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| John Fluevog "Libby Smith" Boots |
In 1889 at the age of sixteen, Libby was taken captive by a tribe of Native American Indians, along with a group of other settlers. In the ensuing months, captives were made to run a gauntlet of tomahawk-wielding warriors. Few made it through without suffering a fatal wound.
For five months Libby was spared the gauntlet by the tribe's chief. Then one night, as she stood again before the gauntlet, she sensed that her favor with the chief had run out. But while the chief hesitated, she saw that the warriors in the gauntlet were watching him to see if he would relent yet again. Libby took advantage of their distraction, bolting suddenly down the line of the gauntlet. She made it most of the way through before being struck in the head with a near-fatal blow. Over the next few weeks, she was nursed back to health by the chief's daughter. Not long after, she was rescued by the US Army in a prisoner exchange.
Libby later married a member of the Montana 3-7-77 vigilantes. She was the first white woman to settle in the Teton River Valley, where she befriended the Blackfeet Indian people. Today she is remembered as "The Cattle Queen of Montana."
