Father De Smet's Peace Initiative
Father Peter John De Smet, a Jesuit Roman Catholic priest who had worked closely with a variety of Indian groups since 1838, was convinced that war for the Indians meant extinction. He consequently set out on April 21, 1868, to persuade Sitting Bull to discuss peace with members of the Indian Peace Commission that was established by the U. S. Congress on July 20, 1867.
When Sitting Bull learned that the Black Robe’s party was on its way, he sent a delegation of 18 men to accompany and protect the visitor. On June 19, Father De Smet neared the camp, where he was met by Sitting Bull and some 400 warriors dressed in their best and singing in greeting. The most prestigious of the Hunkpapas joined Sitting Bull in this extraordinary reception, including Four Horns and Gall; the latter was a longtime friend of Sitting Bull who eventually would turn against him during their reservation years. Unfurled on the priest’s carriage was a large banner, De Smet’s “standard of peace”; it depicted the Virgin Mary surrounded by stars on one side of the banner and the name of Jesus printed on the other. The Virgin Mary was a reassuring and popular image among the Hunkpapas, who related to her as someone similar to White Buffalo Woman, who according to Lakota belief had descended from Wakan-tanka with the gift of the sacred Buffalo Calf Pipe.
On June 20, a large council lodge was constructed of 10 tipis. The crowd was immense, perhaps numbering 5,000, and probably included many people from other Lakota tribes, who gathered to hear what the Black Robe had to say. De Smet spoke with great conviction, urging his listeners to stop fighting and meet with the commissioners at Fort Rice. He then had the Holy Virgin banner set up in the lodge and said that he would leave it as a sign of his commitment to the welfare of the Sioux.
Black Moon, a cousin of Sitting Bull’s, gave an answering address, expressing respect for De Smet’s message but also citing a range of Euro-American injustices, including establishing forts, slaughtering buffalo, cutting timber, and, of course, killing Indians. Sitting Bull then spoke. He announced that Hunkpapa representatives would return with Father De Smet to Fort Rice near the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri Rivers in North Dakota to meet with the commissioners and reiterated his desire to be a friend to his current enemies.
After finishing, Sitting Bull shook hands with Father De Smet. As soon as Sitting Bull sat down, though, he jumped back up to say that he had forgotten certain points he wanted to make. He asserted that he would not sell any portion of his land and repeated some of his enduring conditions for peace: abandonment of forts and an end to cutting of timber along the Missouri River. These final comments elicited great applause from his audience.
The council had been an extraordinary event, bringing together two of the greatest spiritual leaders of nineteenth-century America, the revered Wichasha
Wakan, Sitting Bull, and the dedicated Jesuit, Father De Smet. The two men genuinely respected and liked each other, but their respective aspirations for peace—noble but essentially incompatible within that historical moment— were doomed to failure.
After saying Mass early in the morning of June 21, Father De Smet started his return journey to Fort Rice, accompanied by a group of lesser chiefs, including Gall and Bull Owl. Sitting Bull and a group of akicitas rode along as far as Powder River, both to protect and to honor the Black Robe. Sitting Bull then shook hands with De Smet, reaffirmed his comments of the previous day, and returned to his village. He had instructed Gall to accept no presents, listen to the commissioners, and tell them that they must remove the soldiers and stop the steamboats from coming up the rivers. Sitting Bull had promised to accept the decisions made by Gall and the rest of the contingent in council, but he clearly expected any agreement to include his often stated requirements, which he considered non-negotiable.
The Fort Laramie Treaty
Gall told the commissioners (Generals Alfred Terry, William S. Harney, and John B. Sanborn) what his people expected them to do. He then signed the Fort Laramie Treaty, making his mark by, according to the common expression, “touching the pen.” On the treaty Gall is noted by another name of his, The Man That Goes in the Middle.
The Fort Laramie Treaty established the Great Sioux Reservation in the Dakota Territory west of the Missouri River. It identified the land north of the North Platte River and east of the Bighorn Mountains (roughly eastern Wyoming) as “unceded Indian territory” open to the Sioux for hunting as long as enough buffalo still roamed there “in such numbers as to justify the chase.” The treaty promised that “no white person or persons” would be permitted to enter the area without permission of the Sioux. A provision especially important to the Oglala chief Red Cloud was included, declaring that the forts along the Bozeman Trail, which stretched from Julesburg, Colorado, to the gold fields in Montana, would be vacated. A provision that later would prove troublesome to the government stipulated that no reservation land could be taken without approval of “three-fourths of all adult male Indians occupying or interested in the same....” The Indians, in exchange, would cease warfare and maintain peace.1
The Fort Laramie Treaty did not meet Sitting Bull’s requirements, yet Gall signed it on July 2, seemingly doing an about-face after previously stating his position. Most likely, Gall, who was unable to read the treaty, assumed that it included what he had said it was to include and did not understand that the treaty had been completely drafted prior to his statement.
The Fort Laramie Treaty offered Sitting Bull several options: become a reservation Indian, try to compromise with the Euro-Americans while retaining
As much of the old way of life as possible, or hold fast to Lakota traditions and culture. Sitting Bull chose the third option.
World History
