Trails, Forts, Treaties and Indian Wars
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Trails, Forts Treaties, and Indian Wars offer quintessential depictions of the early Kansas trails from historical accounts and individual experiences. The author describes what it was like to travel along the Santa Fe Trail as a bullwhacker, Indian fighter, and freighter. The book has ten chapters providing accounts of the early Cheyenne Indian culture and Kansas's westward expansion from the earliest conflicts to the establishment of military forts along the trails. This book features legendary figures from both sides, including Roman Nose and Jack Stilwell at the Battle of Beecher Island and private Peck and First, Lt. J. E. B. Stuart in the Solomon Fork's Battle.
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1846 - 1848
After the Mexican War of 1846-48, the U.S. government took measures to protect the Santa Fe Trail by establishing several forts along the Arkansas. This was followed by the Mormon exodus to Utah in 1847 and the discovery of gold in California in 1849. The now-endless stream of immigrants on the overland trails brought cholera to the southern plains. Conservative estimates suggest that nearly half of the Cheyenne population perished during the ensuing epidemic; one of the victims was William Bent's wife. With the Indian trade in decline, Bent offered his Adobe fort for sale to the government for use as a military installation. Unable to obtain a satisfactory price, though, he blew up his fort in August 1849 and moved his stores farther down the Arkansas River. Bent relocated near the Big Timbers, where he built a stone fort on the north bank. He leased this compound to the United States in 186o. Originally named FortWise, it became Fort Lyon in 1861.
In 1851 the United States established the boundaries of the Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho lands in the Treaty of Fort Laramie. The assigned reserve lay roughly between the North Platte and Arkansas rivers, bordered on the west by the Rocky Mountains and east by the Santa Fe Trail crossing of the Arkansas River. The Indians accepted this treaty in consideration of annuities. They pledged to remain at peace, to permit immigration along the trails, and stay within their land's boundaries. The Indians recognized this treaty despite the Senate's ratification that reduced the annuity term from fifty years to fifteen.
1856 - 1857
The Cheyennes and Arapahos abstained from hostilities against settlers and immigrants for nearly ten years after the Fort Laramie Treaty. But occasional clashes between the Indians and the army did take place. For example, in April 1856, troops plundered and burned a Cheyenne village after the occupants refused to give up a stray horse. That same year six Cheyennes were killed in Nebraska without apparent provocation. In retaliation, the Cheyennes and Arapahos made several forays on the overland trails.
In 1857 an expedition was organized to admonish the Cheyennes for past depredations perpetrated along the Platte and Arkansas. In July, Col. Edwin V. Sumner attacked and overpowered the Indians at the Solomon Fork in Kansas. After scorching their village, he seized their annuities stored at Bent's Fort. During the same year, a small party of Missouri gold seekers discovered gold in Colorado's Pike's Peak region. Tormented by Indians, the Missourians left the mountains and returned to the States to organize a large party of miners.
In 1857 an expedition was organized to admonish the Cheyennes for past depredations perpetrated along the Platte and Arkansas. In July, Col. Edwin V. Sumner attacked and overpowered the Indians at the Solomon Fork in Kansas. After scorching their village, he seized their annuities stored at Bent's Fort. During the same year, a small party of Missouri gold seekers discovered gold in Colorado's Pike's Peak region. Tormented by Indians, the Missourians left the mountains and returned to the States to organize a large party of miners.
1858: Gold and the Overland Trail
The news of the gold discovery spread like wildfire in 1858 and threw the frontier into a frenzied excitement. Denver City was born in the same year, and in the following spring and summer, as many as one hundred thousand whites crossed the plains for the foothills of Colorado. Several gold discoveries were made, the richest being on the placers along Cherry Creek near Denver. Against the protestations of the Indians, the whites founded cities, established farms, and opened roads in the Indian lands, all in clear violation of the treaty articles. The United States made no genuine attempt to enforce the agreement. Within a few months, the settlers began to demand protection against the Indians, who now found themselves the objects of jealousy and hatred.
1867: Hancock's War
Indian hostilities on the Kansas frontier erupted again in 1867. That April Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock led an expedition down the Smoky Hill River to impress the Indians with a show of force. Hancock seemed ignorant of Indian matters and proved inept at commanding such an expedition, his belligerent attitude immediately alarming the Indians. Fearing another massacre, the Cheyennes and their allies fled their village at the Pawnee Fork, which Hancock promptly burned. In retaliation for this unprovoked act, the Indians attacked the Smoky Hill Road. Engineers had advanced the Kansas Pacific Railroad westward into the Cheyenne buffalo range by this time. The Indians immediately began a series of depredations all along the line, which halted further construction and disrupted all travel for four months.
October 1867: Medicine Lodge Treaty
In October, the United States induced the Indians to sign a new accord, the Medicine Lodge Treaty. The agreement set aside two reserves for the Indians. The first lay north of Nebraska, where the Sioux were later relocated. The second lay south of the Arkansas and was known as Indian Territory. This southern reserve was the old lands of the "Five Civilized Tribes," which had been taken from them in 1866 for siding with the Confederacy. By acceptance of this treaty, the Cheyennes and Arapahos were now confined to a small reservation of barren land and brackish water between the Cimarron River and the southern border of Kansas.
1868: Sheridan's Winter Campaign
As a result of the hostilities of 1868, U.S. peace commissioners recommended that the management of the Indians be transferred to the War Department for military action. Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, the new commander of the Department of the Missouri, planned the subsequent campaign. His policy embraced a concentration of peaceful bands south of the Arkansas and a relentless war against all others. In September, Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully was ordered to invade the region south of the Arkansas to engage the hostiles. At the same time, Maj. George A. Forsyth and a party of fifty frontiersmen were to take the field in the western part of Kansas. Both operations turned out to be unsuccessful. Sully conducted his slow-moving expedition from the comfortable seat of an ambulance and was nearly trapped by the Indians at the Canadian River. Forsyth's force was besieged on a small island in the dry bed of the Arikaree Fork and barely escaped annihilation.
In October 1868, Sheridan received approval from the War Department to commence a winter campaign. This offensive called for the concerted operation of three separate columns. One from Fort Bascom, New Mexico, was to descend the Canadian River. The second was to march southeast from Fort Lyon toward the North Canadian. Sheridan's main force was to strike south into Indian Territory from Camp Supply. This third column consisted of army regulars of the Seventh Cavalry and a regiment of volunteers. The Nineteenth Kansas was mustered at Topeka and led by former governor Samuel J. Crawford.
In October 1868, Sheridan received approval from the War Department to commence a winter campaign. This offensive called for the concerted operation of three separate columns. One from Fort Bascom, New Mexico, was to descend the Canadian River. The second was to march southeast from Fort Lyon toward the North Canadian. Sheridan's main force was to strike south into Indian Territory from Camp Supply. This third column consisted of army regulars of the Seventh Cavalry and a regiment of volunteers. The Nineteenth Kansas was mustered at Topeka and led by former governor Samuel J. Crawford.