Mary Francis Inyan-Nupa-Win Miller Dorrity

  General Notes:

according to 1900 Harlem township census she's born Dec 1869 Montana, father born in Germany and mother not listed. Census shows her nephews living with her; Robert Decker's family document said she raised Frank and James, which shows them living with them in 1900.

According to Robert Decker Sarge, his family document says she is 1/2 or 2/4 Indian

Daisy died as an infant - no other children

Also known as Mrs. James Dorrity

Mrs. James Dorrity's Story from the Land of Chinook:

"I was a little girl of nine when the battle on Snake creek
took place. I remember of hearing the cannon, though, it was ten
or twelve miles away. My uncle Bent had been to the battle
field and on his return trip was captured by the Nez Perces who
took his clothes away and sent him home in a blanket. (Mr.
Bent says this is not wholly correct, that they only took part of
his clothes, as the reader will see in Bent's experience in another
place.) There was a little Nez Perce girl whom I afterward met
who managed to escape from the Indian camp.

"She got a short distance down Snake creek where she found
some horses, one of which she managed to catch. By using a
part of her clothing she managed to make a kind of a bridle so
she could ride and guide the pony. She was riding down a
coulee when all at once she saw two Indian women rise out of
some bushes. One of them had a broken arm. They persuaded
her to help them. She, in helping the wounded one on the horse,
pushed her clear over, and though the woman cried with pain,
she, girl like, could not help laughing. Years after, when she
was telling me, she could not keep a straight face.

"Along the Milk river in those days there were many half-
breeds living in cabins — really a considerable settlement — the girl
took the Indian women to one of these places — from which they
could be assisted to escape into Canada. The young girl went
to Fort Belknap and when a little older married Left Hand,
an Assinniboine. Both of them died, later, on the reservation.
She was part Flathead — her father belonging to that tribe — and
happened to be on a visit to her grandparents in Idaho when
the war started, so never got back to her people. She spoke very
good English.

The Indians at Fort Belknap were not allowed to harbor
a Nez Perce. Two Indian women and three men came for
succor; they were taken to a lodge where they were fed their
breakfast then driven to a large sandbar on the river, about five or
six miles west of Chinook, where they were killed by Long Horse,
a Gros Ventre.

"One of the Indian women had the papoose sack on her back
filled with the clothing of her dead baby, of which she was so
careful she would not allow any one to touch. This was a
brutal thing to do but the whites, especially General Miles, had
told the Gros Ventres that they must not harbor a Nez Perce
under pain of death themselves.

"Whether Long Horse was really mean, and did this brutal
act for fun, or whether he was actuated through fear of what
Miles had said can never be known as he is dead and can never
tell his story.

"And the woman, an Assinniboine, who rode to see the death
of the Nez Perces, died last year, so we can never probably know
the exact truth. According to the story of the Flathead girl
Joseph had been in camp on Snake creek for four days before he
was attacked by the soldiers.

"Joseph thought he had passed beyond the point where there
would be any more danger from the whites. Buffalo were abun-
dant and Snake Butte was black with them. They had killed
and were curing and jerking meat for their winter's use and had
several par fleshes full of the meat in their lodges and they were
more or less a protection when they were attacked.

"It was after both of her grandparents had been killed that
she made her escape. It was surely a sad thing to think about;
these Indians who had never injured any one until driven to fight
by the misdeeds of the whites whom they had never injured, even
when they could have done so with safety, could not go to their
own race and receive the protection that one would extend to a
stray dog. After all their struggles they had to succumb to the
strength of the white men and to their rapacity.

"I will always remember this cruel thing with horror."

Mary married James B. Dorrity. (James B. Dorrity was born in Aug 1864 in Utah.)