Indians

For 250 years the Indians had been driven out of their own territory, but shortly before the Civil War they still inhabited roughly half the United States. In 1860 the survivors of most of the eastern tribes were living peacefully in Indian Territory, what is now Oklahoma. In California resided the forty-niners, and in eastern Kansas and Nebraska nearly a quarter of a million Indians dominated the land. By far the most important lived on the high plains from the Blackfoot of southwestern Canada and the Sioux of Minnesota and the Dakotas to the Cheyenne of Colorado and Wyoming and the Comanche of northern Texas, the plains tribes possessed a uniform culture. All lived by hunting the hulking American bison, or buffalo, which ranged over the plains by the millions. Although the plain Indians seemed to represent freedom, pride, and self-reliance, they had begun to fall under the sway of white power. In 1951 Thomas Fitzpatrick, a founder of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and an Indian agent, summoned a great “council” of the tribes. About 10,000 Indians representing nearly all the plains tribes gathered that September. Fitzpatrick persuaded each tribe to accept definite limits to its hunting grounds. In return the Indians were promised gifts and annual payments. This policy was known as “concentration was designed to cut down in on intertribal warfare and to enable the government to negotiate separately with each tribe. The War to Save the Buffalo started when the Kiowas had gained permission to hunt buffalo again and became angry against white hunters who were coming from Kansas down to Texas to kill thousands of buffalo. The white hunters also took only the skins leaving the bloody carcasses to rot on the plains. The first attack was May 17, 1871 when the Kiowas ambushed a train of ten freight wagons and killing seven white settlers. The tribal leaders Satanta, Satank, and Big Tree, turned themselves in to protect their tribe from receiving any punishment. Satanta and Big Tree were sentence to life imprisonment, while Satank had killed himself afraid of consequence he would have received. Lone Wolf, who became the Kiowas leader after the imprisonment of chiefs Satanta and Big Tree, got Washington to release chiefs Satanta and Big Tree, under the conduction that all Kiowas reside at Fort Sill until government says they can leave and the Kiowas had to reside their peacefully with no trouble. Lone Wolf agreed, but would regret his decision. The spring of 1873 chiefs Satanta and Big Tree were released under the supervision of a soldier guard, while the Texas governor told the Kiowas the proceedings. The Kiowas must settle down on the farms near Fort Sill. They must draw their rations and answer to a roll call every three days, they must stop their young men from raiding in Texas, they must give up their arms and ponies and raise corn like civilized Indians. Also Satanta and Big Tree are to remain in the guardhouse until the commanding officer at Fort Sill is satisfied that these conditions are carried out. Lone Wolf was bitterly disappointed, he thought he conditions were too harsh and the chiefs were still prisoners. But the chiefs were released the next day, based on the fear of a possible open war. But the Kiowas never gave up the fight to save the buffalos. On June 27, 1874 with the help of the Kwahadis tribe rode up to the Canadian river known as Adobe Walls to wipe out every white buffalo hunter, but were defeated by the whites powerful buffalo rifles. After their defeat the Kiowas retreated to Pan Duro Canyon hided sanctuary in the plains, where for a year the Kiowas and the buffalos were at peace, until the soldiers from Fort Sill captured them and took them back to the reservation. The Battle of Sand Creek occurred because of, the government showing little interest in upholding the agreements with the Indians, while putting pressure on the Omaha, Pawnee, and Yankton Sioux tribes for further concessions of territory. A goal rush into Colorado in1859 sent thousands of prospectors across the plains driving the Cheyenne and Arapaho from land guarantied them in1851. By 1860 most of Kansas and Nebraska had been cleared. In 1862, when federal troops had been pulled out of the west for service against the confederacy most for the plains Indians rose up against the whites. For five years irregular bloody battles, kept the entire area in a state of alarm. In 1864 a party of Colorado militia under the command of Colonel J.M. Chivington fell on an unsuspecting Cheyenne community at Sand Creek and killed several hundred Indians. In turn the Indians slaughtered dozens of white families, ambushed small parties, and fought many successful fights against troops and militia. They achieved their most notable triumph in December 1866, when the Oglala Sioux, under their great chief Red Cloud, wiped out a party of eighty-to soldier under Captian W. J. Fetterman. In 1874 gold was discovered in the Black Hills Indian reservation. By the next winter thousands of miners had invaded the reserved area. Alarmed by the approach of crews building the northern pacific railroad, the Sioux once again went on the warpath. Joining with non-treaty tribes to the west, they cluster together in the region of the Bighorn River, in southern Montana territory. In summer of 1876 three columns of troops went to the Bighorn Mountains to locate and trap the Sioux. The commander of one column, General Alfred H. Terry, sent ahead a small detachment of the seventh Cavalry under Colonel George A. Custer with orders to locate the Indians camp and then block their escape route into the inaccessible Bighorn Mountains. But Custer underestimating the number of the Indians, he decided to attack directly with his tiny force of 264 men. At the Little Bighorn, he found himself surrounded by 2,500 Sioux under the direction of Rain-in-the-Face, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull. He and all his men died on the field. The battle greatly excited the Indians, but did not help their cause. By autumn, do to food shortage and overwhelming numbers of soldiers, the Sioux surrendered and returned to the reservation. The Little Crow’s war occurred during the civil war, and was about the Santee Sioux fight to gain backing their land, respect and food to feed their people. Little Crow’s war is name after chief little crow of the Mdewkantons, which was one of the four divisions apart of the Santee Sioux. The other divisions were Wahpeton’s, Wahpekutes, and Sisseton. Chief