Sioux Wars
Encyclopedia
The Sioux Wars were a series of conflicts between the United States
and various subgroups of the Sioux
people that occurred in the latter half of the 19th century. The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in Wyoming
, when Sioux warriors killed several American soldiers in the Grattan Massacre
, and the final came in 1890 during the Ghost Dance War
.
After pillaging part of the nearby village of New Ulm
and attacks on Fort Ridgely
, from which the whites suffered severe losses, and the victorious Battle of Birch Coulee
on September 2, the Indians were eventually defeated on September 23 in the Battle of Wood Lake
.
Most of the warriors who took part in the fighting escaped to the west and north into Dakota Territory
to continue the conflict, while the remaining Santees surrendered on September 26 at Camp Release to the US Army. In the following war-trials 303 Indians were sentenced to death of which, after closer investigation from Washington, eventually 38 were hung in one of America's largest mass-executions on December 26 in the Town of Mankato.
In the aftermath, battles continued between Minnesota regiments and combined Lakota and Dakota forces through 1864 as Col. Henry Sibley's troops pursued the Sioux. Sibley's army defeated the Lakota and Dakota in three major battles in 1863: the Battle of Dead Buffalo Lake
on July 26, 1863; the Battle of Stony Lake
on July 28, 1863; and the Battle of Whitestone Hill
on September 3, 1863. The Sioux retreated further, but faced a United States army again in 1864. General Alfred Sully led a force from near Fort Pierre, South Dakota, and decisively defeated the Sioux at the Battle of Killdeer Mountain on July 28, 1864.
The survivors were forced to move to a small reservation on the Missouri river in central South Dakota. There, on the Crow Creek Reservation
their descendants still live today.
, including the Lakota Sioux who raided in northeast Colorado. On November 29, 1864 Colorado Volunteers under the command of Colonel John Chivington
attacked a peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho village camped on Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado. Under orders to take no prisoners the militia killed an estimated 150 men, women, and children, mutilating the dead and taking scalps and other grisly trophies of battle. The Indians at Sand Creek had been assured by the U.S. Government that they would be safe in the territory they were occupying, but anti-Indian sentiments by white settlers were running high. Later congressional investigations resulted in short-lived U.S. public outcry against the slaughter of the Native Americans.
Following the massacre the survivors joined the camps of the Northern Cheyenne on the Smokey Hill and Republican rivers. There the war pipe was smoked and passed from camp to camp among the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho camped in the area and an attack on the stage station and fort, Camp Rankin at that time, at Julesburg
on the South Platte River was planned and carried out in January, 1865. This successful attack, led by the Sioux, who were most familiar with the territory, was carried out by about a thousand warriors and was followed up by numerous raids along the South Platte both east and west of Julesburg and a second raid on Julesburg in early February. Following the first raid on January 7, 500 troops under the command of General Robert B. Mitchell
consisting of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry, the First Nebraska Veteran Volunteer Cavalry, and Companies "B" and "C," First Nebraska Militia
(mounted) had been removed from the Platte and were engaged in a fruitless search for hostile Indians on the plains south of the Platte. They found the camp on the Republican River occupied by the tribes only after they had left. A great deal of loot was captured and many whites killed. The bulk of the natives then moved north into Nebraska on their way to the Black Hills and the Powder River but paused to burn the telegraph station on Lodgepole Creek then attacked the station at Mud Springs on the Jules cutoff. There were 9 soldiers stationed there, the telegraph operator and a few other civilians. The Indians began the attack by running the stock off from the station's corral along with a herd of cattle. Alerted by telegraph, the Army dispatched men from Fort Mitchell
and Fort Laramie on February 4, about 150 men in all. Arriving on February 5 the first party of reinforcements of 36 men found themselves facing superior forces, estimated to number 500 warriors and with two men wounded were forced to retreat into the station. The second party of 120 troops under the command of Colonel William Collins
, commandant of Fort Laramie, arrived on the 6th and found themselves facing 500 to 1000 warriors. Armed with Spencer repeating rifle
s the soldiers were able to hold their own and a standoff resulted. After about 4 hours of fighting the war party left and moved their village to the head of Brown's Creek on the north side of the North Platte. Collins' forces were soon reinforced by 50 more men from Fort Laramie who had towed a mountain howitzer with them. With a force of about 185 men Collins followed the trail of the Indians to their abandoned camp at Rock Creek Spring, then followed their plain trail to the south bank of the North Platte at Rush Creek where they encountered a force of approximately 2,000 warriors on the north side of the river. An inconclusive fight followed and the decision was made to abandon pursuit of the war party. In his report Colonel Collins correctly predicted that the party was en route to the Power River Country and would continue to raid along the North Platte. His estimate of Indian casualties during the two engagements was 100 to 150, many more than reported by George Bent
a participant in the war party.
