American West: 1861-76

Introduction

In 1861, Black Kettle, among others, signed the Fort Wise Treaty in Colorado Territory. This Chief of the Southern Cheyenne believed that keeping peace with the whites was the only way to preserve his people, especially now that gold miners were swarming over his native land around Pikes Peak.

The treaty would move the Cheyenne and Arapahos to a reservation in exchange for all lands that had been authorized to them by the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty. But the signing chiefs could only speak for themselves. This land also belonged to others who did not sign their rights away.

In 1864, Colorado Territorial Governor Evans chose to believe reports that the tribes were planning to go to war. These rumors evolved from the 1862 Minnesota Uprising. The following year Generals Sibley and Sully led their armies into Dakota Territory against the fugitives of this uprising and, there, butted heads with the Teton Sioux. A combined offensive against the Sioux was planned for the summer of 1864.

In the mean time, the various Plains tribes continued fighting with each other and any one else who invaded their land. Also, Lincoln approved the Homestead Act, granting free family farms.

With the North and South busy killing each other, the Homestead Act didn’t cause much confusion about whose land was whose until the end of the war. Then, as men returned home ,they found it difficult to settle into the routine of every-day farm life. Many returned to farms that had been burned out. Eyes turned westward. A free farm on the plains sounded fine. Now we have Native Americans being ousted from their eastern homes to the west because their reservation was taken from them, and white folks moving west to make new homes.

Even before the close of the Civil War, white and Indian relations on the plains were unsettled but nothing bad enough to perpetrate an Indian War, which was what Colorado Territory Governor Evens wanted. And he had just the man to start it--Colonel John M. Chivington. The young braves, attempting to earn their feathers, gave Evens and Chivington the excuse they needed.

Chivington wiped out twenty-eight of Black Kettle’s Cheyennes as Lean Bear attempted to show him a paper, signed by Lincoln, telling of his friendly character. Indian blood became hot for war. But Black Kettle countered with an offer of peace talks and he and his people surrendered to Major Wynkoop, and were authorized to camp at Sand Creek.

Black Kettle tried to keep his people in line, but the Sioux and others camped on the Republican River were causing trouble. Someone needed punishing so, on November 29, 1864, Chivington with seven hundred men, charged into Black Kettle’s camp on Sand Creek where five hundred Indians slept. Though Black Kettle hoisted the American flag and a white flag, when it was over some two hundred Cheyenne men, women, and children had been slaughtered.

During the latter days of the Civil War a golden-haired lad by the name of George Custer was making his mark and being termed the “Boy General.” During that time General Pope was given command of a vast area in the west. In the spring of 1865, he launched the biggest offensive ever mounted against the Plains Indians.

Survivors from the massacre at Sand Creek staggered into other camps in the Smoky Hills. They told their tale, and war pipes were sent to all the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho bands on the central Plains. Soon, nearly every ranch and stage station on the South Plate was burned. Telegraph wires were cut. Wagon trains were plundered. Cattle herds were run off, and Denver was cut off from the East.

Gold was discovered in Montana and folks were on the move again, this time up the Bozeman Trail that cut through the Sioux buffalo range. In addition to Pope’s Plains war, an offensive was in motion against the Kiowas and Comanches in New Mexico, where Colonel Kit Carson played a staring role. To help things along, the folks in Washington had a bright idea.

Congress created a joint committee to investigate the condition of the Indian and their treatment by the civil and military authorities. In the middle of two major military offensives a treaty commission went out to approach the Sioux. And they were successful! The commission signed up some chiefs termed as “stay-around-the-fort” Indians, then announced that peace had been made. They never met with the major Indian factors involved.

The same situation took place with the Kiowas and Comanches in Kansas. The treaties had to be signed, and peace declared. It was time to resume building the railroad across Kansas. Who was going to back a railroad in an area where wild Indians were known to be on the rampage?

A terrible winter left many Plains Indians near starvation. Naturally they were receptive to peace talks in 1866 where food and presents would be abundant, even though there had been considerable disagreement between the Army and the Teton Sioux over the invasion of whites along the Bozman Trail. The Indians considered peace until Colonel Carrington showed up, carrying orders to build forts on the Bozeman Trail.

This didn’t set well with Red Cloud, an Oglala Sioux. After hearing of forts to be built to protect travelers, he made a speech about white perfidy, then walked out, taking the Sioux north after swearing to fight all whites that used the trail. Once again, the stay-around-the-fort-Indians signed the treaty and peace was declared. Soon, Fort Phil Kearny was erected.

After harassing the military considerably, Red Cloud got a major chance to retaliate. The incident brought to the forefront a new name to shudder at the mention of—Crazy Horse. When the smoke cleared, Captain Fetterman and eighty men had been slaughtered.

General Sherman swore a vindication against the Sioux to their very extermination is necessary. A month later General Hancock went after the tribes of Kansas. The Cheyenne and Sioux fled.

Determined not to be outwitted, Hancock sent his best after them. Lieutenant Colonel Custer and the Seventh Cavalry went on the warpath. But the Indians eluded the frustrated Custer, and had a high time of murder and pillage along the Smoky Hill road to Denver.

