Looking Back: The Squaw Gap shootout
Travis Bateman
Guest Columnist
October 27, will mark 108 years that blood was shed in Squaw Gap of the then active, Loyal Township, when a lawman attempting to right a wrong turned into gunfire and resulted in the loss of life for two men in a region still coming together and being tamed from the Wild West.
In the year 1917, North Dakota and certainly McKenzie County, and the region were still in the midst of being settled by pioneers. The county at one time was founded (1883) then disbanded (1891) due to lack of any settlers, and then reinstated (1905) fifteen years later, when settlement started to occur and population rose.
Law and order was a duty and mission given to ordinary men back then and not a full-time duty, but more of an “as needed.” They were charged in settling matters locally, serving writs, and performing other duties as assigned by magistrate or government authorities.
Southwest McKenzie County and the community of Squaw Gap was, and still is, some of the most remote and sparsely populated in the region. But for a paved state highway today along with a community center, and fire station, not much appears to have changed in the 108 years since this story took place.
Nestled in a valley of Spring Creek, the ranch community all but existed with the simple yet challenging life of pioneering with farm fields and ranches sprinkled about the many canyons of badlands. That October was cold and dry with winter slowly ushering in.
Seymour “Sam” Douglass, 39, was one of those pioneers. He also served as the constable for the Loyal Township with which Squaw Gap was the seat of. Constable posts were a smaller form of law enforcement. Like a town police department, but for a larger area, in this case, a township. Today, in North Dakota and Montana, these no longer exist with states like Texas and Arkansas still having such roles.
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