The Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho cede lands in the Treaty of Fort Wise.
In preparation for Colorado statehood, U. S. negotiators compel the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho to give up claim to nearly all their lands in Colorado Territory, in the Treaty of Fort Wise. The Indians retain only a small tract of land along the Arkansas River at Sand Creek, in what is now southeastern Colorado.
Cynthia Ann Parker with her daughter Topsannah, photographed after Parker was taken from her Comanche family. Her short hairstyle is a traditional Comanche symbol of mourning. (Joseph Taulman Collection, CN 805, The Center for American History, The University ofTexas at Austin)
Although the government intends for the Indians to abandon buffalo hunting and become settled farmers, the lands at Sand Creek are too infertile to sustain the tribes. Starving and suffering from an epidemic of smallpox, Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho hunters will soon ignore orders to stay within the reservation boundaries as they go off in search of buffalo herds.
Cochise escapes from U. S. soldiers in the Cut-the-Tent Affair.
At the request of U. S. Army lieutenant George Bas-com, Chiricahua Apache leader Cochise agrees to
Meet with Bascom and his men. Unbeknownst to Cochise, Bascom is convinced that he is responsible for raiding a ranch of a local white man and abducting his children. When confronted by Bascom, Cochise denies any involvement in the raid. Sensing his life is in danger, the Apache slips out a knife and cuts a hole in the meeting tent, through which he escapes from the soldiers. The Cut-the-Tent affair confirms to the Chiricahua that the U. S. Army is not to be trusted.
Soldiers leave the western frontier with the outbreak of the Civil War.
With the beginning of the Civil War, the U. S. Army recalls soldiers in the West to help fight the Confederate rebels. Troops policing the western frontier are replaced by volunteers recruited by state and territorial governments. From 1860 to 1865, these volunteer armies will grow from 11 to 20,000 troops. The recruitment of these zealous volunteers will result in increasing tension and violence as they lead brutal attacks against Indian raiders on the Plains and in the Southwest.
The Confederacy negotiates treaties with Indian Territory tribes.
As the federal troops withdraw from Indian Territory (see entry for APRIL 1861), Confederate agents arrive and begin meeting with leaders of the tribes there to persuade them to become their allies. Many of the largest groups—including the so-called Five Civilized Tribes—had originally lived in the South and therefore already had close ties to the Confederates.
The agents are able to secure treaties with four of the Five Civilized Tribes (the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole) as well as with Quapaw, Seneca, Caddo, Wichita, Osage, and Shawnee. The only major holdout is the Cherokee tribe, whose principal chief, John Ross, advocates neutrality (see entry for OCTOBER 1861). In the treaties, the Confederacy pledges to protect the Indians’ land from invasions by Union troops. It also promises to let the Indians participate in the Confederate government in the event of a southern victory. The tribes in return agree to organize troops for Indian Territory’s defense.
Seventeen Navajo (Dineh) are killed in the Fort Fauntleroy Massacre.
According to the terms of a treaty made with Major Edward R. S. Canby (see entry for APRIL 30, 1860) in February, a group of Navajo (Dineh) arrive at Fort Fauntleroy in present-day New Mexico to collect food rations. As usual on ration day, the Navajo and soldiers at the fort hold a series of horse races. During one race, a Navajo rider loses control of his horse because the rein on its bridle had been cut with a knife. The Navajo accuse the soldiers of cheating, and in the confusion that follows soldiers fire into the crowd, shooting 12 women and children. The fort commander, Colonel Marcus Chaves, orders his men to shoot howitzers at the fleeing Indians.
Chaves, who in the past had raided Navajo settlements to capture Indians to sell as slaves, maintains that the Navajo had tried to rush the fort. Even though an investigation proves Chaves’s claim false, efforts to court-martial the officer fail.
Cherokee leader John Ross decides to side with the Confederacy.
Despite pressure from Confederate authorities and their Cherokee sympathizers, John Ross, principal chief of the Cherokee, adopts a policy of neutrality in the American Civil War (see entry for SUMMER 1861). He, however, reconsiders his position when Confederacy supporter Stand Watie threatens to incite a civil war within the tribe over the issue. Also fearing that southern troops might invade a neutral Cherokee Nation, Ross signs a treaty declaring the Cherokee’s allegiance to the Confederate cause. (See also entry for SUMMER 1862.)
“In years long since past, our ancestors met undaunted those who would invade their mountain homes beyond the Mississippi; let not their descendants of the present day be found unworthy of them, or unable to stand by the chivalrous men of the South by whose side they may be called to fight in self defense.
The Cherokee people do not desire to be involved in war, but self-preservation fully justifies them in the course they have adopted, and they will be recreant to themselves if they do not sustain it to the utmost of their humble abilities.”
—Cherokee principal chief John Ross on his tribe’s allegiance to the Confederacy
Creek led by Opothle Yoholo are defeated in the Battle of Round Mountain.
The wealthiest Creek in Indian Territory, Opothle Yoholo, speaks out against the Creek’s support of the Confederacy (see entry for SUMMER 1861). He asks why the Creek would become allies of the same southerners who had forced them out of their homelands less than 25 years before. Declaring that the Creek should stay neutral, Opothle Yoholo attracts several thousand followers.
Fearing attack, Opothle Yoholo and his people flee to Kansas. On the way, they are confronted by Confederate troops several times before they are finally defeated in the Battle of
Round Mountain. Opothle Yoholo’s followers scatter after the battle, but they do not give up their opposition to the South. Instead, many join the Union army and help invade the lands of the Confederate-allied Cherokee (see entry for SUM MER 1862).
World History