In the spring of 1865, raids continued along the Oregon trail in Nebraska. January 27, 1865 while a brisk northwest wind was blowing the army fired the prairie
from Fort McPherson to Denver. The Sioux, the Northern Cheyenne, the Northern Arapaho together with the warriors who had come north after the Sand Creek massacre raided the Oregon Trail along the North Platte River, and in July, 1865 attacked the troops stationed at the bridge across the North Platte at the present site of Casper, Wyoming
, the Battle of the Platte Bridge Station.
ordered a punitive expedition
against the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes that lived in the Black Hills region. General Patrick E. Connor was placed in command with hundreds of regular and volunteer soldiers at his disposal. Connor divided his force into three columns, the first was under Colonel Nelson Cole and was assigned to operate along the Loup River
of Nebraska. The second column, under Samuel Walker
, would travel north from Fort Laramie to occupy and area west of the Black Hills while the third, led by General Connor and Colonel James H. Kidd, would march up the Powder River. Only minor skirmishing occurred until August 29, 1865 when Connor's column of about 400 men encountered about 500 Arapahos of Chief Black Bear in the Battle of the Tongue River
. That morning Connor's men charged and captured a village and routed the defenders who counterattacked unsuccessfully. A few days later a small party of soldiers and civilian surveyors was attacked by the Arapaho in what became known as the Sawyers Fight
, three Americans were killed and it marked the last skirmish of the Powder River War.
to the Montana gold fields, the US government tried to negotiate new treaties with the Lakota Indians who were legally entitled to the Powder River country, through which the trail led, by the Treaty of Fort Laramie
. Because the military sent simultaneously two regiments of the 18th Infantry under the command of Colonel Henry B. Carrington
to establish new forts to watch over the Bozeman Road, the natives refused to sign any treaty and left Fort Laramie quite enraged and determined to defend their land.
Carrington reinforced Fort Reno
and established two additional ones further north called Fort Phil Kearny
and Fort C. F. Smith
in the summer of 1866. His strategy, although not fully approved by his officers, was mainly to secure the road, rather than fight the Indians. At the same time Red Cloud and the other chiefs soon became aware that they were unable to defeat a fully defended fort, so they kept to raiding every wagon train and traveling party they could find along the road.
Young eager warriors from the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes formed war parties who would attack woodcutter-trains near the forts, to cut their supplies. Crazy Horse
from the Oglala, Gall
from the Hunkpapas and Hump from the Miniconjou
s were the best known ones among them.
On December 21, 1866, an estimated 1,000–3,000 Indians laid an ambush against the woodcutters near Fort Phil Kearny. The escorting troops were commanded by a young and reckless Captain called William J. Fetterman
. They were seriously defeated. It is reported that the Indians committed severe mutilation on the dead bodies of the Army, very similar to the mutilations Chivington's men committed on the Cheyenne and Arapahos at Sand Creek. Due to the high casualties on the American side, the Indians called the fight the "Battle of the Hundred Slain" ever since; among the Whites, it was called the "Fetterman Massacre".
The US government began to realize that it got increasingly expensive to sustain the forts along the Bozeman Trail and due to the heavy losses, public opinion about it worsened. At the same time it did not bring the intended security for travelers along the Road. However Red Cloud refused to attend any meeting with treaty commissions during 1867. Only after the USA responded to his demand to abandon the forts in the Powder River country and the Indians burned down all three of them, he finally rode into Fort Laramie as a victorious hero in the summer of 1868, where the famous Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
was signed. It established the Great Sioux Reservation
which included all South Dakota territory west of the Missouri river. It also declared additional territory reaching as far as the Yellowstone and North Platte rivers as unceded territory for sole use by the Indians.
of 1874. The conflict was primarily a guerilla war in which small bands of natives skirmished with American troops.
