The Last American FrontierPaxson, Frederic L. (Frederic Logan)
History
The Last American Frontier
Paxson, Frederic L. (Frederic Logan)
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); West (U.S.) -- History
After the battle at Sand Creek, the southwest tribes agreed to a
series of treaties in 1865 by which new reserves were promised them
on the borderland of Kansas and Indian Territory. These treaties were
so amended by the Senate that for a time the tribes had no admitted
homes or rights save the guaranteed hunting privileges on the plains
south of the Platte. They seem generally to have been peaceful during
1866, in spite of the rather shabby treatment which the neglect
of Congress procured for them. In 1867 uneasiness became apparent.
Agent E. W. Wynkoop, of Sand Creek fame, was now in charge of the
Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Apache tribes in the vicinity of Fort Larned,
on the Santa Fé trail in Kansas. In 1866 they had "complained of the
government not having fulfilled its promises to them, and of numerous
impositions practised upon them by the whites." Some of their younger
braves had gone on the war-path. But Wynkoop claimed to have quieted
them, and by March, 1867, thought that they were "well satisfied and
quiet, and anxious to retain the peaceful relations now existing."
The military authorities at Fort Dodge, farther up the Arkansas and
near the old Santa Fé crossing, were less certain than Wynkoop that
the Indians meant well. Little Raven, of the Arapaho, and Satanta,
"principal chief" of the Kiowa, were reported as sending in insulting
messages to the troops, ordering them to cut no more wood, to leave
the country, to keep wagons off the Santa Fé trail. Occasional thefts
of stock and forays were reported along the trail. Custer thought that
there was "positive evidence from the agents themselves" that the
Indians were guilty, the trouble only being that Wynkoop charged the
guilt on the Kiowa and Comanche, while J. H. Leavenworth, agent for
these tribes, asserted their innocence and accused the wards of Wynkoop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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