Lesson 2: The Army, Politics & Government, Indians & Wars
Sibley, Sully, Evans, Harney, and the Sioux
Colorado Territorial Governor John Evans may have been thankful that Generals Henry H. Sibley and Alfred Sully were in the Dakotas chasing the Minnesota Sioux. He may not have appreciated their efforts, though, due to hopes for an Indian war that he could emerge from as the hero who saved the homesteaders.
The Generals’ situation with the Indians, that summer of 1863, was compounded because of the Minnesota Sioux and Winnebagos. These tribes had been kicked off their reservation and had taken refuge in the Dakotas. But long before this, trouble had begun brewing.
In 1854, at Fort Laramie, a cow strayed from an emigrant Mormon train. A Miniconjou, visiting the Brule village of Conquering Bear, killed the bovine to feed his family. To right the matter, Lieutenant John L. Grattan with thirty men marched into the village and demanded that the Miniconjou be surrendered.
Brule Chief Conquering Bear
Conquering Bear, not wanting to give over the Indian or have trouble with the whites, hesitated too long. Grattan did not hesitate. He ordered his troops to open fire with rifles and cannon. When Conquering Bear fell, mortally wounded, his enraged tribe killed Grattan and all of the soldiers.
The following year Little Thunder’s Brule village was attacked by soldiers. This was the first time the Sioux saw women and children slaughtered by American soldiers — but not the last.
By that fall General William Harney and his army had established winter quarters at Fort Pierre in the Dakotas. Rather than invite the Indians to the fort for talks, Harney issued demands. He did not negotiate a treaty, he dictated one. The laws he sat down were as follows:
- All Indians who had murdered whites or committed other depredations must be delivered to the commander of the nearest military post.
- All stolen property must be turned in at a military post.
- Indians must not lurk near any road used by whites nor molest white travelers, and any violators must be surrendered to the army.
In return for these laws that the Indians knew were impossible to keep, Harney promised that the Sioux would be protected from imposition by whites--another impossibility. Annuity issues would resume, and the prisoners taken when Little Thunder’s village was attacked by the army would be returned. But Harney wasn’t through.
He appointed head chiefs to each tribe, holding them responsible for seeing that his “laws” were kept. Among these leaders were Bear’s Rib of the Hunkpapas, Four Horns, and Loud-Voiced-Hawk. Among the Miniconujou chosen was Makes Room, husband of Sitting Bull’s sister.
These Indians were mystified that a white chief could be so ignorant. Chiefs had to earn their title by their deeds, and most of these the white chief had forbidden. To these Indians it was preposterous. They came to one conclusion. They must avoid any dealings with all white soldier-chiefs.
Harney’s laws were impossible to keep or to enforce. By the summer of 1856 Harney was gone from the upper Missouri. But the damage had been done.
For the further study of General Harney and the Sioux in the Dakotas I suggest reading The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull, by Robert M. Utley.
How about some information on another Plains Indian tribe? Take a look at this article.
The Otoe--Plains Indians By Lisa Perkins http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/hist... The Central Plains, where the Otoe lived, are home to the Missouri River, which flows eastward in the northern Plains. The Otoe lived on the eastern margins of the Plains, from southern Minnesota to the Missouri Ozarks, along the lush Missouri riverbanks.
