while the older men acted as councilors. They experienced great success; in less than half an hour, they had defeated nearly 100 men under Captain Fetterman, who had been cleverly drawn out of the fort by
25756-462: The next Sun Dance, some Crow stole back the figure to keep it in the tribe. Eventually the Arapaho made a duplicate. Later in life, he married a Kiowa woman and brought the doll with him. The Kiowas use it during the Sun Dance and recognize it as one of the most powerful tribal medicines. They still credit the Crow tribe for the origin of their sacred Tai-may figure. The enmity between the Crow and
25944-414: The north. After remaining idle for more than two weeks on Goose Creek, on July 6, 1876 General George Crook ordered Second Lieutenant Frederick W. Sibley to take 25 men and two scouts, Big Bat Pourier and Frank Grouard , and make a reconnaissance to the north to locate the hostile Indian forces. While traveling up the Tongue River in the vicinity of (present day) Dayton, Wyoming, the patrol discovered
26132-477: The number of guards for the wood trains and kept the 50 serviceable horses the fort still possessed – having lost many in Indian raids – saddled and ready to sally from dawn to dark. On December 19, the Indians attacked another wood train. Carrington sent Captain Powell, his most cautious officer, out of the fort to relieve the wood train with a cavalry company and mounted infantry. He gave explicit orders not to pursue
26320-488: The number of women and children taken captive to 160. By and by and with a fur trader as an intermediary, the Crows agreed to let 50 women return to their tribe. Fort Sarpy (I) near Rosebud River carried out trade with the Crow after the closing of Fort Alexander. River Crow went some times to the bigger Fort Union at the confluence of the Yellowstone and the Missouri. Both the "famous Absaroka amazon " Woman Chief and River Crow chief Twines His Tail (Rotten Tail) visited
26508-422: The number of worker's families that the mine would draw to the area. These deposits on Otter Creek are the source of much debate over the future of energy development in southeastern Montana. Arch Coal has submitted an application to develop a coal mine in the area, but it has not, as of 2015, been approved by state regulators. The Tongue River Railroad project, planned to move coal from the mine to Colstrip ,
26696-444: The offensive. They increased their urging after November 3, when a cavalry company of 63 men arrived to reinforce the post. The cavalry company was led by Lieutenant Horatio S. Bingham. He was accompanied by infantry captains William J. Fetterman and James W. Powell. Both captains had been assigned to Fort Phil Kearny from the 18th Infantry's headquarters at Fort Laramie. Bingham and Fetterman were Civil War veterans, and Fetterman had
26884-426: The old Crow country, menacing and often raiding the Crows in their reservation camps." Charles Varnum , leader of Custer's scouts, understood how valuable the enrolment of scouts from the local Indian tribe was. "These Crows were in their own country and knew it thoroughly." Tongue River (Montana) The Tongue River is a tributary of the Yellowstone River , approximately 265 mi (426 km) long, in
27072-476: The operation. Yet, at some point, Grummond led his cavalry far in advance of Fetterman, chasing the Indian decoys in direct violation of his orders. He had a distinguished Civil War record as a combat officer, but he had been court-martialed for drunkenness and abuse of civilians and was known as a bigamist. Calitri suggests that he was reckless and possibly disobeyed orders during the December 6 fight. Also, in
27260-471: The others. The cavalry continued its retreat, halting to fight in a flat area on the ridge 400 yards north of where the infantry lay dead. The Indians sniped at the soldiers while organizing a charge, and then rushed in among the soldiers, killing them all. The Indians took about twenty minutes to kill the infantry and another twenty minutes to dispatch the cavalry. The Indians had few guns and fought mostly with bows and arrows, spears, and war clubs. Only six of
27448-614: The pine hills of southern Montana, and the buttes and grasslands that were formerly the home of vast migratory herds of American bison . The Tongue River watershed encompasses parts of the Cheyenne and Crow Reservations in Montana. The headwaters lie on the Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming, and the watershed encompasses the Ashland Ranger District of the Custer National Forest . The river's name corresponds to Cheyenne /vetanoveo'he/ , where /vetanove/ means "tongue" and /o'he'e/ means "river". The Tongue River
