P a g e 5 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r come and get it.” The crowd all filed in orderly and were seated around on the dirt floor at the edge of the canvas. The most of the eating was done with fingers as we were short of forks. I will try and quote the bill of fare as near as I remember: Prime barbecued buffalo meat, pork and beans, canned peaches, canned pears, dried applesauce, Dexter's de-lay duff, syrup, tea, bread, soda crackers, candy, nuts, beer and whisky for the white men, but no whisky for the red-men. Indians are all crazy for whisky. One of these young bucks insisted on having some of the whisky so some of the men played a trick on him—knowing that these Indians had never tasted beer. One of the men pointed to the beer keg and asked the buck if he wanted some, the redskin said he did. The man poured out a tincup full of beer and handed it to him; another one of the men sprang to his feet and pretended he was going to stop the buck from having it; the redskin in his eagerness to drink it at one gulp, got the strong foam up his nose and nearly strangled to death. He threw the cup and part of the beer on the floor and told the other Indians he was poisoned. He was finally induced to sit down and finish his dinner, but was very sulky over the joke. It was a sight to see all those men feeding themselves in any way they could get to it; part of the redskins ate with their hunting knives only. This was a real frontier scene and a dinner that anyone present would never forget. After dinner we had several horse races with the Indians and won a few bobs. Later in the day a young buck that had taken on more dinner than any three white men, offered to run a foot race with any man in the post. The match was made and the wager was the Indian's pony against three blankets. Toe -String -Joe Hanna was the man selected to run; he was very fleet on foot and won the race easily. This concluded our day's festivities, never to be forgotten. Few, if any, of these sturdy pioneers are alive today, as I was only a stripling of a boy then and the rest were middle-aged men. My father, D. G. Wilkins, passed away at Livingston, Oct. 16, 1900. He rests in Shorthill cemetery overlooking the majestic Yellowstone river; W. O. Dexter, of our post life, died at Fort Benton; Sam Duston passed on at Havre; Antelope Charley was killed by Indians at the coal banks below Fort Benton in 1875; Polete and Buckshot were killed by the Sioux on Big Sandy creek; Toe -String -Joe killed a man and left for parts unknown; George Majors passed on, I believe, at Fort Benton; the rest of our men at the old trading post I have lost track of, but hope some of them are still alive. -The Mountaineer Newspaper (Big Sandy, MT), Accessed via: www.montananewspapers.org
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