The failure of the railroad bills did not have the effect to prevent railroad-building. The Union Pacific company could not longer defer competing with the Northern Pacific, which was now approaching the Montana territory with rapid strides. It therefore constructed ten miles of the Utah Northern within the limits of Montana before cold weather interrupted grading. In the following year it constructed 110 miles, and in 1881 reached Helena. With the opening of railroad communication a new era of prosperity, which had been slowly dawning since about 1876, greatly assisted the territory in recovering from its embarrased financial condition. This, together with the restrictions placed upon reckless expenditure by congress, and the faithful admonitions of Potts, who still held the executive office to the satisfaction of both political parties, finally accomplished the redemption of the territory. When the governor found that at the meeting of the twelfth legislature the several counties still owed an aggregate debt of $619,899.86, he pointed out over again that this exhibit did not sustain their boasted ability for local self-government, and that it must deter immigration, and retard the admission of Montana as a state, recommending certain improvements in the laws regulating county affairs.

33

On the contrary, the improvement in territorial finances was encouraging, there being a net indebtedness remaining of only a little more than $20,000. Few reforms in county administrations were accomplished at this session, and at the meeting of the

34

tion, and was made to answer the demands of locality alone.' The house refused to reconsider the bill, and it was lost.

33 This reproach of the governor was aimed at a continual harping by certain papers on the tyranny of congress, and the greater prosperity of a territory which could be allowed to choose its officers, and manage its own affairs. 34 The council of the 12th legislature was composed of 12 members, according to an act of congress of 1878, which ordered at the same time the reduction of the assembly to 24 members, and a new apportionment according to population. The members were Joseph K. Toole, president, E. D. Aikin, Joseph A. Browne, Edward Cardwell, R. S. Ford, W. O. P. Hays, J. B. Hubbell, William B. Hundley, J. C. Kerley, Armistead H. Mitchell, William W. Morris, Frank L. Worden; clerks, Harry R. Comley, Haden E. Riddle;

thirteenth legislature, in January 1883, the county indebtedness had reached the sum of $658,974.32, and this, while the assessed valuation of the territory reached the sum of $33,211,319.12.35 The revenue for territorial purposes amounted to $90,863.47, and the treasury of Montana had a surplus of over $14,000 in its coffers.

Here, at last, the territorial craft found clear sailing. With regard to the public institutions necessary to the peace, the penitentiary contained sixty-seven convicts, whose maintenance cost seventy-five cents a day, ten of whom earned fifty cents daily at contract labor. During the year 1884 the central portion of the penitentiary building was in process of erection. Fifty-six insane persons were provided for and treated at the public expense, by the contract system. The school system of Montana had reached a condition of much excellence, the schools being graded, and none but competent teachers employed. The population had increased to 40,000, and there was a renewed movement toward a state constitution. Just at this period, after more than twelve years of wise administration, Governor Potts was removed, and John Schuyler Crosby appointed to succeed him, who assumed office on the 15th of January, 1883, four days after the meeting of the legislative assembly. Crosby

sergeant-at-arms, T. B. Harper; J. T. Mason chaplain. The house of representatives was composed of John J. Donnelly, speaker, Elizur Beach, John M. Bell, Henry N. Blake, Henry Chambers, Israel Clem, A. L. Corbly, William E. Cullen, W. D. Davis, Stephen De Wolfe, Amos Eastman, James H. Garlock, Michael Hanley, Curtis L. Harrington, Christian B. Houser, Robert G. Humber, Henry A. Kennerly, Henry M. Parchen, James K. Pardee, Jacob M. Powers, J. C. Rogers, Oscar A. Sedman, John Stedman, Enoch Wilson; clerks, James E. Kanouse, James N. Kemper; sergeant-at-arms, D. H. Linenbarger; chaplain, W. Scott Stites. Mont. Jour. Council, 12th sess., 3. 35 The governor's message shows that the county of Lewis and Clarke paid by its commissioners $3,664.40 for about 4 months' work in assessing the property holders at the rate of 3 per cent per annum. The sheriff received $1.25 per day each for the board of prisoners; more than boarding-house keepers required of their patrons for first-class fare; and other abuses are mentioned. Yet the people go on to-day electing legislatures from the same party which for twenty years has persisted in these spoliations.

