Preparations for the winter campaign were observed by a visiting delegation of Japanese army officers at Camp Robinson before Crook and Mackenzie moved their forces to Fort Fetterman where the campaign would begin. In the meantime General Miles transported fresh troops to the northern plains by Missouri River steamboat. Miles fought several engagements with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Crook sent Mackenzie and the cavalry and Pawnee Scouts on ahead of his main column and in late November they routed and destroyed Dull Knife’s Cheyenne village, moving relentlessly to crush the hostiles’ resistance. In September 1876, long before the winter victories, the successful purchase of the Black Hills was negotiated by a new commission headed by George Manypenny. This Black Hills treaty was signed at Red Cloud Agency September 26. The commission met the Indians at each agency separately, thus depriving them of the solidarity of numbers. It also took advantage of the fact that the hostiles were not present to create confusion. The Indians later claimed that the use of whiskey, bribes, threats of loss of all rations and false impressions of the terms of the treaty were methods employed by the commission, and the validity of the treaty was questioned. The treaty of 1868 had provided for a specific proportion of signatures to validate future treaties, and in 1876 only forty Indian signatures were obtained at Red Cloud, whereas it was later estimated some 2,267 were needed. However, the Black Hills passed to U.S. ownership. THE HOSTILES SURRENDER The winter successes of the Crook-Mackenzie and Miles campaigns foreshadowed the end of the Sioux War. In April one thousand Sioux hostiles led by Touch the Clouds surrendered at Spotted Tail Agency and Dull Knife brought his Cheyenne in to Camp Robinson. The final total of hostiles who surrendered at Camps Robinson and Sheridan reached almost 4,500 people.[21] Emissaries to the hostile camps brought back word that Crazy Horse was on the way in and on May 6, 1877 he and his followers, 889 men, women and children, surrendered at Camp Robinson. They gave up some 2,000 ponies, and the 217 men turned in 117 guns and pistols. The impressive surrender march of Crazy Horse’s band was described by the officer who met the hostiles: