Martin Mitchell

   Cause of his death was Cerebral hemorrhage which developed into a paralytic stroke.

  General Notes:

Former Reservation Officer dies here

Martin Mitchell, 72, an Indian from Fort Peck reservation near Wolf Point, died in a local hospital at 11:55 a.m. Wednesday of cerebral hemorrhage which developed into a paralytic stroke. Mitchell served for a number of years as a reservation policeman. He retired from active duty in March 1941. He was born on the Fort Peck reservation in 1870. Surviving are his widow, Nettie Hayes Mitchell, and one sister, Mary Mitchell La Roque, both residing on the reservation. The body is at Smith's funeral home. It will be taken to Fort Peck for burial on the reservation.

taken from the Billings Gazette June 18, 1942.

Nettie was Martin's second wife; I do not believe they had children together. Found their marriage document at family search.org. Nettie's name is Janette.

Roosevelt counties treasured years book:

GENERATIONS OF MITCHELLS
by Ethel Terpe
Martin Mitchell was born in an Assiniboine Indian settlement near Porcupine Creek on January 9, 1870. He was the son of Isabel and David Mitchell, Jr. He attended school in Poplar and when he was sixteen he drove a team of oxen over the prairies to gather buffalo bones which he sold at the Indian trader's store on the banks of the Missouri. The late Sherman T. Cogswell was a clerk at that store and later became owner.
After the Great Northern Railroad was built through there, Wolf Point's growth centered near the tracks, and Cogswell's Indian Trading Store and the Presbyterian mission building were known as "Old Town."
As a young man, Martin was a mail carrier between Wolf Point and Scobey. There was a halfway house where he took on a fresh team before completing his journey. Starting from Wolf Point, he took a northerly direction and crossed the Poplar River near what is now the Berdette Community.
At one time, two Frenchmen were his passengers. In their native language they were conniving to get out of the vehicle as it neared Scobey and eliminate the procedure of paying for their ride.
Martin, however, understood French, and as he drove the team into the middle of the Poplar River, he drew to a halt and announced that it was his custom to collect the fare there. This being too far from their destination, they reluctantly paid him and he thanked them in French.
This mode of transportation was speeded up when Mr. Mitchell went to Glasgow and purchased one of the few "Tin Lizzies" in the country. He often told how he learned to drive as he went along his homeward route that H ?v. Later he owned the first Case Car in this section.
Up until 1916 he operated a livery stable which was situated at the present site of the First State Bank.
In due time he went into the livestock business east of Wolf Point on the Mitchell place which is located on the road to Poplar. One of the first large frame houses on the reservation was built here and he owned a large number of horses and cattle.
He was married for the second time in 1917 to Nettie Ball of Great Falls.
During the First World War, there was an urgent demand for the raising of wheat. At that time it was unsatisfactory to ship dark flour to our troops overseas and the government urged all farmers to plant wheat. Martin sold his cattle and raised wheat.
About this time, he and Mrs. Mitchell opened a meat-market in Wolf Point which they operated for a few years but were compelled to dispense with due to Martin's health. They returned to their home east of Wolf Point.
After the Prohibition Amendment in the early twenties it became necessary to hire extra policemen on the Reservation, and in 1926 Martin Mitchell became a reservation policeman. After fourteen years in this capacity, he resigned because of ill health.
On June 15, 1942, he passed away in a Billings hospital due to a malignant ailment of the throat. He was buried in the Mitchell plot of the Indian Cemetery about a mile east of town where five generations of his family are buried.
He was the father of seven children. Four of them died in infancy. A son died in 1932. Two daughters, Mrs. Henry Headdress and Mrs. William Weeks, and his wife Nettie, survive him as well as many grandchildren and great grandchildren.
He had always been active in looking after the interests of the Indians, and he made two or more trips to Washington DC. as an Indian delegate.
His grandfather, David D. Mitchell, was among the most trusted employees and trappers of the American Fur Company. In 1831, he was sent by McKenzie to the Fort Piegan Country to attempt a renewal of trade relations with rhe Blackfeet Nation. His kell boat was wrecked and supplies and articles of trade were lost. McKenzie sent a second boat and Mitchell continued his voyage, only to find Fort Piegan in ashes.
He was a brave, determined man and immediately built a fort a few miles above the mouth of the Marias River. The structure was named Fort McKenzie.
In 1834, Mitchell returned to his native Virginia, but upon being offered a partnership in the American Fur Company, he returned to Fort McKenzie in 1836. He remained at that post until the following spring when he was sent to Fort Union where he directed the Company's affairs until 1839.
He then returned to St. Louis and distinguished himself in the Mexican War. President Taylor appointed him Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the whole region drained by the Missouri and its tributaries, and he was made a colonel.
He married a Cree Indian and was the father of three children. The children were sent to the schools of the Red River. One son, David Jr. was Martin Mitchell's father.
There is not much known about his Cree wife, but storit passed along in the family have it to say that she was an eloquent speaker, and it is believed she made a trip to Washington DC. on some Indian matters.
In the year 1851, Colonel Mitchell had charge of signing a government treaty with the Indians.
In the spring of 1876, the Assiniboine Indians were moving in a band, with their families and household goods to join General Miles.
Among the Indians was one, Jime Hayes, and his family, whose baby girl was born on this trek. As near as can be established, it was near the town of Chinook that Nettie Mitchell was born on June 7,1876. Her early childhood was spent near "Old Town'' where her sister, Hattie was born.
In 1881 or 1882, she was adopted by the William DeGraff family. She received her grade school education in St. Paul, Minnesota. She attended high school at Bismark, North Dakota. At the age of 21, she returned to Great Falls where she lived until she married Martin.
In discussing her life, she states that in the Assiniboine Nation, first cousins are known as brothers and sisters. This custom can become very confusing in tracing true relationship and to add to this, Mrs. Mitchell is known as Aunt Nettie to a host of folk, both Indian and White.
She has been a leading citizen in our community for many years. She is a member of the First Presbyterian Church, Senior Woman's Club, Royal Neighbors, Degree of Honor, and others. She has been president of the above organizations and also district president of some of them.
As a cook and coffee maker, she is unsurpassed. She has spent many hours in the kitchens of local churches and other organizations assisting in turning out feasts fit to set before a king.
In closing, I wish to pay tribute to Mr. and Mrs. Martin Mitchell, through whose veins coursed the blood of two races and who both displayed only the best qualities of the Indian and White Man.

Also:

Martin Mitchell, proprietor of the Poplar-Scobey Stage, operated two automobiles on his route and during the year of 1913 had an unusually large business. A story told was when Martin Mitchell and Charles Parshall had the head-on collision with their two cars on a trail north of Poplar, when neither would yeild half of the road. Both cars were demolished.

  Research Notes:

Martin Mitchell, one of the most successful farmers and stock
men on the reservation, having 150 horses and 100 cattle, and
Charlie Afraid-of-His-Tracks, a full-blood Indian under middle age,
who, like Blacktail, was without education, but one of the most
successful farmers on the reservation and an elder of the Presby
terian Church, gave me their views at length concerning reservation
conditions. They both objected to the completion of the Missouri
River gravity irrigation project on the ground that under existing
law the proceeds from the sale of the surplus lands on the reserva
tion would be used to pay for the same. They also objected to
the Government requiring individual Indians to pay back to the
tribe grazing funds used to break up the land for cultivation. When
I asked them their reason for this they said that the Government
requires the Indians to borrow tribal funds and to repay the sums
borrowed, while at the same time it uses these funds to pay clerks



79

and buy automobiles for the Superintendent and does not pay back
the money so used.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Cemetery. acording to death records montana state

Martin married Mary Small Woman Mitchell, daughter of Living and Living. (Mary Small Woman Mitchell was born 1871 about in Montana and died in 1917 in Mitchell Family Cemetery, Wolf Point MT.)

Martin next married Janette Ellen aka Nettie Hayes, daughter of James T Hayes and Unknown, on 3 Dec 1917 in County of Cascade. (Janette Ellen aka Nettie Hayes was born on 7 Jun 1876 in Chinook, MT.)