History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 129

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198

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The failure of Congress to ratify the treaty may not have been an oversight, but a foreshadowing of the later action of both houses, declaring that Indian nations or tribes should not thereafter be recognized as treaty-making powers.

In this history we first meet with the Oglala and Brule Sioux Indians on the North Fork of the Platte River, in the new Territory of Nebraska and near its western border. They were there when General Harney came out on his expedition against the Sioux in 1855.

A tradition, fairly well authenticated by subsequent events, has come down from the Brule Indians, that many years prior to the Harney expedition, and the battle of Ash Hollow, a quarrel of a serious nature occurred in the Brule tribe in the North Platte country, which resulted in a division of the tribe, one faction selecting a location south of the North Fork, the other remaining on the north side, and from this circumstance arose the name of "Lower Brules." The Lower Brules were much less numerous than their northern relatives, but their grievance was of such a serious and unpardonable nature, that they were never thereafter willing to amalgamate with the northern faction. They maintained a separate tribal organization (and when the Sioux were divided up under the Black Hills treaty, they secured a separate reserve nearly opposite Chamberlain where old Fort Lookout had been built a half century earlier, and were thereafter treated with by the Government as a separate tribe ).

But these Sioux, Oglalas and Brules, including the lower tribe, were all in the North Platte country thirteen years later when the Laramie treaty of 1& 8 was made with them by General Sherman and others, and there was little change

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in their location for several years following that event, though the treaty provided them a reservation in Dakota.

Some little time after this treaty, the Red Cloud Indians (Oglalas), were located at Fort Robinson, near Crawford, Neb., and the Spotted Tail Indians ( Brules), were located on Beaver Creek, Neb., about fifteen miles southwest of the present Pine Ridge Agency, and the agencies were known as "Spotted Tail's Agency," and "Red Cloud's Agency." By the terms of the Sherman treaty the Indians were permitted to occupy a large strip of land in Nebraska north of the North Platte River extending to the Dakota boundary, and the agencies above designated were located on this strip. The Lower Brules moved to the Missouri River and settled in the neighborhood of old Fort Lookout.

The peace policy as pursued by the Government in its intercourse with the Indians, forms an important link in the history of Dakota, inseparable from its growth in population and the expansion of its settlements from the earliest period of white occupation of the Dakota country. Its industrial feature, to which the ultimate success of the policy is due, was first ingrafted in the agreements with the Sioux in Dakota, and its earliest experiments as well as later achievements, have been notable events in the history of the territory.

The policy will not be claimed as a reform to be credited entirely to one generation : though it became more of an issue and a political as well as an economical question following the Little Crow war of 1862. William Penn might be historically cited as its author, and first to apply its principles : but we find all through the intercourse between the Government and its Indian subjects, where something like the peace policy has been effectual in promoting the con- dition of the Indians; and it has also been a prominent factor in extending the settlements of civilization until they would encroach upon the country set apart for the Indians, or upon his rights and privileges, which would lead to a war in which the Indians would never fail to be worsted ; and new treaties marking some advanced steps in restraining the privileges and so-called rights of the red man. would be agreed upon between the Government and its subdued subjects : who in theory at least were treated with as a foreign nation, except that the Government was of necessity compelled to act for both parties and for the best interests of both. considered in their mutual relation.

The peace policy which the country has known as such for the past forty years or more, is more properly an industrial policy-it is a policy which in theory at first, declined to contribute to the support and maintenance of the Indian until he would signify his willingness to abandon his wild life, give up the chase. relinquish all ambition for war with his own race as well as with the Government. settle down in a permanent home and become a factor in the industrial life of the nation. It was conditions brought about by the spread of the settlements of civilization, that forced the adoption of this policy, and it is most remarkable to note that from the time it was entered upon with a determined purpose to adhere to it. its practical application and operations have more than justified the claims of its early supporters.

