USA > Oklahoma > A standard history of Oklahoma; an authentic narrative of its development from the date of the first European exploration down to the present time, including accounts of the Indian tribes, both civilized and wild, of the cattle range, of the land openings and the achievements of the most recent period, Vol. I > Part 40
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Most of the Indians of the Plains tribes who were represented in the council at which the treaties of 1865 were signed (near the mouth of the Little Arkansas River in Kansas), kept their part of the agreements then entered into in good faith. Some of the bands of Cheyennes and Comanches were not represented in the council and these did not make any pretense of being bound by an agreement to which they were not parties. This was particularly true of the Quahada Comanches and the Dog Soldier Cheyennes. There was a disposition on the part of the military authorities to . hold the entire tribe responsible for the misdeeds of one such band, notwithstanding the fact that, as political entities, reputed tribal organizations were very loosely bound together, if at all. The Gov- ernment had not fulfilled its treaty agreements and the Indians were inclined to feel that they were therefore not bound by theirs. There were always some white men in whom even the most impla- cable Indians placed their confidence. One of these was Maj. Edward W. Wynkoop, of Colorado, who, in November, 1866, became the tribal agent of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. He suc- ceeded in talking even the semi-hostile Dog Soldier Band of Chey- ennes into a good humor.1
Early in the spring of 1867, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, com- mander of the Department of the Missouri, personally took the field at the head of a strong force of troops at Fort Harker, Kansas, for the purpose of settling the "Indian question," which seemed to baffle so many other wise heads. The fact that, though he was a brave soldier and a successful general, he had not had any previous experience in dealing with Indians did not disturb his equanimity. With a well equipped expedition, including infantry, cavalry, artil- lery and a pontoon train, he set forth to overawe the Indians by the mere display of the superiority of his force. Marching his com-
1 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1866, p. 277.
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mand from the valley of the Smoky Hill to that of the Arkansas, he arrived at Fort Larned, where he met Major Wynkoop, the tribal agent, who courteously offered to assist in arranging for a council or conference with the chiefs of the Dog Soldier Band. Agent Wynkoop sent a courier to the Indian camp, distant nearly thirty- five miles, asking that the chiefs come in for council. They came as promptly and as quickly as they could, considering the distance and the facts that the snow was deep and their ponies were weak from lack of proper food, as was generally the case at the end of the winter. The distance was greater than the general had thought and they were later in arriving than he had expected. For this pre- sumptive lack of promptness they were upbraided. General Han- cock then accused them of depredations for which they were not responsible. Such a course did not have a tendency to create confidence in the minds of the Indians.2
Finally, General Hancock announced his intention to march his command to the Indian village for the purpose of holding a council as some of the chiefs had not come. The chiefs at once besought their agent, Major Wynkoop, to try to dissuade the general from putting such a purpose into effect, stating that, if he did march his command to their village, their women and chil- dren would be frightened (for the memory of the Chivington massacre, on Sand Creek, a little more than two years before, was still fresh in their minds) and seek safety in flight. Major Wyn- koop plead with the general not to put his threat into execution.3 But, though he knew Indians and Indian character (which General Hancock did not) and though he had been a brave soldier, Major Wynkoop had never seen more than one small brigade of troops assembled in one command, while the general had led thousands of men into some of the greatest battles of the Civil War. There- fore, the opinions of the young Westerner were lightly considered and his earnest advice, based as it was on a thorough knowledge of the situation, was disregarded, and the march to the Indian village was begun.
While the advancing column was still several miles distant from the Indian camp, Roman Nose, the Northern Cheyenne chief, rode out to meet General Hancock. Two more perfect types of the red and white races probably never faced each other than Roman Nose
