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May 7, 1877 Battle of Little Muddy Creek

On Monday May 7, 1877 American Soldiers were at it again. On January 8, 1877 they had completed their winter campaign against Ojibways living in southeastern Montana, at Battle of Wolf Mountain. This battle is also known as Battle of Lame Deer or Lame Deer Battle. That's misleading. Battle of Little Muddy Creek was a part of Mullan Road War. A list of Mullan Road War battles is above. Two days before Battle of Little Muddy Creek or on Saturday May 5, 1877, chief Sitting Bull and other Ojibway leaders held a meeting at Beaver Creek, Montana (Beaver Creek near Augusta or Havre) with General Miles and afterwards agreed to commence an exodus to Canada. Relocating to Blackfeet Reservation was not an option for them. They didn't trust whites. Battle of Little Muddy Creek was an American military campaign against Ojibways in Great Falls of Missouri River region. Some 11 miles west of Great Falls is Muddy Creek which is a tributary of Sun River. Little Muddy Creek is 18 miles southwest of Great Falls. However, there are several waterways in Montana wih Big Muddy and Little Muddy as their names. North of Sun River is Teton River. One of Teton Rivers tributaries is a waterway named Muddy Creek. American goals were to subdue Ojibways living around Great Falls of Missouri River or within vast Turtle Mountain Reservation and relocating them. This May 7, 1877 Battle of Little Muddy Creek commenced that campaign. It may have been fought near where Vaughn, Montana is or a little southwest of Ulm, Montana near where historical Garrison, Montana was located which is 3 miles northeast of Little Muddy Creeks mouth at Missouri River and 4.3 miles southwest of Ulm. Chief Rocky Boy was known to live at a Garrison, Montana.

They singled out an Ojibway village in one of those locations to attack. At that time (May of 1877) that settlement had 61 lodges according to whites who fought in that battle. Colonel Nelson Miles led nearly 500 American Soldiers to a location near where that Anishinabe settlement was. Battle of Little Muddy Creek was in fact Nez Perces Wars first battle. Before battle commenced, Miles actually sent someone to that village to request to talk with ogima Lame Deer. Ogima Lame Deer agreed. Once they met, Miles requested of ogima Lame Deer to put down his gun which he obliged. One of Miles Indian scouts became white and tried to take a rifle from one of ogima Lame Deer's nephews named Iron Star. Iron Star grew very enraged with that white Indians actions and shot him but his bullet went through his coat. Ogima Lame Deer then grabbed a gun and shot at Miles but missed. A major battle followed afterwards in which American Soldiers and their idiotic Indian allies, killed 30 Ojibways including ogima Lame Deer, and wounded another 20. White casualties were 4 killed and 9 wounded. After that battle, American Soldiers destroyed their village. Miles probably wanted to negotiate about Turtle Mountain Reservation or as mentioned above, actually negotiated with ogima Sitting Bull. After Sitting Bull rejected, Miles tried negotiating with other Ojibway leaders after learning Sitting Bull commenced an exodus to Cypress Hills of Alberta and Saskatchewan, from probably near Havre. Descriptions of Battle of Little Muddy Creek indicate it was probably accidental.