The Indian wars had brought to the front a large number of men who had given the Indian problem a great deal of thought in an effort to determine what was best to do for the welfare of the Indian and at the same time rid the frontiers of all dangers from this source, thus opening the way for the whites to come in and develop the lands and mines and make the desert blossom. The Government officials were endeavoring to hit upon something practical that would accomplish this, and finally it was decided to colonize the red people on an immense reserva- tion where they were to be taught to farm. and the different mechanical trades. and the young people educated in good schools. It only remained to get the consent of the Indians to make the plan a success, at least so far as its preliminary work of gathering them all together was concerned, and for this purpose Presi- dent Johnson sent the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Hon. Wm. P. Dole, out to Dakota m 1865 to negotiate treaties with all the Indian tribes for the purpose of

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inducing them to abandon savage life and settle down to the peaceful pursuits of civilized industry, upon reservations. While this policy was necessarily slow and beset with many difficulties, it possessed sufficient merit to commend it to the favor of the humane people everywhere.

Mr. Dole did not succeed at this time in effecting such treaties, but he paved the way for a number of agreements, which were subsequently made by commis- sioners specially appointed to treat with the hostile tribes, in which the reservation. industrial and educational plan was given an initiative and being followed from that time has been more successful than was anticipated.

ARMY VERSUS CIVIL CONTROL OF INDIANS

In August, 1865, following the Indian wars in Dakota during the preceding three years, in accordance with a resolution of Congress appropriating $20,000 for the purpose of defraying the expenses of a peace commission to treat with the hostile Sioux of Dakota and Montana, and in response to a very general sentiment held by a large body of influential citizens of the country, led by the Indian Rights Association of Philadelphia, of which William Welch was president, President Johnson appointed a commission, composed of prominent civilians and military men, which was authorized to visit the hostile Sioux-those that had been engaged in the recent wars following the Little Crow outbreak in Minnesota, (and every tribe of the Sioux, except the Yanktons, was included in the term hostile), and arrange with them treaties of peace.

At this point the military people interposed an objection that as no treaties had been made with the Indians who had been in arms against the authority of the Government since the actual conflict ceased, the question of peace and its conditions was one which the War Department had under its sole jurisdiction. as the matter was still on a war basis; and contended that the civil authorities should not interfere except through the medium of the army. That the moral effect of such interference was to weaken the standing and influence of the army among the Indians, who would interpret it as a rebuke by the Government to its soldiers who had subdued the Indians and brought them to the Government seeking peace and a restoration of friendly relations.

llowever, the army does not appear to have offered any more than a verbal objection, for in September following the peace commission appointed by the President assembled at Yankton, organized and prepared for the journey up the Missouri. This commission was a mixed body made up of civilians and army men, as follows: Newton Edmunds, governor of Dakota; Gen. S. R. Curtis. commanding the Dakota Military Division : Gen. II. 11. Sibley, Minnesota ; Edw. B. Taylor, Northwestern Superintendent of Indian Affairs; A. Guernsey, Janes- ville, Wisconsin ; and Henry W. Reed, of Dubuque, lowa. Governor Edmunds was chosen chairman of the commission, and M. K. Armstrong, of Yankton, was employed to accompany the expedition and keep the record of its proceedings. The Steamboat Cylipso had been chartered for the river journey, and though the season of navigation was nearing its close, word had been sent out to all the hostile tribes by runners to gather at certain points on the river for the purpose of arranging terms of peace, and the peace ambassadors left on their mission Monday, September 25, 1865, feeling confident of success, and desiring above all things to perform their full part in their efforts to meet the Indians in order that the latter should have no grievance on that score. The lateness of the season. and the brief time that had been allowed for getting word to the Indian people, thousands of whom were encamped at points inaccessible by river, worked a dis advantage to the success of this mission, but in the face of these drawbacks there was an encouraging response on the part of the red people, with the result that representatives of most of the former hostile tribes were counciled with and treaties agreed upon. There were few representatives from the Indians inhabiting the interior, and owing to the close of navigation it became necessary to post me

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further efforts until the season of 1866; when the same commissioners having chartered the Steamer Ben Johnson, resumed their labors and succeeded in bring- ing every rebellious tribe into a peace agreement.