2 Ibid., 1867, p. 311; also "Early Travels and Adventures of Henry M. Stanley," Vol. I, pp. 29-35.
3 Annual Report, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1867, p. 311.
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and General Hancock. A brief interview ensued. It is said that Roman Nose had expressed to some of the other Indians a desire or intention to kill General Hancock, even though he knew his own life would be forfeited for so doing, but he was dissuaded from doing so by some of the other chiefs. The column finally
CHEYENNE LODGE OF BUFFALO SKINS
reached a position near the Indian village and went into camp. Then it was learned that the village had been abandoned-that the women and children had scattered in many directions, taking only such belongings as could be carried by hand. General Hancock summoned the chiefs before him and sternly demanded why the women and children had fled. Roman Nose replied, telling the general of the Sand Creek affair where the women and chil-
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dren of the Cheyennes had been wantonly killed by the troops under Colonel Chivington and naïvely asking him if white women and children would not have become panic-striken under similar circumstances. To this the general bluntly responded that he regarded the flight of the women and children of the village as an act of treachery, and that he wanted the principal men of the band to go in search of them and bring them back. They asked for the loan of horses, as their own were in no condition to undertake such a trip. Horses were furnished but the effort to find and bring back the people who had scattered was futile. General Hancock then announced his determination to burn the lodges and property contained in the abandoned Indian village. Against this course, Major Wynkoop filed a written protest,4 but it was of no more avail than the verbal protests which had been made before. Threc hundred lodges, which, with the contents, aggregated in value the sum of $100,000, were piled up and burned by General Hancock's orders. Thus, by the exercise of arbitrary authority and power on the part of an officer who turned a deaf ear to the advice of those who knew more about Indians than he did, another Indian war was started, involving most of the tribes of the Southern Plains, entailing the loss of scores of lives of settlers, freighters, immigrants and soldiers, and costing many millions of dollars. All through the sumner the Indian war went on and autumn found the red warriors of the Plains tribes still unwhipped. And yet, when General Han- cock was transferred to another command a few months later, the governor of Kansas saw fit to extend to him the thanks of the people of that state !
When the autumn season was at hand, the Indians were gener- ally ready to attend a peace council. Solicitude for their hungry families and the desire for warm clothing for winter generally quickened an interest in the re-establishment of peace. In the autumn of 1867, it was different; the Indians were not disposcd to sue for peace. It was therefore necessary to send to them men in whom they had confidence-such men as Chisholm and Black Beaver and Wynkoop-for the purpose of persuading them to attend a peace council. Even then, they came in an ugly humor and in no mood for making peace.
The peace council was held in the valley of Medicine Lodge River, in Southern Kansas, just a few miles from the Oklahoma border, during the latter part of October, 1867. It was a notable
4 Ibid., p. 313.
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assemblage. Most of the leaders of the principal tribes of the Southern Plains were there-Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, Kiowa and Plains Apache. The Government commission was the largest and possibly the ablest that had ever been sent out on such a mission. There was a large military escort and an abundance of rations and supplies for the Indians.
The Government peace commission was peculiar in that it was partly named by the act of Congress which provided for its crea- tion and operation. This act, approved July 20, 1867, provided that, in addition to three army officers not below the rank of briga- dier-general, N. G. Taylor (commissioner of Indian Affairs), John B. Henderson (chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs), S. F. Tappan and John B. Sanborn should be members of the peace commission. Rev. Nathaniel G. Taylor was from Tennessee and was a personal friend of President Andrew Johnson. He was the father of Robert L. Taylor and Alfred A. Taylor, who were prominent in the public affairs of Tennessee in the succeeding generation. John B. Henderson was United States senator from Missouri. Col. Samuel F. Tappan had been an officer of a Colorado volunteer regiment during the war. John B. Sanborn had entered the volunteer military service as colonel of a Minnesota regiment and had been promoted to the grades of brigadier and major- general. The military members of the commission were Lieut .- Gen. William T. Sherman, and Brig .- Generals Alfred H. Terry and William S. Harney. Subsequently, in order to insure a full attendance, Brig .- Gen. Christopher C. Augur was added to the membership of the commission. The commissioners met at St. Louis, where they organized and chartered a steamboat by means of which they ascended the Missouri River and held councils with several of the Sioux tribes. Generals Sherman and Augur and Colonel Tappan were then sent to visit other tribes, while the rest of the members of the commission proceeded to Medicine Lodge. Generals Sanborn and Harney had been members of the commission which had met the Cheyennes, Comanches and other tribes of the Southern Plains in council at the mouth of the Little Arkansas River two years before. General Augur and Colonel Tappan joined the other members of the peace commission before its nego- tiations were completed at Medicine Lodge.
