History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 165

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 alternative proposition permitted their remaining in Dakota and accept a reservation east of the two branches of the Cheyenne River, extending east to the Missouri River, surrendering to the Government all their claims to the country enclosed by the Forks, being the Black Hills, and all other lands whatso- ever. to which they claimed ownership, except the reservation to be granted under this new agreement.

Before deciding, the Indians were permitted to send a delegation to the Indian Territory to investigate that region. Spotted Tail, head chief of the Brules, and two or three leading chiefs of the Ogalalas accompanied this delegation, which numbered ninety representatives from the tribes. Red Cloud was unable to go. The delegation was taken down in the cars after reaching the railroad, and were

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in the Indian Territory about two weeks during October and November. 1870. They were well received by the civilized Creek Indians, who were anxious to have them settle in their country, as plainly appears from the speech made to them at Okmulgee, the capital of the Creek Nation, in the council house by the Creek chief, who addressed them as follows:

To the Sioux.

My Brethren : I am well pleased to see you here in the Mus-ko-ke Nation, brethren of the same race as ourselves. I was told a long time ago of my red brethren, the Sioux, that were living in the far Northwest. I had heard of the name of your tribe ant of many of your leading chiefs. I have heard of your great men, great in war, and great in council I have heard of your trouble on account of the intrusion of white men on your reservation in search of gold. I have heard that the United States Government had determined to remove you from your present home, and perhaps it might be to this Indian Territory to the west of us. When I heard that you might possibly come to this territory, which has been set apart for a home for the Indians forever, 1 was glad. 1 would like to, have all our red brethren settled in this territory, as we have provided in our treaty We. the Creeks and Cherokees, have the same kind of title and patent for our lands from the U'ited States, which guarantees this territory to us for a home, under our own form of govern- ment, by people of our own race, as long as grass grows and water runs. And I think, therefore, we shall live forever on our lands. I should like-and I express the wish of our people-that every Indian tribe should come here and settle on these lands, that this terri- tory may become filled up with Indians, to the exclusion of others who may be inimical to our race and interests. We believe our right to our soil and our government, which is best suited to our peculiar necessities, would be safer if all our race were united together here. That is my earnest wish. Then I think the rising generation could be educated and civ } ized, and, what is still better, Christianized, which I believe would be the greatest benefit of all. This would be to our mutual benefit and good. I know I express the minds of our people when I give you this welcome to our life of a higher civilization, which is better than the old life so long led by our race in the past.

The Brule Sioux chief. Spotted Tail, made a non-committal reply to this excellent welcoming address, showing that he had not concluded that it was best for his people to abandon their Dakota homes. The diplomatic old warrior stid :

My red brethren, we are glad to meet you and listen to your talk We have come in peace to your country to see it for ourselves, as our Great Father has wished. WInte men gather all things together for themselves. When he gathers he don't want anyone to take it away. My country is covered with gold. I have made a bargain with our Great Father to sell it, because the white men came to take it from us to get the gold. I don't know what I am to get for it yet. We have come here to see your country and see if we will like it. I suppose in the bargain your Great Father gave you the legs to hold your lunes and after that taught you to read, so you can talk. Our Great Father has not done so tor us He has not fulfilled his promises to us. We have passed through all the (levenne and Arapahoe country. We saw no good houses-all shanties ; nothing but poor little ones \H the people are poor. My land is covered with gold, and I must have pay for it Fam 1 k- ing at this country. When I get through 1 want to see my Great Father and talk with him, and then I can tell more about it.

Governor Ross. a full-blooded Indian, and other leading Cherokees, called on Chief Spotted Tail and his delegation at Muskogee, and expressed to them a deep interest in the welfare of their people, and hoped they would decide to make the country they had visited their home to commence the work of civilization

The visiting delegation then returned to their homes in Dakota, but displived no desire to change their abiding place. Dakota was their home and they did not desire to be exiled, though so far as they were capable of forming an opinion from their brief sojourn, the Indians they had visited were in i pre perons and happy condition, provided with comfortable homes and surronedal with fruitful fields, horses, cattle and hogs and fowls in abundan c, and the visitors that they would be glad to have them located in the territory the Sioux had no heart for the change; they knew the streams and t of Dakota, where they had been born ind reared, and loved them. niet 3sig lacked in the fertility and softer climate which was promised them . cada or the Indian Territory: and nothing more was heard of the Ind after their return and the delivery of their story to their per

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Article 4 of the treaty which the commissioners had prepared was not pre- senled to the Sioux except those that belonged to the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies.

