USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume I > Part 7
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This tract included only a part of what was afterward recognized as Sioux territory. The domain included in the above described boundaries lay chiefly in South Dakota and Nebraska, but some years later the Sioux became joint claimants with the Northern Arapaho and Cheyenne to that portion of Wyoming lying north of the Platte and east of the Powder River and Rattlesnake Moun- tains.
The Arikara, Gros Ventre and Mandan tribes were assigned a tract with the following boundaries: "Commencing at the mouth of the Heart River; thence up the Missouri River to the mouth of the Yellowstone River; thence up the Yellowstone to the mouth of the Powder River; thence in a southeasterly direction to the headwaters of the Little Missouri River; thence along the Black Hills to the head of the Heart River; and thence down the Heart River to the place of beginning."
Only a small portion of this territory (between the Little Powder and Little Missouri rivers) lies in Wyoming. These tribes afterward claimed to own a large tract of country on the north side of the Missouri River, which was ceded to the United States by the treaty of July 27, 1866, but the treaty was never ratified. Relations between them and the Government remained unsettled
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until the executive order of April 12, 1870, when a reservation was assigned them on land recognized by the treaty of Fort Laramie, the remainder of said territory becoming the property of the United States.
The Assiniboine country, as fixed by the treaty, is all within the present State of Montana, the boundaries being described as follows: "Commencing at the mouth of the Yellowstone River; thence up the Missouri River to the mouth of the Musselshell River; thence from the mouth of the Musselshell River in a southeasterly direction to the headwaters of Big Dry Creek; thence down that creek to where it empties into the Yellowstone River, nearly opposite the mouth of the Powder River; and thence down the Yellowstone River to the place of beginning."
The blackfoot country boundaries began "at the mouth of the Musselshell River ; thence up the Missouri River to its source ; thence along the main range of the Rocky Mountains in a southerly direction to the headwaters of the north- ern source of the Yellowstone River ; thence down the Yellowstone River to the mouth of Twenty-five Yard Creek; thence across to the headwaters of the Mus- selshell River; and thence down the Musselshell River to the place of beginning."
This tract is all in Montana except a small triangular piece of land in Yel- lowstone National Park, extending southeastward into Lincoln County, Wyo- ming. By the treaty of October 17, 1855, which was concluded on the Upper Missouri, near the mouth of the Judith River, the Blackfoot domain was made a common hunting ground for that tribe, the Flathead and the Nez Perce In- dians.
In the treaty the boundaries of the Crow country were described as "Com- mencing at the mouth of the Powder River, on the Yellowstone; thence up the Powder River to its source; thence along the main range of the Black Hills and the Wind River Mountains to the headwaters of the Yellowstone River ; thence down the Yellowstone River to the mouth of Twenty-five Yard Creek ; thence to the headwaters of the Musselshell River; thence down the Musselshell River to its mouth; thence to the headwaters of Big Dry Creek; and thence to its mouth."
More than half of this tract is situated within the limits of the present State of Wyoming. It concludes all that part of the state lying between the Powder and Yellowstone rivers and extending southward to the Wind River and Rattle- snake Mountains. The counties of Bighorn, Washakie, Park and Hot Springs, and the greater part of Sheridan, Johnson and Natrona, the northern part of Fremont and the eastern part of Yellowstone National Park are all situated in what was once Crow territory. A portion of the tract was ceded to the United States by the treaty of Fort Laramie (May 7, 1868), and a reservation for the tribe was established in Montana.
The boundaries of the territory assigned to the Southern Arapaho and Chey- enne were established and described as follows: "Commencing at the Red Butte, or the place where the road leaves the north fork of the Platte River; thence up the said north fork of the Platte River to its source; thence along the main range of the Rocky Mountains to the headwaters of the Arkansas River ; thence down the Arkansas River to the crossing of the Santa Fé Trail; thence in a northwesterly direction to the forks of the Platte River; and thence up the Platte River to the place of beginning."
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All that part of Wyoming situated south and east of the North Platte River, Southwestern Nebraska, a strip about forty miles wide across the western part of Kansas to the Arkansas River, and about one-third of the present State of Colorado were included in the domain of the Arapaho and Cheyenne. In Wyo- ming the counties of Albany and Laramie, all that portion of Carbon east of the Platte River, the southeast corner of Natrona, the southwest corner of Con- verse, the southern half of Goshen and nearly all of Platte have been erected out of this territory, which was ceded to the United States by the treaty of Fort Wise, Kansas, which was concluded on February 18, 1861.
