The 1860-1881 Mullan Road War
This war was actually a part of the Snake River War and Red Clouds War of the 1860s, and the Black Hills War and Nez Perce War of the 1870s. Historically, the whites claim they built the Mullan Road. However, the road was originally an Indian road built by the Anishinabek in order for Indian people living in eastern Canada, to travel from that region, to the plains in the region where Great Falls, Montana is and on towards the Oregon-Washington region where the Columbia River is situated, to follow prophecy or the Seven Fires Prophecy. The whites knew the Great Falls of the Missouri were an obstacle to steam boat travel and conspired in the early 1850s to make use of the Indian road. In 1859, Lieutenant John Mullan was ordered to commence expanding the Indian road which really started back in Minnesota. He started in the Fort Walla Walla region of Washington, and ended the assignment in August of 1860, where Fort Benton, Montana is located. This Anishinabe road led from the Great Lakes to the Columbia River, and then to the Pacific Ocean. A list of this wars battles is further down on this page.
Mullan expanded the Indian road to 25 feet wide. He led a force of over 230 soldiers and civilians to expand the road. The United States may have first requested from Anishinabe ogimak for permission to expand the Indian road. That may have occurred with the 1855 Stevens Treaties. The original road (Indian road of course) actually had three forks, with the main road following very close to the Missouri River from Fort Benton to Great Falls, where several civilized Anishinabe settlements were located. That is very near where the road branched off into three different roads. One road continued following the Missouri towards where present day Helena, Montana is, and then moved towards the west near the Garrison, Montana region which was an important location to the Anishinabe people. Another road branched off near where Wolf Creek, Montana is and continued on towards the Canyon Creek, Montana region. It eventually went up a narrow valley from Canyon Creek and reached an area where it broke off into two roads. Each one led over the mountains to where present day Avon, Montana and Garrison, Montana, are located.
That road could also be used to travel to where present day Lincoln, Montana is and also could be used to travel straight to where present day Missoula, Montana is. The other road broke off from the main road before reaching the mountains near Cascade, Montana and traveled westwards towards the Augusta, Montana region. Before reaching the Augusta, Montana region, the road branched off again (probably in the Great Falls region) and made a turn and then went up a mountain valley that led to where present day Lincoln, Montana is. From there the road went directly to where present day Missoula, Montana is. From just north of Wolf Creek, the road continued to follow the Missouri River to just east of where present day Helena, Montana is. It led to the Helena Valley and the mountain valleys of southwestern Montana including Gallatin, Paradise, and Ruby Valleys. It did lead to where present day Butte and Dillon, Montana are. The Canyon Creek road eventually led to the Deer Lodge Valley then continued on towards Missoula, Montana then on to the Walla Walla region of Washington. From there the road eventually reached the Pacific Ocean.
What Mullan did was divert the Indian road before reaching the Great Falls region. He diverted the road several miles to the north of the Great Falls region and extended the road towards the Fort Shaw, Montana region where the whites would eventually place a trading post a few years later. They either selected the Anishinabe road which led from Cascade, Montana to near Augusta, Montana (if another Indian road existed there), or from where the Sun River enters the Missouri River (very near Hill 57 in Great Falls) and went down the Sun River Valley to the mountain pass which goes towards Lincoln, Montana. You may have learned otherwise but this information is correct. The Great Falls region was a very dangerous location at the time. Trouble started almost immediately after the whites diverted the road. In July of 1860, the first steam boats reached Fort Benton. The first steam boat to reach Fort Benton was the Chippewa. It almost coincided with the completion of the Mullan Road. Supposedly the United States was allowed by the Stevens Treaties to navigate the Missouri River and expand the Indian road. Historians claim that over 20,000 people used the Mullan Road in its first year. How many were killed by Anishinabe soldiers in that first year? We are not stupid! They were smart enough to see up to 70 to 80 whites traveling down Mullan Road every day. They knew what that meant.
What the Mullan Road likely led to was the Snake River War and Red Clouds War. These wars erupted in either 1861 or 1862. In 1862, the whites discovered gold in southwest Montana and that set off a stampede of illegal white settlers to southwestern Montana. However, the great majority of the illegal white settlers invaded southwestern Montana from the west, or the California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Washington region. They still used the Mullan Road but quickly learned to use other routes. On June 23, 1861, or July 11, 1861, the steam boat Chippewa exploded near Fort Benton. Historians claim it was an accident but they also claimed some Crow Indians arrived the next day and helped the scores of whites who abandoned the steam boat before the explosion. Then supposedly some Lakota soldiers showed up to battle the Crow people after the whites left for Fort Union.