The commission on this second journey in 1866, ascended the Missouri River as far as Fort Union, Mont., and cotinselled with the Rees, Mandans and Gros Ventres, peaceable tribes, who are not Sioux, at Fort Berthold, and treated with the Cheyenne in that vicinity. Before reaching Fort Union they met and treated with over two thousand of the Upper Sioux and Assinaboines, and at the fort were greeted by a throng numbering at least five thousand, composed of Mountain Crows, Assinaboines, Blackfeet, and Bloods, from the Yellowstone Valley and the Black Hills region. The Indians met were all clamorous for peace and for reinstatement in the favor of the Great Father, and were not disappointed. The expedition closed with the treaties made at Fort Union, and the commission returned. Their treaties were all approved by the President.

While separate treaties had been made with each tribe, the matters agreed upon were identical with all tribes with the exception of money allowance, which varied in amount, and in other comparatively unimportant particulars-the main object sought being to secure a pledge from the Indians to refrain from hostilities and live on terms of amity with the Great Father and his white children, and also with other tribes of their own people, it having been discovered that much of the trouble on the frontier in which the Indians participated, arose from quarrels between the tribes or nations, leading to depredations upon the lives and property of the white people.

A copy of one of these treaties is here inserted for the information of those who desire to know the terms of this first settlement between the warring Sioux and the Government following the great war of 1862-65. Similar treaties had also been made under a separate commission with the hostiles of Nebraska, Kansas, and the other territories :

Treaty with the Sioux-Onkpalipah band-at Fort Sully, 1865.

Article 1. The Onkpahpah band of Dakota or Sioux Indians represented in Council, hereby acknowledge themselves to be subject to the jurisdiction of and authority of the United States, and hereby obligate and bind themselves, individually and collectively, not only to cease all hostilities against the persons and property of its citizens, but to use their influence. and if requisite, physical force, to prevent other bands of Dakota Indians, or other adjacent tribes, from making hostile demonstrations against the Government or people of the United States.

Article 2. Inasmuch as the Government of the United States is desirous to arrest the effusion of blood between the Indian tribes within its jurisdiction hitherto at war with each other, the Onkpahpah band of Dakota or Sionx Indians, represented in Council. anxious to respect the wishes of the Government, hereby agree to discontinue for the future, all attacks upon the persons or property of other tribes, unless first attacked by them, and to use their influence to promote peace everywhere in the region occupied or frequented by them.

Article 3. All controversies or differences arising between the Onkpahpah band of Dakota or Sioux Indians involving the question of peace or war, shall be submitted to the arbitrament of the President, or such person or persons as may be designated by him. and the decision or award shall be faithfully observed by the said tribe represented in this council.

Article 4. The said band represented in council shall withdraw from the routes over- land already established. or hereafter to be established, through this country; and in con- sideration thereof the Government of the United States agrees to pay the said hand the sum of $30 for each lodge or family, annually, for twenty years, in such articles as the secre- tary of the interior may direct; Provided that said band, so represented in council, shall faithfully conform to the requirements of this treaty.

Article 5. Should any individual or individuals, or portion of the Onkpahpah band of Dakota or Sioux Indians, represented in council, desire hereafter to locate permanently upon any land claimed by said band, for the purposes of agricultural or other similar pur- suits, it is hereby agreed by the parties to this treaty, that such individuals shall be pro- tected in such location against any annoyance or molestation on the part of whites or Indians, and whenever twenty lodges or families of the Onkpahpah band shall have located on land for agricultural purposes, and signified the same to their agents or super- intendent, they as well as other families so locating, shall receive the sum of $25.00 an- nually, for five years for each family, in agricultural implements or improvements; and

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY 749

when 100 lodges or families shall have so engaged in agricultural pursuits, they shall be entitled to a farmer, and blacksmith, at the expense of the Government, and also teachers at the option of the secretary of the interior, whenever deemed necessary.

Article 6. Any amendment or modification of this treaty by the Senate of the United States shall be considered final and binding upon the said band, represented in council, as a part of this treaty, in the same manner as if it had been subsequently pre- sented and agreed to by the chiefs and head men of said band.