Several representatives of the press accompanied the peace com- missioners from Fort Larned to the Medicine Lodge council. Among the most noted of these correspondents were Henry M. Stanley, who represented the Missouri Democrat (now known
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as the St. Louis Globe-Democrat), and who subsequently attained world-wide fame as the explorer of Africa; Thomas W. Knox, who also achieved distinction as a traveler and author, and Milton W. Reynolds, who was destined to become intimately associated with the movement for the opening of Oklahoma to settlement.5 Reynolds was then editor of the Kansas State Journal and correspondent of the Chicago Times. Other newspapers represented by corre- spondents were, Harper's Weekly, New York Herald, Chicago Tribune, Cincinnati Commercial, Cincinnati Gazette, St. Louis. Republican, Chicago Republican and the Leavenworth Bulletin.
Most of the Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho and Plains Apache Indians were represented in the council which convened in a grove of elm trees on the morning of October 19th. Very few of the Chey- ennes were present as they were engaged in the ceremonies inci- dent to "making medicine," a day's journey distant. Black Kettle, the head chief of the Cheyennes, was present but his people abso- lutely refused to come in until they were through with the cere- mony of "renewing the medicine arrows." This prolonged the council several days beyond the length of time that would have been otherwise required. Many speeches were made by the mem- bers of the peace commission and by the Indian chiefs. Those of the commissioners were conciliatory and persuasive; those made by the various Indian chiefs differed according to the dispositions and whims of the respective speakers, some being friendly, others plaintive, and still others defiant." The tribal agents, Maj. E. W. Wynkoop and Col. J. H. Leavenworth, were present. The former held the confidence and friendship of his people- the Cheyennes and Arapahoes-but the latter appeared to have lost his hold upon part of his charges, at least, as Satanta, the leading chief of the Kiowas, demanded a new agent. Each tribe had its interpreters. Some of these were quite important figures in the negotiations. Mrs. Virginia Adams, who was of mixed white and Arapaho descent and who spoke several Indian languages as well as English, was
5 Stanley had spent the greater part of the spring and summer of 1867 on the Plains with the troops which were operating against the hostile Indians, having joined the command of General Han- cock when it left Fort Harker, more than six months before. Nearly thirty years later, he collected his letters written while with the troops in the field, and had them published as the first volume of his work entitled "My Early Travels and Adventures."
6 Stanley reproduces many of the speeches of the peace commis-
- sioners and of the Indian chiefs in his book, "My Early Travels and Adventures," Vol. I, pp. 222-62.
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the interpreter for the Arapahoes.7 Phil McCusker, a noted frontier character, was the interpreter for the Comanches.
Writing twenty years later, Milton W. Reynolds, reminiscently described the Medicine Lodge Peace Council as follows : 8
"It was a great council on the part of the Indians. It is said that there were 15,000 present.9 At first they were sullen and morose and not disposed to treat; they were hungry and mad. They were filled and, after feasting, became better natured. It was at this council that I heard Satanta boast of the men he had killed and the horses he had stolen, 'up at Larned.' He rode a big black horse which was branded 'U. S.' Satanta was a fiery speaker, vehement, impetuous, tumultuous as a torrent, generally believed to be a common liar and a most consummate scoundrel. Kicking Bird was the second chief of the Kiowas and afterward became principal chief. He was a good Indian. I slept in the same tent with him. He once saved my life and that of my friend Colonel Murphy (superintendent of Indian Affairs), but as that incident is only important to ourselves, I pass it by.
"On one occasion we (the peace commission) came very nearly being gobbled up by the Indians, and probably would have been but for the presence of two old Indian fighters-Governor Samuel Crawford (of Kansas) and Gen. William S. Harney. It was a dull, dreary day. Listlessly and lazily drops of rain drizzled all day long. Toward evening the Indians became restless; they moved about sullenly, sluggishly and slow; they would not come into the council. Governor Crawford called General Harney's atten- tion to the unpleasant signs which, to his practiced eye, were plainly visible. The troops of the escort were at once drawn up in a hollow square with the peace commission in the center and a Gatling gun turned straight upon the camp of the Indians. Need- less to say, there was no massacre such as occurred under similar circumstances in the lava beds of Oregon a few years later.
7 Mrs. Adams was the daughter of Julian Poisol, a noted trader among the Indians, and her mother was a member of the Arapaho Tribe. Her first husband was Maj. Thomas J. Fitzpatrick, who had long been a prominent figure in the Rocky Mountain fur trade and was associated with Fremont on some of his earlier explorations. He was agent for the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa and Comanche tribes at the time of his death which occurred in Washington, in 1854.
8 "Kansas Historical Society Collections," Vol. VI, pp. 344-6.
