Clarke married into the Piegan tribe, taking as his bride a woman named Kahkokima, Cutting Off Head Woman, a chief’s daughter. Initially his in-laws called him “White Lodgepole” for his build, then Clarke earned the name “Four Bears” when he killed four grizzlies in one day. Kahkokima and Four Bears’ family grew with the births of sons Horace and Nathan and daughters Helen and Isabel. Helen later wrote that her father was a “stern disciplinarian” but not “a tyrant.”

The American Fur Company and the great era of fur trading ended at about the same time the gold finds began in southwestern Montana. The Clarke family moved to the Prickly Pear Valley, north of Helena, where Malcolm started a stock farm on Little Prickly Pear Creek near Wolf Creek. Being on the main Helena to Fort Benton road soon made Malcolm well known in Helena, twenty-five miles south.

Mrs. Clarke’s relatives were always welcome at the Clarke ranch, and they regularly came for lengthy stays. Her cousin Ne-tus-che-o, called Pete Owl Child by whites, brought his wife, mother, sister, and younger brother for such a visit in the spring of 1867.

Something, however, went wrong during this visit, which created bad blood between Owl Child and the Clarke men. One story says that some of Owl Child’s horses were stolen from the ranch by white settlers, but the Clarkes refused to try to find them. Another story says that while Owl Child and Horace Clarke were out hunting, Malcolm made improper advances to Owl Child’s wife. Whatever happened to start the quarrel, when the Owl Child party left the ranch, they took some of the Clarkes’ horses and a small telescope. Malcolm and Horace tracked them all the way to a Piegan village on the Teton River, where Malcolm knocked Owl Child off a Clarke horse and reclaimed his property. This insult was witnessed by the whole village.

More than two years later, on August 17, 1869, Owl Child and four other young Piegan men—Black Weasel, Eagle’s Rib, Bear Chief, and Black Bear—arrived at the Clarke ranch on a fine summer evening. Nathan, Clarke’s younger son at age fourteen, was away looking for lost horses. Helen and her father were playing a game of backgammon. Helen greeted her cousin Owl Child by teasing that “our horses are being stolen.” She, her mother and sister, and aunt Black Bear (named the same as one of the visitors) began preparing a meal. Owl Child hugged fifteen-year-old Horace in greeting. Owl Child smoked with Malcolm, explaining that he was returning horses some Blood Indians from Canada had captured from Clarke a few years ago. In addition, Owl Child had a message to deliver from Mountain Chief, who was inviting Malcolm to come and trade at his village. Black Weasel was his son.

Mountain Chief had hated most whites since three men had shot his brother in Fort Benton and nothing had been done about it. The murder was in retaliation for a wagon train attack by non-Piegans. Mountain Chief had banned all whites from his village, but he stayed friendly toward Malcolm Clarke because of his marriage to Kahkokima.

Helen later said that she believed the young men with Owl Child acted strangely nervous. Even when asked to eat, they were reluctant to enter the house, then moved around restlessly, picking up and inspecting ornaments. Nevertheless, when Horace started for the stockyard with Bear Chief to look at the returned horses but could not find his gun, Helen told him he was safe with friends and did not need it. The time was about midnight, and the guests were saying they had to leave soon.

Outside, Bear Chief shot Horace in the head and left him for dead. Hearing the gunshot, Malcolm flew out the door, and Eagle’s Rib shot him through the heart. Twenty-five or so young warriors now rode out of the woods, shouting, and then galloped away.

Then the women heard Horace’s cry for help. The bullet had entered his right nostril and exited behind his left cheekbone. He was a gory sight and would be permanently disfigured. Aunt Black Bear and Helen dragged him into the house. The four women hid with him in a bedroom as the mounted warriors returned. They entered the house and began to destroy it, dumping food on the floor and stealing what they wanted. When Aunt Black Bear boldly left the bedroom to dress them down, they took her hostage and rode away. She escaped after a few miles and went to the nearby ranch of Joe Cobell, whose second wife, Mary, was a sister of Mountain Chief (Cobell’s first wife also had been Piegan).

At dawn, Helen and Isabel sent a ranch hand into Helena and went to another nearby ranch for help. Their mother was in shock and helpless. The neighboring Wilkinsons gave the sisters food and medical supplies for Horace, but were afraid to go back with them. Nathan returned from his horse-hunting trip in the afternoon to discover the sad news. Late in the day, several prominent Helena men, friends of Malcolm, arrived and put the house in order. They buried Malcolm the following day.

-from the thrid chapeter, "Marias Massacre, 1870"