Adventures on the Bozeman Trail

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In April, 1867, Bozeman and Tom Coover, on their way down the Yellowstone, en route to Fort C.F. Smith, made a camp where they encountered Indians, who stole many of their horses. The following day (April 18th) after this attack, while cooking the noon meal, five Indians entered the camp leading the stolen horses of the day before. Bozeman, believing the Indians to be friendly Crows, invited them to the meal, when without warning, two Indians shot Bozeman through the body. Coover escaped into the bushes. The Indians stole the horses and blankets, but did not scalp Bozeman. It was afterward learned that these Indians were the Blackfeet, fugitives from their own tribe on account of having killed one of their chiefs, and that at this time were living with the Crows.

Two days after the killing of Bozeman, his partner, Coover, wrote for the public the following account of the murder:

The Killing of John Bozeman

The Indian side of the killing of Bozeman is given in the following dictation (dictated by George Reed Davis, Crow interpreter, otherwise "Crow" Davis, of Laurel):

"In the year 1867 about the last of May or the first of June I was at Fort Laramie in the service of the government, and here the tribe of the Crows were at that time gathered for the purpose of signing a treaty with the government. At this time a war party of young bucks (Crows) set out from the vicinity of Fort C.F. Smith for the purpose of stealing horses from the settlers in the Gallatin Valley. With this party of Crows were five (four) Piegan Indians, renegades from their tribe at that time, among them being Mountain Chief and three sons, one of whom was named Bull. Being successful in their raid for horses the band started on their return with about two hundred head of horses and had reached a point six miles below Mission Creek and about sixteen miles east from the present town of Livingston, when they met two white men traveling up the river. One of these was J. M. Bozeman and his companion, I have learned, was T. W. Coover, one of the discovers of gold in Alder Gulch.

Not wishing to harm the whites or to be harmed by them the Crows passed on but the Piegans shortly disappeared from among them which fact was not discovered for some time. The latter not putting in an appearance for some time, the Crows started back to hunt them up and found that they had killed Bozeman while away. The Piegans returned to camp with the Crows, but in November returned to the Piegan tribe in northern Montana. Afterwards, during the following years, the three sons of Mountain Chief, together with two other Piegans, set out as a war party for the purpose of stealing horses from their former friends, the Crows. [They] were discovered by a band of Crow warriors under the leading warriors of the Crow tribe, Pretty Eagle and Ball Rock, in the Judith Gap in Judith Basin. [They] intercepted them and killed five of them. They were recognized by the Crows as the sons of Mountain Chief who had just left their camp and who killed Bozeman.

April 1st 1896 (Signed) George Reed ("Crow") Davis"

Nelson Story, a pioneer of Bozeman, who has caused a monument to be erected in the Bozeman cemetery over the grave of John M. Bozeman, a grave that stands at the brow of the bluff which the cemetery crowns, and overlooking the beautiful city which has grown up since Bozeman ushered in its first settlers, presents new materials as to Bozeman's death which information was given to him by W. S. McKenzie.

"The two (referring to Bozeman and Coover) had just finished dinner when the five Indians who had stolen our horses came up. . . They asked for food and Bozeman good naturedly consented to cook something for them. The only weapon the Indians had with them was an old gun which we call a Mississippi yager. Bozeman had a Spencer gun, which he laid aside while cooking, and Coover, who stood near by, had a first class Henry gun. I had advised Bozeman not to let any Indian get close to him. The thing to have done when those Indians appeared with their demand for something to eat, was to have killed them, for their presence meant no good, but Bozeman was a reckless man and never could see danger anywhere. While Bozeman cooked he talked to one of the Indians. Suddenly an Indian from behind the shelter of the one to whom Bozeman was talking, fired at Bozeman. The ball struck him in the abdomen, killing him instantly. . . They found Bozeman's body and buried it where it lay, but could not get the Indians. Three or four days later the body was disinterred and brought to Bozeman and buried in the cemetery. . . Mountain Chief, one of the renegade Blackfeet, I saw at Fort C.F. Smith the year after. I tried to get the commanding officer to put him under arrest, but the officer feared the Indian would be hanged and trouble would ensue, so he would not accede to my request."

The monument on the overlooking hill bears the following inscription:

"In memory of John M. Bozeman, aged 32 years, killed by Blackfoot Indians on the Yellowstone, April 18, 1867. He was a native of Georgia, and was one of the first settlers of Bozeman, from whom the town takes its name."

A newspaper correspondent writing from Union City, Montana Territory, October 21, 1867, a few months after Bozeman's murder, makes this comment:

"The three murderers of Colonel Bozeman came in and received their annuities recently at Fort Benton, and bore their gifts straightway to the hostile camps. Two of them were sons of a chief who professes to be at peace with the whites. He does the part of diplomacy, while his sons and followers rob and butcher. A large portion of the annuities received by this tribe go to those who are on the warpath; he shields the fraud and aids the merciless enemy."

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