MILITARY OPERATIONS FOLLOWING TILE CUSTER CATASTROPILE

General Crook's command was encamped on Heart River in Dakota, about one hundred miles west of Fort Lincoln, on September 5, 1876, from which point he advised the department as follows: "After separating from Terry, August 24th, I followed the Indian trail leading south some two hundred miles, experi- encing much delay on account of continuous cold rains. Considerable sickness exists and the troops are generally discouraged. The Indians seem to have scal- tered in many directions. The troops are on short rations and the horses generally broken down. The command will march to the Black Hills and await supplies there."

In the closing weeks of the Indian campaign of 1876 the hostile Indians divided, and large bodies came south and east, entering the Territory of Dakota, thence into the valley of the Little Missouri. They were followed by General Crook, who on the 15th of September reported from his camp on Owl Creek, Dakota Territory, "that the Indians were returning to their agencies, while a large number made off into the vicinity of the Black Hills, where they began depredations on the emigrant trains and outlying mining camps of the whites, committing many atrocities." The general sent a detachment of troops from Owl Creek to Deadwood for supplies. This detachment, which numbered 150, fell in with a hostile camp near Slim Buttes. in Butte County, D. T., of thirty lodges. An engagement followed, resulting in the capture of the Indian village, which was in command of Chief American Horse, who was among the killed. A number of the surviving Indians were made prisoners, from whom much information was obtained regarding the future plans of the hostiles ; and many articles that had belonged to the soldiers who fell in the Custer massacre were also secured, proving that this party had probably been engaged with Sitting Bull.

After the battle of Little Big Horn, June 25, 1876, Generals Terry and Crook spent the months of July and August, with their respective commands, in a vain effort to capture the Indians engaged in that slaughter, or a portion of them. Sitting Bull and his bands had made good their escape, which ended in his safely reaching British Columbia. All the other thousands had scattered, as one of Crook's officers expressed it, "to every point of a circle," and about September ist General Terry was still on the Yellowstone, and General Crook on the headwaters of Heart River, Dakota. From his camp on Heart River, Crook telegraphed General Sheridan, under date of September 5th, as follows:

I have with me only about two days' provisions, but I shall push out for the Black Hills to try to reach there in advance of the hostiles, or as soon as they do, scouting the country on the march as thoroughly as the circumstances will permit. We have traveled over four hundred miles since leaving our wagon train, our animals are now most jaded, and many of them have given out, while our men begin to exhibit symptoms of scorbutie affections. As things look now. Custer City will probably be the base to operate from. I would like to have 200,000 pounds of grain sent there at once, together with twenty full days' rations of vegetables for the men. I would like to have two companies of cavalry sent across the country from Red Cloud, via Pumpkin Butte, by forced marches, to escort my wagon train from the Dry Fork of the Powder River, by the miners' road, to Deadwood City. in the Black Hills, so as to get it there with all possible dispatch.

GEORGE CROOK, Brigadier General.

General Sheridan, Chicago.

Camp Owl River, Dakota, September 10, 1876.

Marched from Heart River, passing a great many trails of Indians going down all of the different streams we crossed between Heart River and this point, apparently working their way in toward the different agencies. Although some of the trails seemed fresh, our animals

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were not in condition to pursue them. From the north fork of Grand River I sent Captain Mills of the Third Cavalry, with 150 men, mounted on our strongest horses, to go in advance to Deadwood and procure supplies of provisions. On the evening of the 8th he discovered near the Slim Buttes a village of thirty-odd lodges of Indians, and lay there that night, attacked the village by surprise yesterday morning, capturing the village, some prisoners and a number of ponies, and killing some Indians.

GEORGE CROOK, Brigadier General, Commanding.

BATTLE OF SLIM BUTTES, HARDING COUNTY

The report of this battle submitted by Captain Mills follows :

In Bivouac on Rabbit Creek, Dakota, September 9, 187 . Licut. George F. Chase, Adjutant Battalion, Third Cavalry.

