After striking an officer, he deserted, changed his name to John Johnston,[citation needed] and traveled west to try his hand at gold digging in Alder Gulch, Montana Territory.

He escaped into the woods and fled to the cabin of Del Gue, his trapping partner, a journey of about two hundred miles (320 km).

Many more Indians of different tribes, especially but not limited to the Sioux and the Blackfoot, would know the wrath of "Dapiek Absaroka" Crow killer and his fellow mountain men.

[9] In his time, he was a sailor, scout, soldier, gold seeker, hunter, trapper, woodhawk, whiskey peddler, guide, deputy, constable, and log cabin builder, taking advantage of any source of income-producing labor he could find.

However, in 1974, after a six-month campaign by 25 seventh-grade students and their teacher, who did not believe he should be laid to rest among urban sprawl, Johnson's remains were relocated to Cody, Wyoming.