In 1865, in the wake of the Sand Creek Massacre (see entry for NOVEMBER 29, 1864), three congressional committees were charged with evaluating the condition of Indian tribes in the West. The factfinding mission was headed by Wisconsin senator James R. Doolittle, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
The findings of the commission are published in the Doolittle Report, which challenges the wisdom of a military solution to Indian-white conflicts on the Plains. Concluding that the declining buffalo population and increasing incursions by whites have left Indians desperate, the report recommends that Indians be placed on reservations where they can be taught to farm and adopt white values and customs. The document holds the germ of the Peace Policy (see entry for JANUARY 25, 1869), which will soon dominate the United States’s dealings with western tribes.
The Lakota and Cheyenne are attacked during the Hancock campaign.
A military expedition headed by Major General Winfield Scott Hancock is sent to frighten the
The U. S. Peace Commission is formed to end Plains conflicts.
Alarmed by the Fetterman Fight (see entry for DECEMBER 21, 1866), Congress establishes a commission, headed by Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, to negotiate peace settlements with the Indians of the Plains. By creating the commission, the U. S. government implicitly acknowledges the military’s failure to subdue the warriors led by Red Cloud, who have been waging war against troops stationed along the Bozeman Trail (see entry for JULY 1866). Some members of Congress, particularly those from the West, denounce the decision, favoring a stronger military presence over negotiation with the Indians. (See also entries for JANUARY 1868 and OCTOBER 7 TO 8, 1868.)
The Dominion of Canada is established.
The British North America Act establishes the four Canadian colonies (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario) as the Dominion of Canada. In Canada’s new constitution, the federal government in Ottawa is charged with all negotiations with the 23,000 indigenous people within the dominion’s borders. The government is also responsible for administering reserves, lands set aside for Indian use.
The Cheyenne and Lakota battle U. S. troops in the Hayfield and Wagon Box Fights.
On August 1, a Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux war party falls on a group of whites cutting hay near Fort C. F. Smith on the Bozeman Trail (see entry for JULY 1866). The haycutters and about 20 troops guarding them retreat into a small log corral they built for protection in case of Indian attack. Armed with new breech-loading rifles, the soldiers are able to hold off the warriors until reinforcements arrive.
The following day, Lakota warriors led by Red Cloud attack about 30 soldiers near Fort Phil Kearny, the target of the Fetterman Fight a year before (see entry for DECEMBER 21, 1866). The troops are guarding whites loading logs into wagon boxes on an open plain at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains. Barricading themselves behind the wagon boxes, the soldiers, like those in the previous day’s fight, suffer few casualties, largely because of their superior weaponry. Popularly known as the Hayfield Fight and the Wagon Box Fight, these two encounters will be the last major conflicts of Red Cloud’s War.
Alaska becomes part of the United States.
By the terms of the Treaty of Cession with Russia, Alaska becomes the property of the United States. In return, the United States agrees to pay Russia $7.2 million. Russia’s right to sell the territory is questionable, however, because it has never entered negotiations with Alaskan Natives for the cession of their territory. The United States similarly makes no effort to compensate the natives for their land. Also without their consultation or knowledge, the treaty stipulates that the “uncivilized tribes” of Alaska will be subject to whatever laws the United States chooses to apply to them.
U. S. Peace Commission meets with Plains tribes at Medicine Lodge Creek.
Five thousand Kiowa, Comanche, Southern Arap-aho, and Southern Cheyenne Indians meet near
Fort Larned in Kansas at the invitation of the U. S. Peace Commission (see entry for JULY 1867). Accompanied by some 600 soldiers, the commissioners hope to reach a settlement that will end the conflicts with these tribes and guarantee that railroads can be built through their lands without interference.
“All the chiefs of the Kiowas, Comanches, and Arapahos are here today; they have come to listen to good words. We have been waiting here a long time to see you and are getting tired. All the land south of Arkansas belongs to the Kiowas and Comanches, and I don't want to give away any of it. I love the land and the buffalo and will not part with it. I want you to understand well what I say. Write it on paper. Let the Great Father [U. S. president] see it, and let me hear what he has to say.”
—Kiowa leader Satanta during the negotiation of the Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek
Under a shaded arbor, the commissioners deliver speeches in which they insist that the Indians cede the majority of their hunting lands in exchange for reservations. The Indians are resistant, but Kiowa and Comanche leaders, offered many gifts and eager to end the conference, sign the commissioners’ treaty. The agreement relinquishes the tribes’ claim to 90 million acres for firm title to nearly 3 million acres of land in Indian Territory, which was forfeited by the Five Civilized Tribes in their peace treaty with the United States after the Civil War (see entry for JULY 14, 1865). In the Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek, both sides also promise to live in peace with one another. However, because many Kiowa and Comanche do not consider the treaty binding, sporadic fighting will continue between the tribes and Americans throughout the next decade.
World History
