Buried Treasure In Jocko Valley – 1893
Buried Treasure In Jocko Valley In ’93 Reported
“Allee Samee White Man – Relatives of Dead Injun Looking for Concealed Wealth.”
That was the heading over an unusual story which appeared in July, 1893, in special correspondence to The Missoulian from Jocko, then headquarters of the Flathead Indian reservation.
The story says: “On Thursday last the body of the widow of George Red Crow, a rich Nez Perce Indian, who formerly lived in the Bitter Root valley, but some time ago moved to the Flathead reservation, was buried at the agency graveyard. Red Crow had at his death $18,000 in gold coin, which he realized from the sale of a large band of horses, and also from the sale of a ranch in the Bitter Root valley. Realizing that death was approaching, Red Crow called his wife and relatives about him and stated that he had $4,000 in the hands of his wife (sic) and the rest of the gold concealed, but that he had revealed the hiding place to her, and to her he gave the money, his ranch and crop in the Jocko, and his gentle horses, and bade her take care of his blind aunt as long as she lived. Having no children, he gave his relatives his band of wild horses and some cattle.
“Soon after his burial the rapacious relatives of Red Crow made the widow’s life almost unendurable, demanding a division of her husband’s hidden wealth, and the blind aunt compelled her to give up every cent of the money in the house. Thoroughly disgusted, the widow left with some other Indian women for Butte where they camped for a short time. There she stated she would never reveal to her husband’s relatives the hiding place of his gold. One day she was stricken by a fit of paralysis, from which she never recovered and never spoke a word. Subsequently she was brought back to the agency, where she died and was buried as above stated and the Indians are now wondering where to look for the treasure.”
The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on April 30, 1933.
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