Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 47 F ew mysteries have baffled Montana historians as long as John Bozeman's death. 154 years ago, on April 20th, 1867, John Bozeman left this earthly plane under mysterious circumstances. After leaving his wife and children in Georgia and making a few fruitless attempts at gold mining along the way, he officially founded the city of Bozeman in 1864. He cut the Bozeman trail from Wy- oming to Bannack, attempting to reach the gold fields of the Montana territory quicker than the other Oregon Trail-travel- ing pioneers. Unfortunately, the Bozeman Trail infringed upon land set aside for Native American tribes under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. Conflict soon erupted as more travelers passed through the land via the Trail, and eventually it was ruled that the United States held the right to "establish roads, military, and other posts" as written in Article 2 of the Fort Laramie Treaty that both the Unit- ed States and Crow Tribe had signed. To complicate the situation further, La- kota, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe tribes had overtaken the southeastern portion of the 1851 Crow territory and went on to win the land after multiple battles by 1860. So, to say the least, things were very tense for everyone by the time the town was officially founded. This leads us to the matter at hand, the death of John Bozeman. The story I grew up hearing is mostly the same as the official report originally relayed to the government by Thomas Cover and corroborated by Nelson Story, Sr. Thomas Cover was the only person who was with Bozeman that day, and the men had spent the night at one of Nelson Story's cattle ranches the night before. On that late April day, the two men were heading to Fort C.F. Smith in hopes that they could secure Cover a lucrative contract for flour, as he co-owned a mill on the east side of the valley. As Cov- er claims, the men stopped for a meal near the Yellowstone River and were approached by five Native American men, some on horseback. (Cover's own accounts vary; more on this later.) Bozeman originally thought the advancing men were Crow and advised Cover not to panic, as Bozeman was friendly with the tribe. The still-advancing men signaled that they were hungry and wanted to eat. Cover claimed that he held up his rifle as a stony greeting and that Bozeman had not brandished his weapon. Bozeman then mentioned to Cover that he had mistaken the men, whom Cover claimed were Blackfeet, and that they might be in for a fight. Things took a turn, and John Bozeman was shot twice through the chest by the Na- tive Americans, while Thomas Cover was shot once through the shoulder. According to Cover himself, he was shot while rushing to Bozeman's side; the bullet entered his shoulder as he faced away from his attacker. Cover claimed the Blackfeet men stole the horses. After hiding in the brush for some time, Cover made his way back to the ranch around midnight, waking everyone to receive medical attention and get some rest. Usually, the story ends here with the town being shocked, let- ters sent to acting Governor Me- agher concerning safety (John Bozeman himself had written one before his death), and the construction of Fort Ellis on the eastern edge of the valley by Au- gust 1867. There are multiple accounts given and allegations have been made, nearly all of which are lost to time, but a very helpful source to me is the findings of the Quest for Knowledge Club, specifical- ly Jefferson Jones's paper "The Murder of John Bozeman" from December of 1955, and Mer- rill G. Burlingame's response, "Comment on paper by Jefferson Jones, 'The Murder of John Boz- eman'" of 1973. What seems to have been omitted from the official reports were the events surrounding the death: on April 21st, Nelson Story, Sr., traveled from his mansion in Bozeman to his cattle ranch to talk to Thomas Cover. Upon reaching the ranch, he sent his best tracker, a man known as Joe, to perform some prairie crime scene in- vestigation. After dispatching Joe, Story began to examine Thomas Cover's wound. He described it as an "olive green color" and said that it looked like the bullet entered his body from the front, the first contradiction to Cover's story. Story also noticed the powder burns around the wound, an indica- tion that the bullet entered at very close range. Contradic- tion number two, but as Jefferson Jones noted, Nelson Story, Sr., was not in any way a trained medical doctor. by RENEE CARLSON Thomas Cover Nelson Story, Sr.

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