Sir: 1 have the honor to submit the following report of the engagement of this date between my command and a village of thirty-seven lodges under Brule Sioux Chieis Amert- can Horse and Roman Nose at Slim Buttes, Dakota Territory.

My command consisted of four officers and 150 enlisted men, all from the Third Cavalry, being fifteen men from each of the ten companies of the regiment ; one chief packer, Th mas Moore, fifteen packers and sixty-one pack mules.

Lieut. Emmett Crawford commanded the detachment of seventy-four men from Second Battalion, and Lieut. A. Il. Von Leuttwitz commanded the battahon of same strength trom First Battalion. The detachment separated from the main expedition on the night of the 7th at camp on the north fork of Grand River, with orders to proceed as rapidly as possible to Deadwood City, in the Black Hills, for rations, the expedition being then in almost desti- tute condition. Lient. Frederick Schwatka was appointed adjutant to the detachment. The command marched south at 7 P. M. under the guidance of Frank Gruard, chief to the guide. assisted by Captain Jack (Crawford), eighteen miles, and camped because of the utter darkness. Marched at daylight on the 8th through heavy rain and mud, when at 3 P. M the guide discovered on the slope of Slim Buttes some forty ponies grazing some three miles distant. As the commanding general had instructed mne to lose no opportunity to strike a village, the command was rapidly put out of sight, when I, with the guides, pro ceeded to ascertain, if possible, if there was a village and its location. The approaches were so difficult that it was impossible for us to learn anything without being discovered, until dark, when I decided to move back about a mile, and put the command in a deep gorge, wait there until 2 A. M. and attack at daylight. The night was one of the ugliest 1 ever passed-dark, cold, rainy and muddy in the extreme. At 2 A. M. we moved to within one inile of the village, where 1 left the pack train, with 125 horses, with twenty-five men to hold them, under command of Lieutenant Bubb, and marched on_ Crawford and Von Leuttwitz, each with fifty men dismounted, and Schwatka, with twenty-five men mounted, the plan being, if possible, for Crawford to close on one side of the village and Von Leuttwitz on the other, when Schwatka was to charge through at the bugle's sound, drive af al the stock, when the dismounted men would close on them. But when we were within one hun- dred yards of the lower end of the village, which was situated on either Anle et a small creek, called Rabbit Creek, a small herd of loose ponies stampeded, and ran through the village. Gruard informed me that all chance for a total surprise was lost, when I ord red the charge sounded, and right gallantly did Schwatka with his twenty-five men execute it Immediately the dismounted detachments closed on the south side and commenced tring on the Indians, who, finding themselves laced in their lodges, the leather drawn to ht as a drum by the rain, had quickly cut themselves out with their knives and returned eur tire the squaws carrying the dead, wounded and children up the opposite bliffs, leaving very- thing but their limited night clothes in our possession, Schwatka having rundet up the principal part of the herd. All this occurred about daybreak. Lieutenant Ven Leuttwitz while gallantly cheering his men, was severely wounded at almost the first volley, ramping my arm as he fell.

I then turned my attention to getting up the pack train and let Herses Gr art informed me that from the trails, the actions of the Indians ant ther ind catome Ic w satisfied there were other villages near. 1 sent two couriers to General Creak advien what 1 was doing, and requesting him to hurry forward as rapidly de f 1 le

The Indians, as soon as they had their squaws and children in security, rter 1 to the contest and soon completely surrounded us with a skirmish line and as In ( 11 was almost entirely engaged with the wounded, the held horses and the kirmi determined to leave the collection of the property and the provisions, with white ; it was rich, to the main command upon its arrival. American Ilere and his tarEl

wounded had taken refuge in a deep gorge in the village, and the r di bodymen ... from its difficulty, left to the coming reinforcements. The Indians wer con erth ing or creeping to points near enough to amen our wounded, and Ligt . Crawford rendered themselves conspicnous in driving them, each with t 1 detachments.

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The head of General Crook's column arrived at 1.30 A. M., and American Horse, mor- tally wounded, his family of some twelve persons, two warriors, a niece of Redelond's and four dead bodies were taken from the gorge, not, however, without loss. About 5 P. M. the Indians resumed the contest with more than double their former force, but were hand- somely repulsed by our then strong command. I learn from the prisoners that Crazy Horse, with the Cheyennes, a village of some three hundred lodges, was within eight or ten miles, and that the strength of the village taken consisted of about two hundred souls, 100 of them warriors.

