July 23rd-We camped on the near side of Riviere des Lacs. On the opposite side is the historic Butte Marquee. Some sixty of seventy years ago, the Crees were at war with the Mandans, a tribe frequenting the hunting grounds of the Missouri. A party of each was on the war path about this part of the country. One morning before sunrise, when the mist was not yet off the ground, a Cree left the camp to examine the surrounding country from the highest point of land in the vicinity. This was Butte Marguee, as it was afterwards called by the French Métis, or in English Murdered Scout Hill. There he perceived a Mandan in a sitting posture also anxiously looking about him for enemies, his back turned to the Cree. The latter took a large round stone weighing about 15 Ibs., crawled silently up to his enemy, and killed him. To memorialize the place with his tomahawk he dug out the form of a man Iying on his back, his legs spread out and arms stretched back of his head.
The figure measures about 12 feet in length. The approach is also marked out for some 60 feet by dug out foot marks. Such is the story as related to me by old hunters on these grounds.
Students Filming the 1874 NWMP Trek West
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