The first important engagement, involving the Lakota Sioux, was during the Battle of Beecher Island
where the northern Cheyenne, under Chief Roman Nose
, engaged a small force of civilian scouts under George A. Forsyth. In the fight hundreds of Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Lakota engaged fifty Americans only to be repulsed. Roman Nose was killed and the battle was considered one of the greatest in the Plains Indian Wars. The next significant engagement to have involved the Sioux was at Summit Springs
near Sterling
, Colorado. Chief Tall Bull
, a Cheyenne chief, led approximately 450 warriors against about 300 American soldiers and Pawnee scouts. Ultimately Tall Bull was killed with several of his men and the remainder of whom retreated.
of South Dakota
, war broke out when the native followers of Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse left their reservations, apparently to go on the war path and defend the sacred Black Hills. In the first major fight of the war, on March 17, 1876, about 300 men under Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds
attacked approximately 225 Northern Cheyenne warriors in the Battle of Powder River
which ended with a United States victory. During the fighting, the Cheyenne were forced to retreat with their families further up the Powder River, leaving behind large quantities of weapons and ammunition. Next came the major Battle of Rosebud on June 17 when 1,500 Cheyenne warriors, led by Crazy Horse himself, defeated a force of 1,300 Americans under General George Crook
. Crook retreated which helped lead to the infamous Battle of Little Big Horn beginning on June 25. General George Custer, commanding a force of over 600 troops, was bady defeated with the loss of over 300 men killed or wounded, including himself. The next major engagement occurred at Slim Buttes
on September 9 and 10. There General Crook redeemed himself from his earlier loss at Rosebud and defeated about 700 of Crazy Horse's warriors. The Dull Knife Fight
, on November 25, and the Battle of Wolf Mountain
on January 8, 1877 were some of the last in the conflict, during the latter, Nelson A. Miles
defended a ridge from a series of failed attacks led by Crazy Horse, and shortly thereafter he surrendered at Camp Robinson, thus ending the war.
That autumn, the Sioux were moved to a large reservation
in the Dakota Territory
, but the government pressured them to sign a treaty giving up much of their land. Sitting Bull
had returned from Canada
and held the Sioux resistance together for a few years. But in the summer of 1889, the reservation agent, James McLaughlin, was able to secure the Sioux’s signatures by keeping the final treaty council a secret from Sitting Bull. The treaty broke up their 35,000 acres (142 km²) into six small reservations.
In October 1890, Kicking Bear
and Short Bull
brought the Sioux one last hope of resistance. They taught them the Ghost Dance
, something they had learned from Wovoka
, a Paiute
medicine man
. He told them that in the spring, the earth would be covered with a new layer of soil that would bury the white men while the Native Americans who did the Ghost Dance would be suspended in the air. The grass and the buffalo
would return, along with the ghosts of their dead ancestors. The Ghost Dance movement spread across western reservations. The U.S. government considered it a threat and sent out its military.
On the Sioux reservations, McLaughlin had Kicking Bear arrested, while Sitting Bull’s arrest on December 15, 1890, resulted in a struggle between reservation police and Ghost Dancers in which Sitting Bull was killed. Two weeks later, the military intercepted Big Foot’s band of Ghost Dancers. They were Minneconjou Sioux, mostly women who had lost husbands and other male relatives in the wars with the U.S. military. When Colonel Forsyth tried to disarm the last Minneconjou of his rifle, a shot broke out, and the surrounding soldiers opened fire. Hotchkiss gun
s shredded the camp on Wounded Knee Creek
, killing, according to one estimate, 300 of 350 men, women, and children.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and various subgroups of the Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
people that occurred in the latter half of the 19th century. The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
, when Sioux warriors killed several American soldiers in the Grattan Massacre
Grattan massacre
The Grattan Massacre was the opening conflict of the First Sioux War, fought between United States Army and Lakota Sioux warriors on August 19, 1854. It occurred east of Fort Laramie, Nebraska Territory, in present-day Goshen County, Wyoming...