The Northern Arapaho and Cheyenne were allotted the country between the Platte and Powder rivers, in what is now Northeastern Wyoming. Their domain included the present counties of Crook, Campbell, Weston, Niobrara, the northern half of Goshen, the northeast corner of Platte, nearly all of Converse, and a narrow strip along the eastern border of Sheridan and Johnson-that part of those counties east of the Powder River. A portion of Natrona County was also embraced in the domain of the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Some time after the treaty of Fort Laramie, the Sioux were permitted by the Cheyenne and Arapaho to hunt in their country, and that tribe united with the other two in the cession of the region to the United States by agreement on September 26, 1876.
Gen. William S. Harney called Colonel Mitchell's agreement with the Indi- ans a "bread and molasses" treaty, as it promised a great deal to the Indians and received practically nothing in return. The tribes failed to keep within their respective jurisdictions, nor did they refrain from making attacks upon emi- grant trains and stealing their horses and cattle. Hence it was not long until other treaties became necessary, especially as a few white people had already settled in the West soon after the close of the Civil war and others were looking with longing eyes at the broad prairies of that section, where they were anxious to obtain homes.
TREATY WITH THE SIOUX
During the Civil war the Sioux Indians gave the United States authorities considerable trouble by their uprising in Minnesota, and after the war was over they showed signs of dissatisfaction and at times threatened to break into open hostilities. In the spring of 1868 Gen. W. T. Sherman, Gen. William S. Harney, Gen. Alfred H. Terry, Gen. C. C. Augur, John B. Sanborn, Samuel F. Tappan, Nathaniel G. Taylor and J. B. Henderson were appointed commissioners to hold a council and negotiate a treaty that would insure peace on the part of the tribe.
The council was held at Fort Laramie and on April 29, 1868, the treaty was concluded, ceding to the United States all the Sioux lands within the present limits of South Dakota that had been allotted to them by the treaty of Sep- tember 17, 1851, and a reservation was set apart for the tribe in South Dakota. The country north of the Platte and east of the summit of the Big Horn Moun- tains was considered to be unceded and was retained by the Indians as part of their hunting grounds. The treaty was signed by the chiefs Red Cloud, Medicine Eagle, Black Tiger, Man Afraid of his Horses, and a number of minor chiefs.
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THE CROW TREATY
On May 7, 1868, Generals Sherman, Harney, Terry and Augur concluded a treaty with the chiefs and head men of the Crow tribe at Fort Laramie, by which these Indians ceded the greater part of their lands in Wyoming, allotted to them by the treaty of September 17, 1851, and accepted a reservation in Montana, lying between the northern boundary line of Wyoming and the Yellowstone River. The remainder of the Crow territory in Wyoming was ceded to the United States by the agreement of June 12, 1880.
CHEYENNE AND ARAPAHO TREATY
Three days after the above treaty with the Crow Indians was concluded, the same commissioners met the chiefs of the Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapaho and concluded a treaty by which those tribes relinquished all claims to their lands in Wyoming and agreed to accept a home either with the Southern Arapaho and Cheyenne, on their reservation in Colorado, or on the Big Sioux reservation in Dakota. They were established on the latter. In 1875 the Arapaho, with the consent of the Shoshone, were given a home on the Wind River reservation. That portion of Wyoming included in the cession made by this treaty, embraces the district between the Platte and Powder rivers, extend- ing southwest to the Rattlesnake Mountains. After the Cheyenne and Arapaho were quartered on the Sioux reservation they learned that the territory had been reserved by that tribe as hunting ground in the treaty of April 29, 1868. Some of the Cheyenne and Arapaho then tried to renew their claims, and the tract was finally ceded to the United States by all the tribes through the agreement of September 26, 1876.