9 The actual number of Indians present at the Medicine Lodge council was about 7,000.
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"After many days of powwowing, the Indians treated. They were given homes in the Indian Territory and agreed to leave and forever abandon Kansas. We-that is, the commission-slashed away promiscuously and gave away empires to the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, Comanches and Apaches-anything they wanted in the way of lands and hunting grounds in the Indian Ter- ritory-anything to get them out of Kansas."
As a matter of fact, the Cheyennes and Arapahoes were very reluctant to accept reservations in the Indian Territory, while the Kiowas and Comanches did not want to be confined to the limits of a reservation of any kind or in any place. The speech of Satanta, the Kiowa chief, as reported by Stanley, bears evidence of this. His speech was in part as follows:
"All the chiefs of the Kiowas, Comanches and Arapahoes are here today. They have come to listen to the good word. We have been waiting here a long time to see you and we are getting tired. All the land south of the Arkansas belongs to the Kiowas and Comanches and I don't want to give away any of it. I love the land and the buffalo and will not part with any. I want you to understand also that the Kiowas don't want to fight and have not been fighting since we made the treaty (two years before). I hear a great deal of fine talk from these gentlemen, but they never do what they say. I don't want any of those medicine homes built in the country; I want the children brought up just exactly as I am. *
"When I look upon you I know you are all big chiefs. While you are in the country we go to sleep happy and are not afraid. . I have heard that you intend to settle us on a reservation near the mountains. I don't want to settle therc. I love to roam over the wide prairie, and when I do it I feel free and happy, but, when we settle down, we grow pale and die.
"Hearken well to what I say. I have laid aside my lance, my bow and my shield, and yet I feel safe in your presence. I have told you the truth. I have no little lies hid about me, but I don't know how it is with the Commissioners; are they as clear as I am ? A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers, but when I go up the river I see a camp of soldiers, and they are cutting mny wood down or killing my buffalo. I don't like that, and when I see it my heart feels like bursting with sorrow. I have spoken."
In the end, however, the chiefs of all of the tribes were per- suaded to sign treaties with the Government commissioners, by the terms of which their people were to accept reservations and
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cease from roaming at large. They were plainly told that the buffalo would disappear from the Plains in the course of time and that they would have to settle down and till the soil for the means of subsistence.
The treaty with the Comanches and Kiowas was concluded and signed October 18, 1867. It provided for perpetual peace between the people of these tribes and the Government, and that they should accept as a reservation a tract of land lying between the Washita and Red rivers, west of the 98th meridian and extending to the North Fork of the Red River. There were many other provisions, including those relating to the establishment and maintenance of the agency, of schools, and teachers; the Indians were to be furnished with such farming implements as they might desire, together with seeds for planting, and were to be properly in- structed in the art of tilling the soil; they were to have the privi- lege of hunting buffalo as far north as the Arkansas River and were to have certain specified annuities. On their part, the Indians were to cease from all depredations and withdraw their opposition to the construction of railways and the establishment of military posts and to refrain from molesting emigrants, wagon trains, coaches, etc. . The Government was to furnish physicians, teachers, blacksmiths and such other employes as might be necessary.
A supplemental treaty, concluded three days later, provided that the Apaches of the Plains, who had left the Kiowas and Comanches and joined the Cheyennes and Arapahoes by the terms of a treaty made at the mouth of the Little Arkansas, two years before, should become reaffiliated with the Kiowas and Comanches.
The treaty with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes was not finally agreed upon and signed until October 28th. By its terms a reserva- tion, bounded on the north and east by the State of Kansas and the Arkansas River, and on the south and west by the Cimarron River, was assigned to these tribes.10 The rest of the provisions of
10 The Cheyennes and Arapahoes never took up their residence on the reservation assigned to them by the treaty of Medicine Lodge. Instead, when they went South they located on the North Canadian River. They professed to have failed to understand the location of the reservation and asked that they be assigned to a new reserva- tion farther south (Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1869, p. 35). President Grant approved of the recommendation of the commissioner (Col. Ely S. Parker), and Congress was ex- pected to pass an act assigning the new reservation. Such action was never taken, however, so the Cheyennes and Arapahoes held the reservation north of the Kiowa and Comanche Reservation (includ- Vol. 1-27
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the treaty were practically identical with those of the one which had been concluded with the Kiowas and Comanches, ten days earlier.
ing all of the ceded Creek and Seminole lands west of the 98th meri- dian and all of the Choctaw and Chickasaw "leased district" which was not embraced in the Kiowa and Comanche Reservation) by virtue of the recommendations of the commissioner of Indian affairs, above mentioned, approved by the Secretary of the Interior and the President of the United States. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes did not relinquish the reservation north of the Cimarron until they entered into an agreement at Darlington, in October, 1890, to accept allotments of land in severalty-Statutes at Large, Fifty-first Con- gress, Second Session, chapter 543, section 13.
