The Hill of the Murdered Scout

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Sleeping on the job can have serious consequences

​The legend from which this isolated butte takes its name was related to the Northwest Boundary Commission by an old Metis man.  He told it thusly:
 
Late in the fall of 1830, a party of Assiniboine were travelling far to the east of their own country. They were camped on the point on a lake to the north of the butte. One of the Assiniboine climbed the hill to search the surrounding country for traces of enemies. He noticed that there was a camp of Sioux close under the hill on the south.
 
As he cautiously approached the crest of the hill for a better look, he came suddenly upon a Sioux scout lying rolled in his buffalo-robe. The scout had apparently fallen asleep on the job. The Assiniboine sneaked up and grabbed a large granite rock and with one vigorous blow he struck the Sioux in the head.  Fearing to have missed his aim, or that it might not have been fatal, the Assiniboine turned and ran from the spot. When he looked back he saw the Sioux scout quivering on the ground, so he returned and hit him again, dispatched him. 

In memory of this deed, the Assiniboine dug in the gravelly soil the figure of a man lying at full length, with outstretched legs and uplifted arms. He also scooped out each of the footprints marking his path as he fled. These marks, though only a few inches deep, were still distinctly visible when the boundary commission visited the spot in the summer of 1873. They noted that in the hollow representing the head of the murdered man, there was a red granite stone, smooth, oblong in shape, and about eight inches diameter, which was said to have been the stone used to kill the Sioux scout.
 
The Hill of the Murdered scout is located a few miles north of Northgate, Saskatchewan.

Adapted from: DEPARTMENT OF STATE. REPORTS UPON THE SURVEY OF THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN THE TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE POSSESSIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN (1877)