TREATY OF FORT BRIDGER
After negotiating the treaties with the Crow, Cheyenne and Arapaho at Fort Laramie in May, 1868, Generals Sherman, Terry, Augur and Harney went to Fort Bridger and called a council of the Shoshone and Bannock chiefs. On July 3. 1868, the chiefs of the eastern bands of those tribes entered into a treaty, in which they agreed to relinquish all claims to their lands in Wyoming and accept a reservation bounded as follows: "Commencing at the mouth of Owl Creek and running due south to the crest of the divide between the Sweet- water and Popo-Agie rivers; thence in a westerly direction along the crest of said divide and the summit of the Wind River Mountains to a point due south of the mouth of the north fork of the Wind River; thence due north to the mouth of said north fork and up its channel to a point twenty miles above its mouth ; thence in a straight line to the headwaters of Owl Creek, and along the middle channel of Owl Creek to the place of beginning."
The reservation thus established is known as the "Wind River Reservation." The territory ceded included all that part of Wyoming west of the North Platte River and south of the Wind River Mountains, extending northward to the old Blackfoot boundary in Yellowstone National Park. This cession now em- braces the counties of Uinta and Sweetwater, all of Lincoln except a little
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of the northeast corner, that part of Carbon west of the North Platte River, the southern part of Fremont and a little of the southwest corner of Natrona.
The treaty was ratified on February 16, 1869, and on the 10th of the following December, Governor Campbell approved a memorial adopted by the first Territorial Legislature of Wyoming, setting forth that "the reservation had been occupied by citizens of the United States for mining and agricultural pur- poses ; that the mining community known as Hamilton City or 'Miners' Delight,' and numerous other gold producing creeks and gulches are within the limits of said reservation; that while the occupants were bona fide settlers for a year before the conclusion of the treaty their interests had not been consulted in es- tablishing the reservation; that the Shoshone and Bannock Indians cannot live in peace there, owing to the proximity of their hereditary enemies, the Sioux; that no game can be found on or in the immediate vicinity of the reservation," etc. The memorial asked Congress to abrogate that provision of the treaty and establish a reservation elsewhere, to the end that the lands might be reopened for preemption and settlement.
Congress declined to grant the request and the Indians remained in possession of the reservation. On March 3, 1871, President Grant approved the act which did away with the custom of making treaties with the Indians, and on Septem- ber 26, 1872, an agreement was made with the Shoshone by which they ceded to the United States that part of their reservation "south of a line beginning at a point on the eastern boundary of the reservation due east of the mouth of the Little Popo-Agie at its junction with the Popo-Agie and running from said point west to the mouth of the Little Popo-Agie; thence up the Popo-Agie to the north fork and up the north fork to the mouth of the canyon; thence west to the western boundary of the reservation."
The Bannock Indians had no part in this agreement, having previously quarreled with the Shoshone and been removed to the Fort Hall reservation in Idaho. Subsequent agreements have reduced the Wind River reservation to the territory bounded by the Wind River on the north; the lines established by the agreement of September 26, 1872, on the south, and the original western bound- ary between those two lines on the west. On May 21, 1887, President Cleve- land set apart a tract of 1,405 acres "more or less" at the forks of the Little Wind River, in the Wind River reservation, as a military reserve for Fort Washakie.
The treaty of Fort Bridger was the last important treaty made with the Indians of Wyoming. Several agreements were made after that time to perfect the title of the whites to the land ceded, but possession came with the treaty of July 3, 1868. During the half century since that treaty was concluded a different Wyoming has come upon the map of the nation. Railroads have taken the places of Indian trails ; the school house has supplanted the council wigwam of the savage ; the howl of the wolf and the war-whoop are no longer heard, but in their stead have come the hierds of the husbandman and the hum of peaceful industry. And all these changes have been made within the memory of persons yet living. To tell the story of this development is the province of the subsequent chapters of this history.
CHAPTER V
WYOMING UNDER VARIOUS JURISDICTIONS
FIRST CLAIMED BY SPAIN-DE SOTO'S EXPEDITION-FRENCH EXPLORATIONS-MAR- QUETTE AND JOLIET-LA SALLE'S EXPEDITIONS-THE MEXICAN CESSION- ANNEXATION OF TEXAS-OREGON BOUNDARY DISPUTE-NEBRASKA-TERRITORY OF DAKOTA1-IDAHO-RECAPITULAATION.
The first civilized nation to lay claim to the territory now comprising the State of Wyoming was Spain. In 1493, the year following the first voyage of Columbus to the Western Hemisphere, the pope granted to the King and Queen of Spain "all countries inhabited by infidels." As the American aborigines were not Christians in the accepted meaning of the term, they were regarded as infidels and the country was made subject to exploitation by the Spanish mon- archs. At that time the extent of the continent discovered by Columbus was not known, but in a vague way this papal grant included the present State of Wyoming.