, and the final came in 1890 during the Ghost Dance War
Ghost Dance War
The Ghost Dance War was an armed conflict in the United States which occurred between Native Americans and the United States government from 1890 until 1891. It involved the Wounded Knee Massacre wherein the 7th U.S. Cavalry massacred 153 Lakota Sioux, including women, children, and other...
.
First Sioux War
The First Sioux War was fought between 1854 and 1856 following the Grattan Massacre.Dakota War of 1862
The Santee Sioux or Dakotas of Western Minnesota rebelled on August 17, 1862 after the Agency traders wouldn't distribute them their food supplies, they were accounted for.After pillaging part of the nearby village of New Ulm
New Ulm
New Ulm can mean:*New Ulm, Minnesota, USA*New Ulm, Texas, USA*Neu-Ulm, a town in Bavaria, Germany*Neu-Ulm in Bavaria, Germany...
and attacks on Fort Ridgely
Fort Ridgely
Fort Ridgely was a United States Army outpost near the Dakota reservation in southwestern Minnesota . Built between 1853–1855, it played an important role in the Dakota War of 1862...
, from which the whites suffered severe losses, and the victorious Battle of Birch Coulee
Battle of Birch Coulee
The Battle of Birch Coulee occurred September 2, 1862 during the Dakota War of 1862. After the Battle of Fort Ridgely and the Battle of New Ulm, Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley was planning to punish the Sioux and to obtain the release of the settlers they were holding captive...
on September 2, the Indians were eventually defeated on September 23 in the Battle of Wood Lake
Battle of Wood Lake
The Battle of Wood Lake was a battle in the Dakota War of 1862 in September. By that time in the Dakota War of 1862, the Sioux offensive had slowed considerably, and the Minnesota forces were beginning to implement a plan formulated by Governor Alexander Ramsey...
.
Most of the warriors who took part in the fighting escaped to the west and north into Dakota Territory
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...
to continue the conflict, while the remaining Santees surrendered on September 26 at Camp Release to the US Army. In the following war-trials 303 Indians were sentenced to death of which, after closer investigation from Washington, eventually 38 were hung in one of America's largest mass-executions on December 26 in the Town of Mankato.
In the aftermath, battles continued between Minnesota regiments and combined Lakota and Dakota forces through 1864 as Col. Henry Sibley's troops pursued the Sioux. Sibley's army defeated the Lakota and Dakota in three major battles in 1863: the Battle of Dead Buffalo Lake
Battle of Dead Buffalo Lake
The battle of Dead Buffalo Lake was fought between United States forces and Sioux Indians of the Dakota Territory.A combined force of Santee and Teton Sioux forces had been defeated at the battle of Big Mound. They fled that battlefield and were chased endlessly by U.S. cavalry...
on July 26, 1863; the Battle of Stony Lake
Battle of Stony Lake
The Battle of Stony Lake was the last engagement during Henry Hastings Sibley's campaign against the Santee and Teton Sioux in the Dakota Territory....
on July 28, 1863; and the Battle of Whitestone Hill
Battle of Whitestone Hill
The Battle of White Stone Hill was a part of the operations against the Sioux in North Dakota in 1863. It took place between the dates of September 3–5, 1863. The principal United States commander was Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully, who faced Chief Inkpaduta of the Sioux. There was 822 total casualties;...
on September 3, 1863. The Sioux retreated further, but faced a United States army again in 1864. General Alfred Sully led a force from near Fort Pierre, South Dakota, and decisively defeated the Sioux at the Battle of Killdeer Mountain on July 28, 1864.
The survivors were forced to move to a small reservation on the Missouri river in central South Dakota. There, on the Crow Creek Reservation
Crow Creek Reservation
The Crow Creek Indian Reservation is located in parts of Buffalo, Hughes, and Hyde counties on the east bank of the Missouri River in central South Dakota in the United States. It has a land area of 421.658 sq mi and a 2000 census population of 2,225 persons...
their descendants still live today.
Colorado War
The Colorado War began in 1863 and was primarily fought between American militia while the United States Army played a minor role. Several native American tribes attacked American settlements in the Eastern PlainsColorado Eastern Plains
The Eastern Plains of Colorado refers to a region of the U.S. state of Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains and east of the population centers of the Front Range.-Geography:...
