As many as 3,000 Anishinabe warriors took part in the annihilation of Captain J Fetterman’s small force of American
soldiers. On December 21, 1866, 81 American soldiers left Fort Phil Kearny, which was constructed in 1866 to
protect American citizens trying to make it to the southwestern Montana gold fields by way of the dangerous
(the Montana Anishinabe were protecting their kingdom) Bozeman Trail. American travelers came up by way of
Wyoming to the Big Horn Mountains, to eventually go to the gold fields in southwestern Montana. In the battle
that followed the brave Anishinabe-Assiniboine-Cree warriors killed every American soldier under Fetterman’s
command. They also mutilated every American soldiers body, excepting the bugle boys body.
