Mitch Bouyer

Mitch Boyer (sometimes spelled 'Bowyer', 'Buoyer', 'Bouyer' or 'Buazer', or in Creole, 'Boye') (c. 1837 – June 25, 1876) was an interpreter and guide in the Old West following the American Civil War.

[2] His father, Jean-Baptiste Boyer,[3] was a French Canadian who was employed by the American Fur Company, trading with Sioux in the area that would later become Wyoming.

Boyer became a guide for the 2nd U.S. Cavalry, working with the Northern Pacific Railroad's survey team.

In 1876 Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer requested that Boyer be transferred to the 7th U.S. Cavalry as an interpreter for the Crow scouts when Gen. Alfred Terry ordered the 7th south from the Montana Column to search for hostile Indians.

Part of a skull was found that was identified as Boyer's by comparison of the facial bones with a misidentified photograph.

[4] The skull fragment was found to the west of the monument on Custer Hill, at what is called the 'South Skirmish Line'.

This c.1895-1899 portrait by Charles A. Nast of A-ca-po-re, a Ute musician, is often misidentified as Mitch Bouyer.
Mitch Boyer marker on Deep Ravine trail, Deep Ravine is to the right of this picture (s/sw), and about 65 yards distant.