In testimony whereof the commissioners on the part of the United States, and the chiefs and head men of the Onkpahpah tribe of Dakota or Sioux Inchans, have hereunto set their hands, this 20th day of October. 1865. after the contents had previously been read, interpreted and explained to the chiefs and head men.

Signed by Newton Edmunds; Edward B. Taylor : S. R. Curtis, major general; II. H. Sibley, brigadier general; Henry Reed; Orrin Guernsey, for the Government of the United States.

Chiefs: M'Loka, or The Buck, Ilis X Mark. Mah-to-wak-konah, He That Runs The Bear, Ilis X Mark. Shon-kah-we-te-ko, The Fool Dog, Ilis & Mark. Chief Soldiers : Tah-chonk-pee-sappah, The Black Tomahawk, Ilis X Mark. Wah-doo-tah-wak kean, The Red Thunder, His X Mark. Ton-kon-ha ton, The Rock With a Horse, Ilis X Mark.

Chiefs : Two Bears. Mato-non-pa, His X Mark. White Bear. Mato-sca, His X Mark. Bone Necklace, flo-hoo-non-pee, His X Mark.

Soldier : Dog Cloud, llis X Mark.

'In presence of-

Hez. L. llosmer, Chief Justice of Montana Territory.

S. S. Curtis, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel, U. S. Volunteers.

A. W. Hubbard. Member Congress. 6th District, lowa.

E. F. Ruth, Secretary of Commission.

R. R. Hitt, Reporter of Commission.

Zephier Rencontre, His X Mark, Interpreter.

Charles Degres, His X Mark. Interpreter.

O-yea-ke-pa. The Man That Runs In Ilis Tracks, llis X Mark.

Na-je-em-pee. The Man Surrounded, His X Mark.

Wa-se-che-wa-kon. The Medicine White Man, His X Mark.

Skin-ich-e-a, The Man That Stirs, IJis X Mark.

Mon-ne-loo-sa, Fast Walker, His X Mark.

Tau-ton, Red Bull, His X Mark.

The foregoing signatures (in this handwriting, that of General Curtis), were made in the presence of the undersigned, on the 28th and 29th of October, 1865, at Fort Sully, D. T. Major 11. P. Shreve, Paymaster. U. S. Army.

John Pattee, Lieutenant Colonel. 7th lowa Cavalry.

The time was propitious for making favorable terms with the hostiles. They were in an impoverished condition as the result of their recent wars with the Government, and had never been in a mood where they better appreciated the advantages of peace with the "Great Father," and for that reason it seemed of the first importance to make a compact with them that would bind them to observe peaceful relations with the whites. They were moreover in imminent danger of starving ; destitution and suffering stared them in the face, and it would become the humane duty of the Government to provide them such relief as would preserve their lives, even in the absence of treaties-therefore the urgent haste shown in making these agreements, which were, as the sequel shows, only preliminary to the treaty of 1868, which was made with the entire Sioux nation, and covered nearly every phase of the proposed reform policy of the Government.

No attempt was made at this time to punish any portion of the Indians who had engaged in hostilities in the wars of 1802-03-04. A large number of the original fomenters of the uprisings in Minnesota in 1862, had been tried by a military tribunal and executed for their crime, in 1803. at Mankato, Minn .. but their offence was the unprovoked massacre of hundreds of children as well as men and women, which placed the offenders in the category of murderers, and the situation at that time was of such a critical nature that extreme measures were demanded. It became customary, however, in the treaties concluded with the Indians from about this date, to incorporate a provision in the articles of the treaties made with them, requiring the tribe to surrender to the United States

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authorities any individual Indians charged with any serious felony where the offence committed was in violation of the treaty, that such offender might be tried and punished under the laws of the Government in the same manner that similar offences were punished if committed by white subjects of the Government.

