A Doomed Plains' Peace

As a result of the Great Pow-Wow of 1851, the Indians of the Plains would no longer be permitted to range far and freely in pursuit of buffalo.  Instead they would be hemmed into specific areas where the government would force them to give up their land bit by bit.  They would be forced to subsist on government handouts or become farmers.  Days after Colonel Mitchell's speech,  the tribal chiefs agreed to the government's demands,  and on September 17th a primary chief from each tribe made his mark on the treaty the white man had drawn up.  It was a sad day for the Indian, although they didn't know it yet.

Many looked upon the treaty at Horse Creek as the beginning of a new era of harmony in the Plains.  Congress, however, immediately reduced the number of years that the Indians would receive the government stipend.  The tribes were forced to compete among themselves for hunting grounds with the declining number of buffalo. 

Indian Agent, Thomas Fitzpatrick wrote in 1853, just two years after the treaty...
"they are in abject want of food half the year,  the travel on the roads drives the buffalo off or confines them to a narrow path during the period of emigration and the different tribes are forced to contend with hostile nations.  Their women are pinched with want and their children constantly crying with hunger."

Clearly something was bound to happen.  In 1854 a minor incident set off the powder keg.  A pioneer traveling the Oregon Trail lost a cow which a young Sioux found and butchered for food.  The owner demanded $25 payment, the Sioux offered $10.  A young lieutenant at Fort Laramie nearby, John L. Grattan, was eager for glory and had little love for Indians.  He persuaded his commanding officer to let him lead a group of 30 troopers to the Sioux camp to arrest the " cow thief". When the Sioux didn't cooperate, Grattan opened fire and killed the Sioux chief.  The Indians, enraged and betrayed, surrounded the white group and killed every one of the 30 men.

The peace of the Plains was broken...

Next time...The Indian Agent
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 28, 1542, the Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovers San Diego Bay while searching for the Strait of Anian, a mythical all-water route across North America.  Though San Diego Bay–as well as all the other inlets he subsequently explored–never led to the mythic Strait of Anian, Cabrillo did succeed in mapping many of the most important features of the California coast, though he missed discovering San Francisco Bay.