DE SOTO'S EXPEDITION
The uncertain grant of the pope to "infidel countries" was strengthened in 1541-42 by the expedition of Hernando de Soto into the interior of what is now the United States. De Soto was born in Spain about four years after Columbus made his first voyage of discovery and had been connected with some of the early expeditions to Peru, in which service he demonstrated his qualifications to command and won the favor of his royal master. In the spring of 1538 Charles I, then King of Spain, appointed him governor of Florida and Cuba. Acting under orders from King Charles, he left Cuba on May 12, 1539, with abont one thousand men, for the purpose of exploring the interior of Florida, the extent of which was at that time very indefinite.
Early in June he left the coast and marched in a northwesterly direction. At a place called Tascaluza by the survivors of the ill-fated expedition, he met a large body of hostile Indians and gave them battle. The fight lasted for several hours, when the savages fled, leaving a large number of their warriors dead upon the field. The Spanish loss was seventy killed and a number wounded. De Soto himself being among the latter. Like nearly all the early Spanish explorers, De Soto's chief object was to discover rich mines of the precious metals. After wandering about in the wilderness for several months he came to the Mississippi River in the spring of 1541, not far from the present City of Memphis, Tennessee. He then made an effort to reach the Spanish settle-
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ments in Mexico, but was stricken with fever, died near the mouth of the Arkan- sas River, and was buried in the great stream he had discovered. The remnant of the expedition, after many hardships, succeeded in reaching the Gulf coast and made a report of their adventures. Upon this report Spain claimed "all the territory bordering on the Grande River and the Gulf of Mexico."
FRENCH EXPLORATIONS
As early as 1611 Jesuit missionaries from the French settlements in Canada were among the Indians living along the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. A few years later the King of France granted a charter of the "Company of One Hundred" to engage in the fur trade. In 1634 the company sent Jean Nicollet as an agent to open up a trade with the Indians. He explored the country about the Green Bay, and went as far west as the Fox River, in what is now the State of Wisconsin. Nicollet is said to have been the first man to make a report upon the region west of the Great Lakes.
In the fall of 1665 Claude Allouez, one of the most zealous of the Jesuit fathers, held a council with representatives of several of the western tribes of In- dians at the Chippewa Village on the southern shore of Lake Superior. Allouez promised the chiefs of the Chippewa, Sioux, Sac, Fox, Pottawatomi and Illini-the tribes represented at the council-the protection of the great French father and opened the way for a profitable trade. At this council some of the Illini and Sioux chiefs told the missionary of a great river farther to the westward, "called by them the Me-sa-sip-pi, which they said no white man had yet seen (these Indians knew nothing of De Soto's expedition of more than a century before). and along which fur-bearing animals abounded." This was the first definite information the French received regarding the great Father of Waters.
In 1668 Father Allouez and Father Claude Dablon founded the mission of St. Mary's, the oldest white settlement within the limits of the present State of Michigan. The French authorities in Canada, influenced by the reports Nicollet and the missionaries, sent Nicholas Perrot as the accredited agent of the French Government to arrange for a grand council with the Indians. The council was held at St. Mary's in May, 1671, and friendly relations with the tribes inhabiting the country about the Strait of Mackinac were thus established. Before the close of that year Jacques Marquette, another Jesuit missionary, founded the mission at Point St. Ignace for the benefit of the Huron Indians. For many years this mission was regarded as the key to the great unexplored West. Thus little by little the French pushed their way westward toward the great Mississippi Valley.
MARQUETTE AND JOLIET
Father Marquette had heard the reports of the great river to the westward, soon after the council at the Chippewa Village in 1665, and was filled with a desire to discover it, but was deterred from the undertaking until after Perrot's council in May, 1671. Although that council resulted in the establishment of friendly relations with the Indians, which would have made an expedition to the river possible, other circumstances intervened to delay him for almost two
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years. In the spring of 1673, having received the necessary authority from the Canadian officials, he began his preparations at Michilimackinac for the voyage. It is related that the friendly Indians there tried to dissuade him from the project by telling him that the tribes living along the river were cruel and blood- thirsty, and that the stream was the abode of terrible monsters that could easily swallow a canoe loaded with men.