In 1868, the government of the Anishinabe Nation reached a treaty agreement with the government of the United States, which ended the Snake River War and Red Clouds War. It is known as the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. However, the whites continued to use the Mullan Road. Between January of 1869 and October of 1869, at least 56 whites were killed by Anishinabe soldiers between Fort Benton and Lincoln, while those illegal white settlers travelled down Mullan Road. That occurred during a time of peace. Between 1860 and 1881, it is very likely that Anishinabe soldiers killed 100s if not 1,000s, of illegal white settlers traveling between Fort Lincoln, North Dakota (present day Bismarck, North Dakota) and Lincoln, Montana. However, up to 5 to 10 times as many Indians were killed.
Lewis and Clark mentioned this Anishinabe road in their journals. On July 16, 1805, Lewis mentioned the Anishinabe road. He said the Anishinabe road enterred the mountains where he enterred the mountains which is just south of Cascade, Montana. What almost everyone believes is that Lewis and Clark continued sailing down the Missouri River until reaching the three forks of the Missouri River, and then continued on towards where Dillon, Montana is now and then reached the Lemhi Valley of Idaho. From there they supposedly travelled northwards until reaching where Missoula, Montana is now. After reaching where Missoula, Montana is, they were supposedly told they would have reached the Missoula, Montana location within four days if they had used the Anishinabe road. They supposedly reached the Missoula, Montana region on around September 9, 1805, or nearly two months after enterring the mountains near Cascade, Montana. Though Lewis and Clark did not mention any Anishinabe settlements in what is now the city of Great Falls, i discovered from reading an old book that an Anishinabe settlement was situated where the Sun River enters the Missouri River in Great Falls. The writer said an old (at least 116) Indian woman was an adult when Lewis and Clark stayed in the Great Falls region for 31 days in June and July of 1805. She remembered the white intruders very well.
Lewis and Clark used the Anishinabe road to reach the Missoula, Montana location. They used horses to get there from either the location just south of where Cascade, Montana is and where the road broke off and went westwards towards where Augusta, Montana is, or through the Sun River Valley. They enterred the mountains where the road led from near the Augusta, Montana region to Lincoln, Montana and got to the Missoula, Montana region in about four days. The Anishinabe road was at least 1,000 years old at the time. Lewis and Clark supposedly reached the Lemhi Valley of Idaho by September 1, 1805. On September 9, 1805 Lewis and Clark had finally reached the Missoula, Montana region and were told about the quicker route. And Lewis and Clark mentioned another location named Great Falls on around October 22, 1805, which was located in Washington near the Columbia River. Anishinabe people must read that information very carefully.
Lewis and Clark probably reached the Pacific Ocean much earlier than historians claim. Instead of reaching the Pacific Ocean in November of 1805, they most likely reached the Pacific Ocean sometime in early or mid August of 1805. If Lewis and Clark reached the mountain pass where the Missouri River enters the mountains on July 16, 1805, they must have reached the Missoula, Montana region by July 22, 1805. And that same Anishinabe road led from the Missoula, Montana region, to the Columbia River, and then to the Pacific Ocean.
Many a battle was fought between Anishinabe soldiers and the white invaders and their Indian allies, between central and southern North Dakota, where the Missouri River is, and to the Great Falls region. It was common at the time (1860-1880) for Anishinabe soldiers to battle white wagon trains, which followed the Missouri River and Yellowstone River, which were guarded by up to 50 to over 100 white men armed with revolvers and, machine guns and repeating rifles after 1862. Brave Anishinabe soldiers quickly learned to respect the fire power of the white invaders. It was a dreadful moment once the brave Anishinabe soldiers heard that they had been instructed to make a trek towards a long line of wagons heading through their country but they did as instructed. They had no choice but to prepare their military strategies with casualties first because they realized just how dangerous their military assignments were.