, including the Lakota Sioux who raided in northeast Colorado. On November 29, 1864 Colorado Volunteers under the command of Colonel John Chivington
John Chivington
John Milton Chivington was a colonel in the United States Army who served in the American Indian Wars during the Colorado War and the New Mexico Campaigns of the American Civil War...
attacked a peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho village camped on Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado. Under orders to take no prisoners the militia killed an estimated 150 men, women, and children, mutilating the dead and taking scalps and other grisly trophies of battle. The Indians at Sand Creek had been assured by the U.S. Government that they would be safe in the territory they were occupying, but anti-Indian sentiments by white settlers were running high. Later congressional investigations resulted in short-lived U.S. public outcry against the slaughter of the Native Americans.
Following the massacre the survivors joined the camps of the Northern Cheyenne on the Smokey Hill and Republican rivers. There the war pipe was smoked and passed from camp to camp among the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho camped in the area and an attack on the stage station and fort, Camp Rankin at that time, at Julesburg
Julesburg, Colorado
The historic town of Julesburg is a statutory town that is the county seat of Sedgwick County, Colorado, United States. The town is located on the north side of the South Platte River. The population was 1,467 at the U.S. Census 2000...
on the South Platte River was planned and carried out in January, 1865. This successful attack, led by the Sioux, who were most familiar with the territory, was carried out by about a thousand warriors and was followed up by numerous raids along the South Platte both east and west of Julesburg and a second raid on Julesburg in early February. Following the first raid on January 7, 500 troops under the command of General Robert B. Mitchell
Robert Byington Mitchell
Robert Byington Mitchell was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and the Governor of the New Mexico Territory from 1866 to 1869.-Early life and career:...
consisting of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry, the First Nebraska Veteran Volunteer Cavalry, and Companies "B" and "C," First Nebraska Militia
First Nebraska Militia
The First Nebraska Militia was a temporary military force mobilized by Territorial Governor Alvin Saunders in August, 1864 during the Indian uprising of 1864 which threatened travelers on the Overland Trail and settlers on the frontier...
(mounted) had been removed from the Platte and were engaged in a fruitless search for hostile Indians on the plains south of the Platte. They found the camp on the Republican River occupied by the tribes only after they had left. A great deal of loot was captured and many whites killed. The bulk of the natives then moved north into Nebraska on their way to the Black Hills and the Powder River but paused to burn the telegraph station on Lodgepole Creek then attacked the station at Mud Springs on the Jules cutoff. There were 9 soldiers stationed there, the telegraph operator and a few other civilians. The Indians began the attack by running the stock off from the station's corral along with a herd of cattle. Alerted by telegraph, the Army dispatched men from Fort Mitchell
Fort Mitchell
Fort Mitchell may refer to a community in the United States:*Fort Mitchell, Alabama*Fort Mitchell, Kentucky*Fort Mitchell, Nebraska an Army fort in service from 1864-1867 near present day, Scottsbluff, Nebraska...
and Fort Laramie on February 4, about 150 men in all. Arriving on February 5 the first party of reinforcements of 36 men found themselves facing superior forces, estimated to number 500 warriors and with two men wounded were forced to retreat into the station. The second party of 120 troops under the command of Colonel William Collins
William Collins
William Collins may refer to:* William Collins , Bishop of Gibraltar in the Church of England* William Collins , English poet* William Collins , English landscape artist...
, commandant of Fort Laramie, arrived on the 6th and found themselves facing 500 to 1000 warriors. Armed with Spencer repeating rifle
Spencer repeating rifle
The Spencer repeating rifle was a manually operated lever-action, repeating rifle fed from a tube magazine with cartridges. It was adopted by the Union Army, especially by the cavalry, during the American Civil War, but did not replace the standard issue muzzle-loading rifled muskets in use at the...
s the soldiers were able to hold their own and a standoff resulted. After about 4 hours of fighting the war party left and moved their village to the head of Brown's Creek on the north side of the North Platte. Collins' forces were soon reinforced by 50 more men from Fort Laramie who had towed a mountain howitzer with them. With a force of about 185 men Collins followed the trail of the Indians to their abandoned camp at Rock Creek Spring, then followed their plain trail to the south bank of the North Platte at Rush Creek where they encountered a force of approximately 2,000 warriors on the north side of the river. An inconclusive fight followed and the decision was made to abandon pursuit of the war party. In his report Colonel Collins correctly predicted that the party was en route to the Power River Country and would continue to raid along the North Platte. His estimate of Indian casualties during the two engagements was 100 to 150, many more than reported by George Bent
George Bent
George Bent was the mixed-race son of the fur trader William Bent, the founder of the trading post named Bent's Fort; and Owl Woman, a Cheyenne. Born near present-day La Junta, Colorado, Bent served as a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War and a Cheyenne warrior...
a participant in the war party.