These stories had no effect upon the intrepid priest, unless it was to make him more determined, and on May 13, 1673, accompanied by Louis Joliet, an explorer and trader, with five voyageurs or boatmen and two large canoes, the little expedition left Michilimackinac. Passing up the Green Bay to the mouth of the Fox River, they ascended that stream to the portage, crossed over to the Wisconsin River, down which they floated until June 17, 1673, when their canoes shot out upon the broad bosom of the Mississippi. Turning their canoes south- ward, they descended the Mississippi, carefully noting the landmarks as they went along, until they reached the mouth of the Arkansas. There they met with a tribe of Indians whose language they could not understand and decided to proceed no further. Retracing their steps, they arrived at the French settle- ments about Michilimackinac after an absence of four months, during which time they had traveled about two thousand five hundred miles.
Joliet was a good topographer and he prepared a map of the region through which he and Marquette had passed. The map and the reports of the voyage, when presented to the Canadian authorities, convinced them that the Mississippi River was not a myth, and it was not long until steps were taken to claim the country drained by it for France.
LA SALLE'S EXPEDITIONS
The year following the voyage of Marquette and Joliet, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was granted the seigneury of Fort Frontenac, where the City of Kingston, Canada, is now situated, and on May 12, 1678, he received from Louis XIV, then King of France, a permit to continue the explorations of Marquette and Joliet, "find a port for the king's ships in the Gulf of Mexico, discover the western parts of New France, and find a way to penetrate Mexico."
Late in the year 1678 La Salle made his first attempt to reach and descend the Mississippi, but it ended in failure, mainly for the reason that his prepara- tions had not been made with sufficient care. Affairs at his seigneury then claimed his attention for about three years, though he did not relinquish the idea of finding and exploring the great river. In December, 1681, he started upon his second, and what proved to be his successful expedition. This time he was accompanied by his lieutenant, Henri de Tonti; Jacques de la Metarie, a notary ; Jean Michel, surgeon of the expedition ; Father Zenobe Membre, a Recollet mis- sionary ; and "a number of Frenchmen bearing arms."
It is not necessary to follow this little band of explorers through all its vicissitudes and hardships in the dead of winter and a wild, unexplored coun- try. Suffice it to say that the river was reached, and was descended to its mouth. On April 8, 1682, La Salle and Tonti passed through two of the channels at the mouth of the Mississippi leading to the Gulf of Mexico. The next day they came together again and La Salle formally took possession of "all the country
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drained by the great river and its tributaries, in the name of France, and con- ferred upon the territory thus claimed the name of Louisiana, in honor of the French King."
To the casual reader it may seem that the early French explorations have little or nothing to do with the present State of Wyoming. But it should be borne in mind that the voyage of Marquette and Joliet opened the way for the later voyage of La Salle and his claim to the country drained by the Missis- sippi, under which all that portion of Wyoming whose waters reach the Mis- sissippi became a dependency of France. Spain had made no effort to enforce her claim, based upon the discovery of the river by De Soto, and the European powers recognized the claim of France, based upon the work of La Salle. In 1762 France ceded the Province of Louisiana to Spain, which nation retained possession until 1800, when it was ceded back to France, and in 1803 it was sold by France to the United States, an account of which is given in the next chapter. By this sale the greater part of Wyoming became territory of the United States and the way was opened for its present status.
THE MEXICAN CESSION
Mexico once owned the territory comprising the present states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, the western part of Colorado and the southwest corner of Wyoming. When James K. Polk was inaugurated President on March 4, 1845, it soon became the dream of his administration to acquire California, though the means by which the dream was to be realized were uncer- tain. The territory might be acquired by conquest : it might be secured by filling it with emigrants from the United States, who would bring it into the Union as Texas had been annexed ; or it might be possible to win the good will of the citizens, who were already chafing under Mexican rule. Early in 1846 John C. Fremont's expedition entered the Sacramento Valley and introduced a fourth plan for the acquisition of the country. Fremont established an independent government, known as the "Bear Flag Republic," under the control of the Ameri- can settlers in the valley. When war was declared against Mexico by Congress on May 13, 1846, the "Bear Flag" was replaced by the Stars and Stripes.
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