Egbert Malcolm Clark(e) arrived in the upper Missouri region in the 1840's with a reputation for violence. He had been briefly enrolled at West Point but was quickly expelled for assaulting a classmate. President Andrew Jackson reportedly intervened and Clarke was reinstated only to be court martialed for another attack on a classmate. He had been in the Texas Army and worked for the American Fur Company. Eventually he owned property along what had been the Mullan Military Road. He had been given the concession for the toll road that had been built along that portion of Little Prickly Pear Canyon Wagon Toll Road. This was later called the Benton Road until 1887 when the Montana Central Railroad obliterated much of it.
Clarke had been married to Kah Ko Kima, daughter of a Piegan chief. They had six children. He next married Good Singing Sandoval and had five children. It seems that Clarke's death was actually a family affair rather than a dispute between whites and Indians. Clarke's wife was sister to the wife of Owl Child. Owl Child was a son of Mountain Chief and brother to Big Brave, the last Mountain Chief. While Owl Child was out hunting, it is said that Clarke went over and raped Owl Child's wife. She told her husband but he hid his feelings, instead he took her to Mountain Chief's band then traveled to Clarke's ranch. Mountain Chief knew nothing of the events. It seems Owl Child did not go alone. It is reported that after an evening of conviviality with his Indian friends, Clarke was shot and killed by Eagle Rib, Pete Owl Child and perhaps other Piegans while his son, Horace, was shot in the head. These events were followed by the Marias massacre, or Baker's massacre, or Piegan massacre.