Rising Trouble on the Plains

Black Kettle escaped the carnage of Sand Creek and fled eastward into Kansas with a few of his braves.  The old Cheyenne Chief continued to stand for peace with the whites but few heeded his words.  A common feelings was more, "What do we live for? The white man has taken our country, killed our game, was not satisfied with that, but killed our wives and children.  Now no peace.  We have raised the battle until death," as one chief said to a white man.

The year of 1864 was not over and the Sand Creek tale had spread across the plains.  In December 2,000 Cheyenne, Sioux and Arapaho braves gathered along the banks of Cherry Creek in Colorado.
Their plan was retaliation.  Three years of warfare followed, where small Indian war parties went through the grasslands, raiding settlements and wagon trains, setting houses on fire and cutting down the pioneers as they went about their daily life.

The federal government was taken by surprise with the escalating violence.  Eastern humanitarians were outraged at the massacre of Sand Creek natives.  They called for an immediate halt to the hostilities, and in 1867 (3 years late!)  Congress authorized a peace commission to meet with the tribal representatives in order to "remove the causes of war; secure the frontier settlements and railroad constructions, and establish a system for civilizing the tribes."  This peace commission took place in the fall at Medicine Lodge Creek in Kansas with leaders of Kiowa, Arapaho, Cheyenne present.

The negotiations as usual, brushed over the fundamental misunderstandings with fine words, but this time the government was determined to find a solution.  The obvious white man's view was to resettle all the Indians permanently on fixed reservations.  There were two they had in mind - the Black Hills region for northern tribes, and the Indian Territory for the southern tribes.

The terms were similar to the 1851 Horse Creek treaty - the government would provide food and supplies in exchange for the tribes promising to permit the whites free passage through these territories, allow construction of roads and railroads, stop their raiding and remain on the assigned reservation except for hunting season.

It was not a treaty either side could uphold.  It robbed the Plains Indians of their free-roaming way of life, and imposed upon the government huge financial responsibilities.  The Indians had nothing left but to fight...in 1868 the grasslands from Kansas to Texas erupted.

Next time...Custer fights in Washita
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Today in Pioneer History: "On December  26, 1820, hoping to recover from bankruptcy with a bold scheme of colonization, Moses Austin meets with Spanish authorities in San Antonio to ask permission for 300 Anglo-American families to settle in Texas.