My loss was: Killed-Private John Winzel, Company A, Third Cavalry. Wounded were: First Lieut. A. H. Von Leuttwitz, leg afterward amputated; Sergt. John A. Kirk- wood, Company M; Sergt. Edward Glass, Company E; Private Edward Kiernnan, Company E; Private William B. Dubois, Company C; Private August Doran, Company D; Private Charles Foster, Company B, all of the Third Cavalry. It is impossible to estimate the enemy's loss, as they were principally carried away, although several were left on the field.

This concluded Captain Mills' campaign as commander of the pioneer party. The Indians, however, continued to annoy the united command now under Gen- eral Crook's personal supervision. The weather had been rainy and cold for many days, and the entire command had been subsisting on horse meat, without salt, which had been procured from the bodies of the exhausted animals who proved unable to keep their places in the marching column. The capture of the Indian village at Slim Buttes had brought some relief to the half-starved soldiers in a quantity of dried Indian pony meat which proved an agreeable change from the flesh of the attenuated cavalry horse. No body of American soldiers were ever in a more destitute and suffering plight than this army during its entire journey from the Heart River to the Belle Fourche. After crossing this latter stream, which was forded with considerable difficulty owing to the enfeebled condition of the animals and men, an order reached General Crook from General Sheridan at this point commanding the brigade to march southward, through the Black Hills, and directed Crook to meet Sheridan at Fort Laramie without loss of time. It was now September 14th. A train laden with supplies for the famish- ing troops arrived from the people of Deadwood at this time in response to a requisition Crook had made by advance cottrier sent some days before. The sun shone warm and bright, and officers and men enjoyed a holiday. General Crook with an escort turned the command over to General Merritt, and on the 15th took leave of his troops and started on his southern journey, passing through Deadwood, where he was given a cordial reception, and on through the hills via Custer City to Laramie, where his conference with Sheridan led to the surrender of the ponies and guns of Red Cloud's refractory people.

The command under General Merritt moved to a camp in the foothills where the Whitewood Creek enters the plains from the hills, an ideal camp, called Cen- tennial Park, and a few days later continued their march to the southern hills, where they were detained some time at French Creek awaiting orders, and finally sent over to the vicinity of the Red Cloud Agency, where the Indians were excited and threatening because of the proceedings then pending for the cession of the territory embracing the Black Hills, which was accomplished that year, in the face of much opposition and danger.

And here the campaign against the Indians, for the eventful year of 1876, finds its termination. It had been the most important, considering its collateral events, of any similar campaign in the history of the United States, and much of it of the greatest importance, bearing upon the material advancement of the great North- west, transpired within Dakota.

MILES IN PURSUIT OF SITTING BULL

A dispatch from Gen. Nelson A. Miles, of October 27. 1876, who had been pursuing Sitting Bull and had captured large quantities of his supplies, which the fleeing hostiles were unable to remove, reported that Sitting Bull and about one thousand of his followers had escaped, but were in danger of starvation and freezing. Four hundred lodges of Indians from the Cheyenne Agency who had

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been with Sitting Bull had surrendered, and as a guarantee of their good faith to keep the peace, surrendered five of their principal men as hostages for the good behavior of the remainder. These five chiefs were sent to Fort Snelling, Minne- sota, headquarters of the department. The 400 lodges were sent at once to their agency at Cheyenne, where they were to be dealt with as the Government deemed best. They were disarmed. Whether the Government inflicted any punishment upon them does not appear ; but the Cheyennes abandoned the war path from this time and Sitting Bull's warrior hosts were never again reassembled.

General Miles did valiant work during the winter of 1870-77, in bringing the refractory red skin bands to a peaceful footing, those who were not then allied with Sitting Bull, but were on an unfriendly footing for various causes, natural hostility toward the pale faces being the principal one. They had all been engaged in the armed opposition to the construction of the Northern Pacific Railway, and many of them participated in the battle of the Little Big Ilorn. Miles conducted his negotiations throughout the long winter with commendable discretion and before spring dawned had the trails to his camp well beaten down by the refractory element coming to him to surrender and live in peace ever after. It was remark- able that three-fourths of the surrendered people claimed the Cheyenne Agency as their home. Miles was intrepid, and possessed that calmness in perilous diffi- culties, that never for a moment deserted him or disturbed his sound judgment.