36 The council of the 13th legislature was composed of the following members: Granville Stuart, president, Henry S. Back, W. E. Bass, Edward Cardwell, William A. Chessman, Charles G. Cox, Warren C. Gillette, Armis

SAMUEL T. HAUSER.

689

was soon succeeded in the executive office by B. Platt Carpenter, who also served but a brief term, during which the fourteenth regular session of the legislative assembly was held.87 In 1885 the earnest desire of the people was gratified by the appointment of one of their own number, S. T. Hauser, governor of Montana. At this favorable period let us turn to the material history of the territory.

38

tead H. Mitchell, William W. Morris, George D. Thomas, Benjamin F. White, Aaron C. Witter, Alfred B. Hamilton (contestant); clerks, James B. Wells, W. I. Lippincott; sergeant-at-arms, Samuel Alexander; chaplain, L. L. Wood. House of Representatives, Alexander E. Mayhew, speaker, Joseph S. Allen, J. D. Armstrong, Joseph A. Baker, Orlando B. Batten, Henry S. Blake, John E. Clutter, Harry R. Comly, Frank D. Cooper, Thomas Dean, Caldwell Edwards, Sidney Erwin, John F. Forbis, Richard O. Hickman, William T. Jacobs, James E. Kanouse, John F. Maloney, Lee Mantle, Perry W. McAdow, Peter B. Mills, William B. Settle, Daniel O'Grady, Robert C. Wallace, Henry J. Wright; clerks, David Marks, J. W. Kemper; sergeant-at-arms, N. Dickenson; chaplain, Frederick T. Webb. Mont. Jour. Council, 3. The territorial secretary during Crosby's administration was Isaac D. McCutcheon; chief justice, Decius S. Wade; associate justice in 2d district, Deer Lodge, William J. Galbraith; 1st district temporarily vacant; attorney-general, John A. Johnston; U. S. district attorney, William H. De Witt; U. S. marshal, Alexander C. Botkin; surveyor-general, John S. Harris. Mont. Jour. Council, 1883.

37 This assembly consisted of the following members: Council, F. K. Armstrong, president, Martin Barrett, H. R. Buck, Ed. Cardwell, William A. Chessman, W. H. Cotant, Stephen De Wolfe, James Fergus, F. L. Greene, Will Kennedy, A. H. Mitchell, William W. Morris; clerks, David Marks, S. W. Langhorne; chaplain, L. L. Wood; sergeant-at-arms, Amos Calvin. In the house, James E. Callaway, speaker, J. T. Baldwin, S. V. B. Biddle, Clyde Eastman, Martin L. Emigh, Van H. Fiske, John F. Forbis, George M. Hatch, J. M. Holt, J. H. Jurgens, Conrad Kohrs, P. J. Moore, George R. Nichols, W. H. Norton, J. M. Page, F. L. Perkins, B. F. Potts, John M. Robinson, A. J. Seligman, H. M. Sloan, W. O. Speer, Jesse F. Taylor, George R. Tingle, and J. Wells; clerks, Harry H. Davis, Fred. H. Foster; chaplain, Frederick T. Webb; sergeant-at-arms, Thomas B. Warren. John S. Tooker was secretary of the territory; the judges, the same as in 1883, except that John Coburn was in charge of the 1st district; attorney-general, William H. Hunt. Mont. Jour. Council, 1885.