In the meantime, the peace commission decided that all the Plains Indians wanted peace and suggested that the new forts along the Bozeman Trail be vacated. Either the peace commission would secure peace or the army would insure its own brand of peace.

Red Cloud was invited to peace talks but sent word he was busy. It became known that Black Kettle had signed a peace agreement on the Little Arkansas that gave away the cherished Cheyenne hunting grounds in western Kansas, but he had stressed that he could only speak for his eighty lodges, not for the two hundred lodges in the north. In 1866, Wynkoop, now agent for the Cheyennes and Arapahos, convinced the leading chiefs to sign. This still didn’t mean that the hotheaded Dog Soldiers, and others, would abide by the treaty. They looked on the Smoky Hill road to Denver much as Red Cloud saw the Bozeman Trail.

Hancock intimidated the Indians with a show of force, which increased the hostilities on the Plains and gave Custer’s troops an exhausting summer of chasing Indians.

Black Kettle and others continued to speak for peace and a great council took place in 1867 at Medicine Lodge Creek. There, five thousand Indians assembled. Nearly every chief of the southern Plains signed, including an old Dog Soldier called Bull Bear. But one Indian had not—Red Cloud.

To entice Red Cloud to sign, word was sent that if he did all forts along the Bozeman Trail would be abandoned. Red Cloud agreed to come in but only after he saw the soldiers move away from the forts. This was done, and Red Cloud burned the forts to the ground. Still he found reasons not to come in.

When the Cheyennes gathered to collect the first annuity issue under the Medicine Lodge Treaty, Superintendent of Indian Affairs Murphy refused to give them the arms that had been promised because a month previously some Cheyennes had raided a Kaw Indian settlement. He relented, but too late.

If the Indians were to be denied a part of the promised issue there was no reason, according to some, to abide by their agreement. A group of irate young Cheyenne left for a raid against the Pawnees. They also attack several white settlements.

General Sherman was ready for war with a new commander in Kansas, General Sheridan of Civil War fame. A winter campaign was planned while the Cheyenne continued raiding. The Medicine Lodge Treaty seemed dead when massed Cheyenne warriors under Roman Nose cornered a company of scouts under Major Forsyth on an island in the Arikara River.

There would be no more treaties. No Indians could hunt outside of the reservation bounds. The Indian Bureau would be transferred to the War Department. General Grant declared to the press that the whites would be protected even if it meant the extermination of every Indian tribe.

On the southern Plains the winter offensive was under way with Custer heading the cavalry, while in Washington General Grant became President Grant. As the west plunged into an Indian war, Red Cloud waltzed into Fort Laramie and signed the treaty he’d neglected.

In the Washita Valley of western Indian Territory the Cheyennes, Arapahos, Kiowas, and Comanches set up their winter camp. Black Kettle tried to keep his braves in line but admitted to reservation superintendent General Hazen that he had a hard time keeping the young men under control. As Black Kettle spoke some of his young braves returned from a raid against Kansas settlers. Their trail followed them across the snow-covered land—straight to Black Kettle’s camp on the Washita.

In the Washita Valley, on November 27, 1868, Black Kettle’s camp woke to the sound of carbines being fired. The aged peace chief and his wife jumped atop a pony and dashed for safety. They only reached the river. A bullet struck Black Kettle, killing him—and his valuable attempts to keep the peace. Another bullet found his wife. They died together in the icy waters of the Washita.

Early in 1869, a delegation of Quakers urged President Grant to embrace a peace policy towards the Indians and to appoint men of religious conviction as agents. Grant agreed. Also that year, on May 10, a golden spike was hammered into place at Promontory, Utah, commemorating the junction of the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroads. This single act greatly changed the migration pattern of the buffalo herds the Plains Indians depended on for food, clothing, and shelter.

President Grant named eighteen Quakers to posts of superintendent and Indian agent and sixty-eight army officers to similar posts elsewhere. He placed the Indian Bureau under the War Department and, on January 23, 1870, Major Baker and his cavalry attack a Piegan village in Montana. One hundred and seventy three Indians were slaughtered. Most of them were women and children, many were ill with smallpox.

In the southwest Mangas, Coloradas was treacherously murdered under a white flag. The Chiricahau and Mimbres were outraged and did their utmost to show it. From Tucson through Mexico, people trembled in fear for their lives and property.

In April of 1870 Red Cloud had gone to Washington to talk about a reservation, but not until 1873 did the government build Red Cloud Agency for the Oglalas and Spotted Tail Agency for the Brules. But this did not mean that peace had come to the Plains.

By 1876 Oglalas by the hundreds were flocking to the standard of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. There would be one last violent resistance of the Plains Indians. They would win the battle, but lose the war.

By taking this course, you'll learn the details behind all of these actions, as well as insight as to what life was like living on the Great Plains during this time. Additionally, there are numerous links to stories, anecdotes, biographies, pictures, and other resources that will allow you to explore even more fully the American West.

Lessons

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