27636-455: The pregnant wife of the deceased Lieutenant Grummond. They braved temperatures as low as -38 °F (-39 °C) during the journey to Fort Laramie. Half of the sixty soldiers escorting them suffered frostbite . Lurid newspaper stories blamed Carrington for the Fetterman disaster. An investigation absolved him of blame, but the report was not made public. The investigation noted that twelve companies of soldiers were stationed at Fort Laramie in
27824-540: The railroad spur line which is used to ship coal from the nearby open pit mines being operated by Kiewit in the Decker, Montana area, and the communities of Sheridan and Ranchester already exist to serve as a base for the work force needed to develop coal mines at Youngs Creek. I-94, an east–west interstate artery carrying U.S. Highway 12, crosses the Tongue at its mouth at Miles City. I-90, also an east–west interstate artery carrying U.S. Highway 87 and U.S. Highway 14, crosses
28012-535: The relief party. Powell remained behind. Another officer of the 18th, Lieutenant George W. Grummond, a known critic of Carrington, led the cavalry, which had been leaderless since Bingham's death in early December. Captain Frederick Brown, until recently the post quartermaster and another of Carrington's critics, and two civilians, James Wheatley and Isaac Fisher, joined Fetterman, bringing the relief force up to 81 officers and men. The infantry marched out first;
28200-416: The right bank of the Yellowstone. Although the precise location of this fort is in dispute, it was located along the Yellowstone River, in an area near the mouth of the Tongue River. At the fort, AFC agents traded for furs with Indians from the surrounding area. The fort was abandoned in 1842, and later burned. In 1864, the Bozeman Trail was opened to the Montana gold fields. A portion of the trail entered
28388-496: The river and throughout the basin. From the Decker area downstream to about Birney the river flows through the prairie in a canyon carved from the Tongue River sandstone. The upper part of this canyon is dammed to form the Tongue River Reservoir. The sandstone hillsides and bluffs along the Tongue and its tributaries often have reddish bands running through them or they are capped with resistant reddish layer. These red layers were formed millions of years ago. Coal seams outcropping in
28576-489: The river's mountain canyon in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, or the river's prairie canyon in Montana, located downstream from the Tongue River Dam and Reservoir . The major tributaries of the Tongue are Pumpkin Creek, Otter Creek, Hanging Woman Creek, Prairie Dog Creek and Goose Creek . All of these tributaries enter on the eastern side of the river, and all flow in a northerly direction. Pumpkin Creek meets
28764-405: The roads that run along the Tongue and its major tributaries, there is a network of gravel roads that cross the highlands between the stream valleys. During the winter, travel along the roads in the basin can become difficult to impossible depending on snow accumulation, particularly on the more remote gravel roads that are not regularly plowed. If road conditions or car trouble strand a motorist in
28952-590: The sandstone layers of the Tongue River member hold ground water so that the highlands on each side of the Tongue River valley are often covered with pines. As the river approaches Miles City the valley changes appearance to grassy rolling hills, as the river leaves the Tongue River formation and flows through the Lebo shale and the Tullock sedimentary formations. The Tongue River sandstone member outcrops widely over portions of southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming and it
29140-432: The sandy silty deposits into the Tongue River sandstone of today, and also compressing and changing the layers of peaty organic material into thinner layers of lignite coal. Over the last several million years, much of the overlying sediment has eroded away, bringing the sandstone layer with its seams of coal to the surface again in the Tongue River area. The Tongue River sandstone forms cliffs, hills, buttes and bluffs along
29328-474: The shortcomings in organization and discipline of their largely inexperienced soldiers. Fetterman said, "This Indian war has become a hand-to-hand fight requiring the utmost caution." Carrington's guide, famous mountain man Jim Bridger , was more succinct: "These soldiers don't know anything about fighting Indians". His caution confirmed by this experience, Carrington intensified training for his soldiers and officers, forming them into six companies. He doubled
