Across The Fence: Deserters or Outcasts: Three who left (Part I)

On Sept. 7, 1869, a telegrapher in Utah received what was most likely the newsflash of the day: "Powell's three men killed by three She-bits ... Indian report that they were found in an exhausted state, fed by the She-bits and put on the trail leading to Washington after which they saw a squaw gathering seed and shot her. Whereupon the She-bits followed up and killed all three."

The three dead men were Oramel G. Howland, 36; his younger brother, Seneca B. Howland, 26; and William H. Dunn, a companion of unknown age. The three men had been part of the 1869 Colorado River expedition of Major...