38 Samuel T. Hauser was born at Falmouth, Pendleton co., Ky, Jan. 10, 1833, and was reared and educated in his native state. In 1854 he removed to Mo. and engaged in civil engineering, serving on the Missouri Pacific and N. P. R. R. In 1862 he came up the Missouri to Fort Benton, and prospected over onto the upper Columbia waters, returning in the autumn to the Bannack mines, and exploring the Lewis and Clarke route down the Yellowstone, in 1863. In 1865, in company with W. F. Sanders, he opened a bank at Virginia City, and erected the first furnaces in the territory. In 1866 Mr Hauser organized the 1st National bank of Helena; also, the St Louis Mining Co., at Phillipsburg, now known as the Hope Mining Co., which erected the first silver mill in Mont. The 1st National banks of Missoula, Butte, and Benton were each organized by Mr Hauser. He is largely interested in stock and mining, organized the Utah & Northern railroad in Mont., and is president of a branch of the N. P. R. R., besides being engaged in many other enterprises.

HIST. WASH.-44

CHAPTER V.

INDIAN WARS.

1855-1882.

THE BLACKFOOT NATION-CROWS AND SIOUX-THEIR LANDS AND THEIR CHARACTERS-THE OLD, OLD ISSUE-TREATY-MAKING, TREATY-BREAKING, FIGHTING, AND FINISHING-MOVEMENTS OF TROOPS-MONTANA MILITIA COMPANIES-ESTABLISHING FORTS-EXPEDITIONS FOR PROSPECTING AND DISCOVERY-RESERVATIONS-LONG-CONTINUED HOSTILI TIES-DECISIVE MEASURES.

WITH the resident Indian tribes of Montana the government had treaties of amity previous to the period of gold discovery and settlement. The Blackfoot nation, consisting of four divisions-the Gros Ventre,1 Piegan, Blood, and Blackfoot proper-occupied the country beginning in the British possessions, bounded on the west by the Rocky Mountains, on the south by a line drawn from Hellgate pass in an easterly direction to the sources of the Musselshell River, and down that stream and the Missouri to the mouth of Milk River, where it was bounded on the east by that stream. To this country, although claimed as their home, they by no means restricted themselves, but wandered, as far as their prowess could defend them, into the territory of the neighboring nations, with which, before the treaty made with I. I.

1 This tribe claim to have come from the far north, and to have travelled over a large body of ice, which broke up and prevented their return. They then journeyed in a south-east course as far as the Arapahoe country, and remained with that people one year, after which they travelled eastward to the Sioux country, met and fought the Sioux, who drove them back until they fell in with the Piegans, and joined them in a war on the Bloods, after which they remained in the country between the Milk and Missouri rivers. E. A. C. Hatch, in Ind. Aff. Rept, 1856, 75; Dunn's Hist. Or., 156, 322–3.

THE FOUR NATIONS.

691

Between

Stevens in 1855, they were always at war. themselves they preserved no impassable lines, although the Gros Ventres lived farthest east, and the Piegans along the Missouri River, while the Blackfoot tribe and Bloods domiciled farther north.

Of the four tribes, the Gros Ventres, hitherto the most predatory in their habits, at first appeared the most faithful to their agreement with the United States. Likewise the Piegans, though of the most warlike character, seemed to feel bound by their treaty obligations to refrain from war; while the Blackfoot still occasionally stole the horses of the Flathead; and the Bloods, within ten days after signing the treaty at the mouth of Judith River, set out on a war expedition against the Crows. This nation, which occupied the Gallatin and Yellowstone valleys, with the tributaries of the latter and a portion of the Missouri, was known among other tribes and among fur-hunters and traders as the most mendacious of them all. To outlie a Crow, and thereby gain an advantage over him, was the serious study of the mountain men. He was not so good a fighter as the Blackfoot-if he had been, probably he would have had a straighter tongue-but the nation being large, and able to conquer by force of numbers as well as strategy, made him a foe to be dreaded. Of the Blackfoot nation there were 10,000 in 1858, and of the Crows nearly 4,000. The latter, divided into two bands of river and mountain Crows, had entered into obligations at the treaty of Laramie of 1851, together with other tribes of the plains, to preserve friendly relations with the people of the United States, and were promised annuities from the government in return. These annuities were distributed by Alfred J. Vaughn in the summer of 1854, who made a journey of three hundred miles from Fort Union on the Missouri up the Yellowstone to Fort Sarpy, the trading post of P. Choteau Jr & Co., with the goods stored in a keelboat along with the goods of the trading firm. The