In October, 1877, Gen. Nelson A. Miles in command of the Yellowstone District, with headquarters at Fort Keogh, stated that the hostile Indians, so numerous last year, had disappeared and many ranchmen were settling along the Powder and Yellowstone Valley. Sitting Bull was in Canada. Fort Keogh was a new post, substantially built, in 1876-77. for the accommodation of fourteen companies of troops of all arms. It was located at the junction of the Tongue River with the Yellowstone.

Sitting Bull, after the Custer massacre, had great difficulty in avoiding the pursuing parties. He had no formidable force of Indians with him, but many women and children, and he was so thoroughly acquainted with the country that he was able to avoid the troops whose most vigilant work was in watching the crossing points of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. The wily chieftain man- aged to get across the Yellowstone during the fall and spent nearly all the winter of 1876-77, south of the Missouri.

General Miles discovered his rendezvous early in the spring of 1877, but the Indians managed to elude him and crossed the Missouri early in April, at a point where the Milk River enters that stream, and entered Canadian territory at a point near where the Poplar River intersects the international boundary line. about longitude one hundred and six degrees west from Greenwich. It was claimed that Sitting Bull had assurances from the mounted police of the Dommon. that no matter how serious his offenses were against the United States Govern ment, that whenever he wanted an asylum north of the international boundary. he would find it.

Sitting Bull, however, was aware that refugees or fugitives from justice from either side of the line could avoid capture by escaping across, even if they It mained in proximity to the boundary, hence Sitting Bull made his way to Wood Mountain, in her majesty's possessions, where he located his permanent com . half-starved and poorly provided with camp equipage. The international bound- ary line it must be understood, was nowhere visible, but it had for many voar been determined approximately. Taking Pembina on Red River as an cjaleri point, the most direct route to Sitting Bull's camp was the trader's trail, which begins at Pembina and terminates in the heart of the Buffalo countis it Wid This trail does not alone

Mountain, where Sitting Bull had taken refuge, cide with the lawful boundary, but practically it is sind to be neirhy plein it. For many years it had been the route of the half breed traders of S and the central road to the plains, the great buffalo region of the Gar Rees and Mandans as well as some of the tribes of the Sims, it

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a well marked trail. Leaving Pembina it winds across the Pembina Mountains, intersects numerous small rivers and creeks, passes the northern end of Turtle Mountain, in longitude 100 degrees and 50 minutes thence in its westward course crosses the Mouse River, thence across the Coteau du Missouri whence it crosses the Mouse a second time, and finally terminates at Wood Mountain, Canadian terri- tory, in about latitude 49 degrees, 30 minutes, longitude 106 degrees, 20, west from Greenwich. That was about the latitude and longitude of Sitting Bull's refuge. The occasional visits of Sitting Bull or some of his party, to the vicinity of Pembina and to Winnipeg during his enforced residence at Wood Mountain were occasionally mentioned.

INDIAN WAR IN THE BLACK HILLS

Late in the fall of 1876 small bands of Indians began depredations upon the emigrants to the Black Hills, killing a number of small parties and terroriz- ing the outlying camps and new settlements bordering the hills country. These depredations were of a serious character and called for the establishment of a permanent military force ; this was done and Camp Crook was fixed at Crook City, at the point on the north where the Whitewood Creek debouches from the hills and enters the plains country. Indians from Red Cloud's tribe of Oglalas or Cheyennes were charged with these hostilities though from many of the articles captured from the Indian camps it was evident that a number of them had been in the fight against Custer. The military force was a meagre one and was unable to prevent a continuance of the depredations. The Indians were operat- ing in small bands-having no prominent leader, and would dart upon a settler or upon a small party of immigrants-accomplish their purpose, and escape with their booty before the military would be apprised of their proximity. So menac- ing became this situation that the inhabitants of the northern hills became alarmed for their safety, and Sheriff Bullock being unable to render the necessary pro- tection, appealed to the governor of the territory for authority and for arms with which to arm the militiamen of the hills.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 165

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