The Platte River location of Red Cloud Agency was in the unceded hunting territory defined by the treaty of 1868. Although the government desired to relocate the agency on the permanent Dakota reservation, the Oglala stubbornly refused to leave the Platte Valley. During the summer of 1873, while the more recalcitrant Indians were off on a buffalo hunt,[3] Indian Agent Daniels induced those remaining at the agency to agree to move northward to a new site on the White River. Such leaders as Sitting Bull of the South[4] were incensed at losing the line of the Platte River but were unable to prevent it. The accomplishment earned Daniels a promotion by the Episcopal Church, which nominated agents under the Peace Policy, and Dr. J. J. Saville was appointed as the new agent. Dr. Saville arrived to assume his duties while the move was in progress. During the summer and fall Saville was busy organizing his agency and staff. He removed Jules Ecoffey as agency trader, giving the appointment to his friend J. W. Dear. Construction contracts for buildings at the new site were given to A. R. Appleton, Saville’s brother-in-law. The summer and fall were relatively quiet at the agency, but winter brought increasing problems for Saville. He was troubled particularly by the hostile, northern Sioux who came to the agency for the winter. They objected to his efforts to obtain an actual count of Indians present so that issue supplies could be ordered. On one occasion, when Saville rode out on a counting attempt, a group of northern warriors led by Little Big Man and Pretty Bear surrounded him. They forcibly returned him to his office, and there held an impromptu court-martial which might have cost Saville his life had not Red Cloud intervened. Undaunted by this experience, Saville gave a feast for the Indian leaders at the agency on Christmas Day in another effort to gain assent to the counting. At this meeting he found that not only the northern Indians, but the chiefs he thought of as his supporters all opposed the counting. Saville’s other troubles included the jealousies of various chiefs and the overbearing attitude of the younger warriors who raised trouble during the issue of beef, annoyed agency workmen, and demanded payment for wood cut for use at the agency. On another occasion a group of about three hundred warriors from Red Cloud Agency threatened a group of cowboys returning to the Platte River country to pick up a herd of cattle to be delivered to the agencies. James H. Cook, one of the cowboy group, turned the potentially violent meeting into a friendly encounter by convincing the war leader that an attack on the cattlemen would have serious results. Such incidents, although causing no direct harm, created tensions around the agency.