29516-467: The soldiers to halt as they left the front gate of the fort. Francis Grummond wrote that everyone present could hear the orders. On leaving the fort, however, Fetterman took the Lodge Ridge Trail northward rather than the trail northwest toward the pinery where the wagon train was. Carrington assumed that Fetterman intended to approach the Indians attacking the wood train from their rear. Within
29704-500: The soldiers' bodies before leaving in an apparent mirror of the Sand Creek Massacre of two years before. In his report to his superiors, Carrington listed what was discovered at the battlefield the next day: eyes torn out and laid on rocks, noses and ears cut off, teeth chopped out, brains taken out and placed on rocks, hands and feet cut off, and private parts severed. The two civilians, Wheatley and Fisher, had their faces smashed into bloody pulp, and Wheatley had been pierced by more than
29892-402: The south and east of Crow territory in Montana. The Lakota along with their Cheyenne allies coveted the fine hunting lands where the Crow lived and after 1851 the Lakota and Cheyenne fought the Crow and took control of their eastern hunting lands, including the Powder and Tongue River valleys, pushing the less numerous Crow to the west and northwest along the Yellowstone River. After about 1860
30080-420: The south. Hanging Woman Creek empties into the Tongue at Birney, Montana , about 91 miles (146 km) above the mouth of the Tongue, and its headwaters are 35 miles (56 km) away in northern Wyoming. Prairie Dog Creek and Goose Creek flow into the Tongue at the point where the Tongue turns from an eastward direction to flow toward the northeast. Goose Creek drains a scenic, well-watered basin in Wyoming, on
30268-399: The summer is generally steady, but in the later months of a dry summer, irrigation can reduce the lower river to a few pools of water connected by a small trickle. The river is generally frozen during the winter months. The source of the Tongue River is in the highlands of the Big Horn Mountains in north-central Wyoming. The river descends the eastern side of the mountains and emerges from
30456-496: The summer of 1834, the Crow (maybe led by chief Arapooish) tried to shut down Fort McKenzie at the Missouri in Blackfeet country. The apparent motive was to stop the trading post's sale to their Indian enemies. Although later described as a month long siege of the fort, it lasted only two days. The opponents exchanged a few shots and the men in the fort fired a cannon, but no real harm came to anyone. The Crows left four days before
30644-485: The summer of 1870, some Sioux attacked a Crow reservation camp in the Bighorn/Little Bighorn area. The Crows reported Sioux Indians in the same area again in 1871. During the next years, this eastern part of the Crow reservation was taken over by the Sioux in search of buffalo. In August 1873, visiting Nez Percé and a Crow reservation camp at Pryor Creek further west faced a force of Sioux warriors in
30832-486: The supremacy of the United States, if they actually understood the word. River Crow chief Arapooish had left the treaty area in disgust. By help of the thunderbird he had to send a farewell shower down on the whites and the Mountain Crows. In 1829, seven Crow warriors were neutralized by Blood Blackfoot Indians led by Spotted Bear, who captured a pipe-hatchet during the fight just west of Chinook, Montana . In
31020-412: The top of the ridge, in violation of orders from Carrington, he chose to follow the Indian decoys north rather than turn west to rescue the wagon train. He advanced along a narrow ridge leading to a flat area along Peno Creek. His cavalry under Grummond took the van, initially moving at a walk so the infantry could keep up. The decoys led him onward, with the cavalry leaving the infantry behind. About half
31208-464: The top, about 12:45 pm, his men and he saw a very large force of Indians in the Peno Creek valley below. Indian warriors approached the soldiers and taunted them. Meanwhile, Carrington dispatched another group of 42 soldiers to join Ten Eyck. The Indians in the valley slowly dispersed and disappeared. Ten Eyck advanced carefully and the soldiers found the bodies of Fetterman and all of his men in
31396-415: The trappers camp, the collection of Crow warriors probably first affected an excessive cordiality and when their demonstrations of friendship and claims of affection had literally and figuratively disarmed the trappers, "then the knives, clubs, bows and guns were out, and a Crow was attached to everything of value." The warriors even took Capt. Stewart's watch. Upon meeting Tom Fitzpatrick as he returned from
