In 1868, over on the Arickaree Creek, 35-40 miles from where I now live, Colonel Forsyth and a group of about 50 civilian scouts got into a siege type fight with a whole bunch of Indians. Forsyths scouts were all armed with Spencer repeaters. They dug in on the creek bottom to fight. The indians soon learned that the Spencers shot a lot, but not far. On the 2d or 3rd day, the Indians had backed off to a large hill (Squaw hill now) which they felt was safely out of range. A "Very large indian" made a big deal of dropping his pants and mooning the boys in the river bottom. Three of the civilian scouts had kept their "Needle guns", 50/70 Springfields. Forsyth had the three scouts get ready and on a count of 3, fired on the mooner. He fell dead.By my Laser range finder that shot was about 1300 yards. Not a long shot by todays standards but pretty good with a 50/70 with Battle sights. Battle of Beecher Island, is how the fight is now identified
