Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/289

 Stanton and the band of half-breed scouts recruited at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies. General Crook marched with these nearly all the time, and I was so much interested in learning all that was possible about the northwest country, and the Indians and the half-breeds inhabiting it, that I devoted all the time I could to conversing with them. Frank Gruard, a native of the Sandwich Islands, was for some years a mail-rider in northern Montana, and was there captured by the forces of "Crazy Horse"; his dark skin and general appearance gave his captors the impression that Frank was a native Indian whom they had recaptured from the whites; consequently, they did not kill him, but kept him a prisoner until he could recover what they believed to be his native language—the Sioux. Frank remained several years in the household of the great chief "Crazy Horse," whom he knew very well, as well as his medicine man—the since renowned "Sitting Bull." Gruard was one of the most remarkable woodsmen I have ever met; no Indian could surpass him in his intimate acquaintance with all that pertained to the topography, animal life, and other particulars of the great region between the head of the Piney, the first affluent of the Powder on the west, up to and beyond the Yellowstone on the north; no question could be asked him that he could not answer at once and correctly. His bravery and fidelity were never questioned; he never flinched under fire, and never growled at privation. Louis Richaud, Baptiste Pourrier ("Big Bat"), Baptiste Gamier ("Little Bat"), Louis Changrau, Speed Stagner, Ben Clarke, and others were men of excellent record as scouts, and all rendered efficient service during the entire expedition. There was one representative of the public press—Mr. Robert E. Strahorn, of the Rocky Mountain News, who remained throughout the entire campaign, winter and summer, until the last of the hostiles had surrendered.