31584-405: The tribe according to one source. The River Crows grew in number, when a group of Hidatsas joined them permanently to escape the scourge sweeping through the Hidatsa villages. Fort Van Buren was a short-lived trading post in existence from 1839 to 1842. It was built on the bank of the Yellowstone near the mouth of Tongue River. In the summer of 1840, a Crow camp in the Bighorn valley greeted
31772-510: The tribe. While Fitzpatrick was visiting the Crow camp, young Crow warriors, probably instigated by AFC agents, rode to Fitzpatrick's camp and proceeded to steal all of his horses, rifles, traps, and equipment, as well as his beaver pelts and trade goods. Fitzpatrick's camp was being guarded by 25 of his men under Captain William Drummond Stewart , a former British officer (and veteran of Waterloo) and no pushover. Upon entering
31960-411: The upper reaches of the Tongue between Ranchester and Dayton, and continues to Sheridan. U.S. Highway 212 extends east and west from Ashland bisecting the middle of the Tongue River basin from side to side. The Tongue River has a road running along almost all of its length, as do the major tributaries, but the predominance of gravel roads over paved roads is a testament to the remoteness of the region. In
32148-598: The valley. The CB&Q railroad ran from Sheridan, Wyoming past these mines and on to Billings, Montana, allowing for easy shipment of coal. These underground mines were economically operated from about 1900 to the late 1940s. Miners lived in these communities or in Sheridan, Wyoming. Miners in Sheridan commuted the 7 to 10 miles to reach the mines by trolly. The same coal seams that used to be mined by tunnels are now accessed for mining by large open surface excavations. Several large coal strip mines are presently operating in
32336-441: The valley. The dead soldiers had been stripped naked and mutilated. That afternoon, wagons were sent to bring the bodies back to Fort Kearny. According to Charles Alexander Eastman , in 1866, the Indian's discomfort with the white man had peaked. Red Cloud was determined to face any odds rather than bow down. “Hear ye, Dakotas!” he exclaimed. “When the Great Father at Washington sent us his chief soldier [General Harney] to ask for
32524-573: The village, the young warriors completed their work by robbing him of his capote coat. The next day, Fitzpatrick, always a realist, returned to the Crow camp and begged his former friend, the Crow Chief for help and received back some of his horses, rifles, traps and other equipment, and a small amount of ammunition per man, but no furs or trade goods. In 1835 Samuel Tullock of the American Fur Company (AFC) built Fort Van Buren on
32712-466: The wagon train. Less than an hour later, Carrington's pickets on Pilot Hill signaled by flag that the wagon train was under attack. Carrington ordered a relief party composed of 49 infantrymen of the 18th Infantry and 27 mounted troopers of the 2nd Cavalry under the command of Captain James Powell. By claiming seniority as a brevet lieutenant colonel, Fetterman asked for and was given command of
32900-415: The west side of the trail and the Lakota on the east. The group of Indians chosen to decoy the soldiers included the young Oglala Crazy Horse . The morning of December 21, 1866, was clear and cold. About 10 am, Carrington dispatched a wagon train to the "pinery" – about 5 miles northwest and the nearest source of construction timber and firewood for Fort Phil Kearny. Almost 90 soldiers were detailed to guard
33088-414: The whites. By 1851, the more numerous Lakota and Cheyenne were established just to the south and east of Crow territory in Montana. These enemy tribes coveted the hunting lands of the Crow and warred against them. By right of conquest , they took over the eastern hunting lands of the Crow, including the Powder and Tongue River valleys, and pushed the less numerous Crow to the west and northwest upriver on
33276-424: The winter. General Cooke, on receipt of Carrington's distress message, immediately ordered that he be relieved of command by Brigadier General Henry W. Wessells , who arrived safely at Fort Kearny on January 16 with two companies of cavalry and four of infantry. One man in his command froze to death during the journey. Carrington left Fort Kearny on January 23 with his wife and the other women and children, including
33464-402: The woods. Lieutenant Bisbee, commanding the wagon train, sensibly took cover instead of pursuing. On November 25, 1866, Carrington's superior, General Philip St. George Cooke , ordered him to take the offensive in response to the Indians' "murderous and insulting attacks". Carrington's first opportunity to strike back came on December 6. His pickets on Pilot Hill signaled that an Army wood train