Anishinabe military commanders would only allow so many of their brave soldiers to be killed and wounded. For nearly 15 years Anishinabe soldiers bravely defended their country before the white invaders launched their last military campaign in what is now the lower 48 States. In 1875, Montana and neighboring Alberta and Saskatchewan, was the last location to be colonized by the white invaders. A few thousand whites lived in fortified settlements in southwestern Montana. However, for the most part Montana was still Anishinabe land. Anishinabe military commanders concentrated their military strategies along the Missouri River, between northern South Dakota and what is now the Great Falls, Montana region, as well as along the Yellowstone River. They also continously sent their brave soldiers to the mountain valleys of southwestern Montana, to continue to battle the white invaders there. And they also kept 1,000s of their soldiers in northeastern Wyoming. Although the whites had successfully established a permanent presence in southwestern Montana, that location was still extremely dangerous up to 1880. Below is a list of the battles fought in this war.
However, you must remember that not included are the many battles fought between the brave Anishinabe soldiers and the ordinary white civilians in those wagon trains. As mentioned, those white civilians in those wagon trains were armed with revolvers and the repeating rifle and machine gun (gatlin gun), which allowed them to dominate. However, many of them were killed. And the buffalo killers were most gruesomely killed when caught by Anishinabe soldiers. And those white invaders who dared to invade western North Dakota and eastern and northern Montana, in small numbers, were killed when caught tresspassing on Anishinabe land. Most of the white invaders merged in large groups because of the safety it offered. Though this war is little known it was a major conflict in which up to 20,000 or more casualties occurred. Most of the casualties were Indians and that includes civilian Indians.
Moses and the Exodus
After the Marias River Massacre, Anishinabe ogimak did know the Anishinabe people were in grave danger. They commenced to plan an exodus and initiated it in 1877. The leader of the exodus was possibly ogima Moses. Historians claim he was not Anishinabe but he was, and he was not from Montana but frequently made visits to Montana. Ogima Moses was possibly one of the higher ranking Anishinabe ogimak in the Oregon-Washington region. He played an important role in the 1877 Anishinabe exodus to Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, and probably Wyoming. He was arrested in 1878 in Washington by the whites. They accused ogima Moses of the murders of many of the whites killed in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in 1877 and 1878. Moses story begins after the Battle of Bear Paw, or soon after the fleeing Anishinabek reached Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
Steam Boat Chippewa Fiasco
Battle of Big Mound
Battle of Dead Buffalo Lake
Battle of Stoney Lake
Battle of White Stone Hill
Battle of Killdeer Mountain
Battle of Red Buttes
Battle of Deer Creek Station
Battle of Dry Creek
Custard Wagon Train Fight
Platte Bridge Battle
Battle of Bone Pile Creek
Battle at Platte Bridge Station
Battle of Fort Rice
Battle of the Tongue River
1865 Powder River Expedition
Sun River Stampede
Battle of Crazy Woman Creek
Battle of Peno Creek
Fetterman Massacre
Fort Buford Massacre
Haystack Battle
Battle of Fort Kearny
Battle Near Fort Ellis
Battle of Popo Aguie
Battle of Miner's Delight
Pryor's Fork Battle (1872 Yellowstone Expedition)
Second Battle of Tongue River (1873 Yellowstone Expedition)
Battle of Bighorn (1873 Yellowstone Expedition)
Battle of Powder River
Battle of the Rosebud
1874 Black Heels (Blackfeet) Expedition (Custers Last Stand)
Battle of Snake Mountain
Battle of Slim Buttes
Battle of Cedar Creek
Battle of Bates Creek
Battle of Ash Creek
Battle of Wolf Mountain
Marias River Massacre
Battle of Lame Deer
Battle of White Bird Canyon
Battle of the Cottonwoods
Battle of the Clearwater
Battle of Weippe Prairie
Battle of Big Hole
Battle of Horse Prairie
Battle of Birch Creek Idaho
Battle of Camas Creek
Battle of Canyon Creek
Battle of Cow Island
Battle of Cow Creek
Battle of Bear Paw
Battle of South Mountain
Battle of Silver River
Battle of Birch Creek
Battle of Clearwater River
Battle of Clark's Fork
Battle of Heart Mountain
Massacre Near Yellowstone Lake
Battle of Jackson Hole
Battle of Careless Creek
Battle of Big Creek
Battle of Milk River
Battle of Pumpkin Creek
Battle of Poplar River