CHAPTER XLVII
WAR WITH THE TRIBES ON THE PLAINS
The Indians of the Plains were tranquil during the winter of 1867-68, as they usually were in the winter season.1 The Govern- ment had apparently arrived at the conclusion that it was cheaper to feed the Indians than to fight them, and its agents saw to it that they were supplied with the necessary rations for subsist- ence. But the appropriation for such supplies was exhausted and Congress was tardy in making provision for the continuance of the practice and, when the Cheyennes were informed that they would have to shift for themselves they were also told that they could not have the arms and ammunition for hunting buffalo which had been promised to them by the peace commissioners of the Government at Medicine Lodge.2 Smarting under the implied lack of confidence on the part of some of the higher officials of the Gov- ernment, a band of Cheyennes left their camps near the Arkansas River and went north of the Smoky Hill River, where they com- mitted depredations and outrages in the frontier settlements along the valleys of the Saline and Solomon rivers, early in August, 1868. Two months before that, a band of about eighty Cheyenne warriors, with a few Arapahoes and Kiowas, led by the Cheyenne chief, Little Robe, rode past the outlying frontier settlements and
1 The Indians of the Plains tribes could not make war in winter time for the reason that the horses and ponies had to subsist upon the suncured grasses or upon the twigs and bark of the willow and cottonwood trees and were therefore not in a fit condition to stand the requirements of the raids and forays which were always inci- dent to their hostile operations. With the coming of spring, the war ponies soon began to regain flesh and strength. It was for this reason that most of the active Indian wars on the Plains took place during the late summer and autumn seasons.
2 Letter of Agent E. W. Wynkoop, Annual Report of the Com- missioner of Indian Affairs for 1868, pp. 81-2; also, letter of Super- intendent Thomas Murphy, p. 60; and letter of N. G. Taylor, com- missioner of Indian Affairs, p. 66.
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attacked the village of the Kansa, or Kaw Indians, at Council Grove, Kansas, near the headwaters of the Neosho River.3
The Indian war of 1868 was mostly along the lines of the over- land trails and the frontier settlements in its earlier stages, so the most active hostilities occurred in Kansas, Nebraska and Colo- rado. However, when the Kiowas and Comanches fled southward from the vicinity of their agency at Fort Larned, they were pur- sucd by the district commander, Gen. Alfred Sully, as far as the valleys of the Cimarron and North Canadian rivers, in Northern Oklahoma. There he was confronted by several large war parties and it was with difficulty that he succeeded in making his way back to Fort Dodge after having three severe engagements.+ In writing of this campaign under General Sully's command, General Custer related some of its incidents in the following language : 5
"The expedition intended to operate south of the Arkansas was composed of the principal portion of the Seventh Cavalry and a few companies of the Third Regular Infantry, the entire force under the command of Brig .- Gen. Alfred Sully, an officer of long experience among the Indians, and who had in times gone by achieved no little distinction as an Indian fighter and, at a later date, became a partial advocate of the adoption of the peace policy. General Sully's expedition, after being thoroughly equipped and supplied, under his personal supervision, with everything needful in a campaign such as was about to be undertaken, crossed the Arkansas River about the first of September, at Fort Dodge, and, marching a little west of south, struck the Cimarron River, where it first encountered Indians. From the Cimarron, the troops moved in a southeasterly dirertion, one day's march, to Beaver Creek, the savages opposing and fighting them during the entire day. That night the Indians came close enough to fire into the camp, an unusual proceeding in Indian warfare, as they rarely molest troops during the hours of night. The next day General Sully directed his march down the valley of the Beaver; but, just as his troops were breaking camp, the long wagon train having already 'pulled out,' and the rear guard of the troops having barely got into their saddles, a party of between two and three hundred war- riors, who had evidently in some inexplicable manner concealed their approach until the proper moment, dashed into the deserted
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