33652-400: Was also instructed to repeat them. As if peculiarly impressed with some anticipations of rashness in the movement, the colonel, just after the command left, went across the parade ground to a sentry platform, halted the mounted party, and gave additional orders, understood in the garrison, and by those who heard them, to be the substantial repition [sic] of the former. 'The health of Mrs Grummond
33840-401: Was being attacked four miles west of the fort. Carrington told Fetterman to proceed west with a company of cavalry and a squad of mounted infantry to relieve the wood train. Carrington himself led another mounted detachment to circle north in an attempt to cut off the Indians' retreat. During the movement, Lieutenants Grummond and Bingham, with several others, became separated from Carrington, who
34028-492: Was given to them by the Hidatsa , a neighboring and related Siouan-speaking tribe. French interpreters translated the name as gens du corbeau ("people of the crow"), and they became known in English as the Crow. Other tribes also refer to the Apsáalooke as "crow" or "raven" in their own languages. The identity of the bird this name was meant to refer to originally is lost to time, but many Apsáalooké people believe it references
34216-473: Was given to these orders. The bodies of Fetterman and his soldiers were found more than half a mile beyond the summit of the ridge. According to Calitri, historians believe evidence conflicts as to whether Carrington gave his order. He suggests that Carrington and Fetterman planned to take the offensive against the Indians attacking the wood train and that Fetterman took the Lodge Trail Ridge to gain
34404-769: Was highly unlikely to have arrived in time to assist Fetterman. Native Americans , about 2,000 warriors Native Americans Wood-cutting detachment rescue party from Fort Phil Kearny, Dakota Territory, December 21, 1866, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Captain William J. Fetterman †, commanding Captain William J. Fetterman†, 18th Infantry, commanding Second Lieutenant George W. Grummond† Captain Frederick H. Brown† † Killed in action Crow Indian The Crow , whose autonym
34592-488: Was killed in a suicidal attack on some Sioux, who previously had killed three soldiers from Camp Lewis on the upper Judith River (near Lewistown). George Bird Grinnell was a member of the exploring party in the Yellowstone National Park that year, and he saw the bringing in of the dead chief. A mule carried the body, which was wrapped in a green blanket. The chief was placed in a tipi "not far from
34780-406: Was such that Lieutenant Wands and other friends urged him, for his family's sake, to be prudent, and avoid all rash movements and any pursuit that would draw them over Lodge Trail Ridge, and to report to Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Fetterman the orders he had received. These orders, in so many words, 'to relieve the train, and under no circumstances to cross the ridge.' Everyone knew why special emphasis
34968-528: Was surrounded by about a hundred Indian warriors. Fetterman soon arrived to reinforce Carrington, and the Indians retreated. Grummond eventually was seen approaching with seven Indians in hot pursuit, though he managed to reach safety with Carrington and Fetterman. The mutilated bodies of Bingham and a sergeant were found several hours later. Four soldiers had been wounded after they pursued another Indian decoy into an ambush. Carrington reported that he had killed ten Indians, but both Fetterman and he were sobered by
35156-516: Was that Fetterman was arrogant, insubordinate, and inexperienced in fighting Indians and that he had given Fetterman explicit orders not to venture beyond the summit of Lodge Trail Ridge. According to Margret Irvin Carrington in her book Absaraka: Home of the Crows , The orders were given in front of Lieutenant Grummond's house, next the colonel's, and those who were present heard them repeated with distinctness and special urgency. Lieutenant Wands
35344-422: Was the prominent leader in the fighting. After leaving Fort Phil Kearny with his infantry, Fetterman fired volleys at the small group of Indians, who harassed his flanks and taunted his soldiers. Instead of turning west to where the wagon train was under attack, he advanced northward up Lodge Trail Ridge, perhaps planning to circle east toward the wagon train, perhaps drawn by the Indian decoys, who mooned him. At
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