Scouts

The U.S. Army Quartermaster Department employed both Native Americans and European-Americans as scouts at Fort Abraham Lincoln. Many of these scouts were Rees, or Arikara, who fought the Lakota. Among the best known scouts there were Bloody Knife, Lonesome Charley Reynolds, and Mitch Bouyer. They knew the country, were excellent trackers, and served as translators and guides for the soldiers. Better suited than the soldiers for traveling across country undetected, they also carried dispatches between military posts. By contract, a scout received rations, uniforms, weapons, and housing, and the three scouts' quarters were simple log cabins with dirt floors.

North Dakota · United States