It will be observed that these treaties of 1865-66 provided for opening wagon roads across the Indian country, and no objection appears to have been made by the Indians. It appears that the upper river Indians were not concerned at that time about the Black Hills, and possibly the emergency which their destitute condition produced, had made them indifferent to the provisions of the treaties so long as it provided them with provisions of a more substantial character in the shape of bread and meat. But when the tribes lower down the river were encountered, the opposition to permitting the opening of any roads to or near the Black Hills was met with.

The Cheyenne Sioux were given an allowance of $25,000 in cash for the wagon road which had previously been established by W. W. Brookings, from the mouth of the Cheyenne up to the forks of that stream, which would have been a direct route into the Black Ilills country as far as the location had been made. The road, however, was projected and designed to continue on along the north fork of the Cheyenne or some more practicable and direct route to a junction with the Sawyer wagon road-the point of connection to be in the Territory of Montana. Mr. Brookings, who located the road, and Governor Edmunds, who headed the treaty commission, had in mind that the location to the forks of the Cheyenne would hasten the exploration and opening of the Black Hills, which region, among Dakota people, was known to be gold bearing.

The conflict with the Sioux at Fort Rice took place previous to the peace trea- ties with a portion of the upper Sioux made late in the summer and fall of 1865, and therefore was not considered a violation of those agreements.

The massacre at Fort Fetterman was attributed to the Oglala, under Red Cloud, and these had not been treated with, and were not reached until 1868. At the time of this massacre, December, 1866, representatives of all the Sioux tribes living on the Missouri, had been treated with, but the Sioux under Red Cloud in Nebraska had not. The treaty commission had councilled with them but had not been able to come to an agreement. The pretext advanced by the Indians for the Fetterman atrocity, was that the establishment of the post Fort Phil Kearney in the Big Horn country, was without their consent, that they (lid not want it, and concluded to destroy it. The Indians had uniformly been opposed to the establishment of forts in their hunting territory.

Following the Fetterman massacre, there was comparative quiet on the Dakota frontier, until 1870-71 when the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad aroused the northern Sioux tribes, who, under Sitting Bull had or- ganized to oppose and prevent its construction.

SIOUX CHIEFS VISIT WASHINGTON

A numerous delegation of Sioux chieftains and warriors, numbering nearly fifty were brought together at the capital of Dakota in February, 1867, for the purpose of a visit to Washington to see the "Great Father," and be given an op- portunity to express their sentiments on the Indian question. These untutored children of the plain had been preparing for the trip during their sojourn. and when they departed on their important mission, accompanied by their agents and superintendent, seated in eight especially furnished lumber wagons for the railway terminus in Iowa they were dressed in the height of aboriginal fashion, including their feathered headgear, as though they expected to meet their distinguished and wisely-loved Great Father host at the first turn of the road. There were forty-two Indian chiefs and renowned warriors in the company representing all the Sioux tribes except the Yanktons, who had just returned from a similar visit. The Indians were accompanied by Maj. Joseph

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R. Hanson, agent of the Upper Missouri Sioux, and also those at Fort Thomp- son, as the Crow Creek Agency was called ; also by Maj. James M. Stone, agent of the Santees at Niobrara ; and by Maj. Patrick II. Congar, the Yankton agent. The title of major prefixed to the name of an Indian agent is a sort of landmark in the service, and grew out of a custom of the general government, when the Indians were under the supervision of the war department to designate officer- of that rank to perform the duties of Indian agent.

This embassy from Dakota, representing all the Sioux tribes was going on for the purpose of revealing the sentiments of the red men to the "Great Father" regarding the transfer to the war department. Fortunately for the Indians there was a very influential organization of pale-faces, known as the Peace Society, that took an active interest in their welfare. These people were very much disturbed over the proposed change, which seemed to them a retrograde step and diametrically opposed to the avowed policy of the government then being pursued under late treaties, which seemed to be working out its own justifi- cation quite satisfactorily. The Indians as a general rule were peaceably in- clined, notwithstanding the recent outbreak of the Tetons at Fort Phil Kearney, whose hostility would be but temporary. The Indians, the Peace Society held. were manifesting great interest in the new policy, and thousands of them stood ready to abandon their savage mode of life, and adopt the customs of their civilized neighbors.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 129

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1198

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198