Officer Robert James Taylor, 43, of the Rocky Boy's Tribal Police Department, drowned Monday in the Bonneau Reservoir while attempting to rescue two fishermen whose boat had overturned.

He was the 116th Montana law officer to die in the line of duty and the first since Shane Chadwick of the Great Falls Police Department was shot to death Sept. 7, 1994, Cascade County Sheriff's Chaplain Terry Tyler said.

"Our officers have had a lot of sleepless nights until we found the body of our brother," Police Chief Art Windy Boy said. "This is the first time this has happened on this reservation, and we have retired his badge, No. 38."

Services were held for Taylor in Our Savior Lutheran Church, with sweetgrass smoke drifting through the circular chapel.

Outside, somber law officers milled about the lawn, talking with one another.

"All these law enforcement people would fill my church just by themselves," the Rev. Ruth Votaw.

"There's been a lot of sorrow for the family and empathy for the department," Votaw said. "We're all in shock."

A contingent of Canadian officers came to Rocky Boy to honor Taylor's roots in Manitoba. They joined officers from all seven Indian reservations and many northcentral Montana jurisdictions.

Rocky Boy Officer Melody Bernard remembered the two-day search for Taylor's body.

"His little boy came running up to me and said, 'Did you find my daddy yet so he can come play with me?' That's when I lost it."

As she spoke, Bernard held her own 8-year-old son, who was weeping.

"He's taking it real hard," she said. "He knows it could be his mother in there. He gives me a kiss when I go to work and tells me to be real careful."

Inside the chapel, tribal singers pounded their drum and wailed the Honor Song. Taylor had been a prized member of the tribal singers.

As the service came to a close, 80 officers lined up in pairs, advanced to the coffin, saluted and filed outdoors to line up in front of the church.

After the service, the casket was loaded into the back of a pickup truck and taken to the RJ Quarter Horse Ranch, followed by about three dozen squad cars, lights flashing.

Taylor was buried on a hillside overlooking a quiet valley and a small stream.

"This is a beautiful day and a beautiful land," Tribal Chairman Alvin Windy Boy said. "It belongs to no one individual, but to all our people.

"We thank each of you for coming these long distances to honor Robert, my friend and my brother-in-law," he said.

Taylor is survived by his wife, Sandra, and sons Chadd and Joesiah of Rocky Boy, as well four children -- David, Jeremy, Robert and Kristin -- from a previous marriage in South Dakota.

"As you return to your homes to enforce the law and protect the innocent, I ask you to take a piece of this land with you," Alvin Windy Boy said. "We are all different in stature and in color, but we share the same Creator and the same ideals."

Before the casket was lowered into the ground, an honor guard fired a 21-gun salute.

Then a police dispatcher reported, "Officer Robert Taylor is 10-42, 10-10," his amplified voice reverberating through police radios in squad cars and on the officers' lapels.