In the spring of 1865, raids continued along the Oregon trail in Nebraska. January 27, 1865 while a brisk northwest wind was blowing the army fired the prairie
Wildfire
A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...
from Fort McPherson to Denver. The Sioux, the Northern Cheyenne, the Northern Arapaho together with the warriors who had come north after the Sand Creek massacre raided the Oregon Trail along the North Platte River, and in July, 1865 attacked the troops stationed at the bridge across the North Platte at the present site of Casper, Wyoming
Casper, Wyoming
Casper is the county seat of Natrona County, Wyoming, United States.. Casper is the second-largest city in Wyoming , according to the 2010 census, with a population of 55,316...
, the Battle of the Platte Bridge Station.
Powder River War
In 1865 Major General Grenville M. DodgeGrenville M. Dodge
Grenville Mellen Dodge was a Union army officer on the frontier and during the Civil War, a U.S. Congressman, businessman, and railroad executive who helped construct the Transcontinental Railroad....
ordered a punitive expedition
Punitive expedition
A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge...
against the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes that lived in the Black Hills region. General Patrick E. Connor was placed in command with hundreds of regular and volunteer soldiers at his disposal. Connor divided his force into three columns, the first was under Colonel Nelson Cole and was assigned to operate along the Loup River
Loup River
The Loup River is a tributary of the Platte River, approximately long, in central Nebraska in the United States. The river drains a sparsely populated rural agricultural area on the eastern edge of the Great Plains southeast of the Sandhills...
of Nebraska. The second column, under Samuel Walker
Samuel Walker
Sir Samuel Walker, 1st Baronet PC, QC was an Irish Liberal politician and lawyer.Born at Gore Port Finea County Westmeath, he was educated at Portarlington School and Trinity College, Dublin before being called to the bar in 1855. In 1872, he was made a Queen's Counsel, and eleven years later he...
, would travel north from Fort Laramie to occupy and area west of the Black Hills while the third, led by General Connor and Colonel James H. Kidd, would march up the Powder River. Only minor skirmishing occurred until August 29, 1865 when Connor's column of about 400 men encountered about 500 Arapahos of Chief Black Bear in the Battle of the Tongue River
Battle of the Tongue River
The Battle of the Tongue River, sometimes referred to as the Connor Battle, was the major engagement of the Powder River Expedition of 1865, directed against the Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho and Lakota Sioux. It destroyed for a time the Arapaho capability to raid the Bozeman Trail and overland mail...
. That morning Connor's men charged and captured a village and routed the defenders who counterattacked unsuccessfully. A few days later a small party of soldiers and civilian surveyors was attacked by the Arapaho in what became known as the Sawyers Fight
Sawyers Fight
The Sawyers Fight was part of a surveying expedition in late 1865 to improve the emigrant trails from Nebraska to Montana. Not a military venture, the expedition was named for and led by James A. Sawyers...
, three Americans were killed and it marked the last skirmish of the Powder River War.
Red Cloud's War
Due to increasing demand of safe travel along the Bozeman TrailBozeman Trail
The Bozeman Trail was an overland route connecting the gold rush territory of Montana to the Oregon Trail. Its most important period was from 1863-1868. The flow of pioneers and settlers through territory of American Indians provoked their resentment and caused attacks. The U.S. Army undertook...
to the Montana gold fields, the US government tried to negotiate new treaties with the Lakota Indians who were legally entitled to the Powder River country, through which the trail led, by the Treaty of Fort Laramie
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851)
Although many European and European-American migrants to western North America had previously passed through the Great Plains on the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails, the California gold rush greatly increased traffic...
. Because the military sent simultaneously two regiments of the 18th Infantry under the command of Colonel Henry B. Carrington
Henry B. Carrington
Henry Beebee Carrington was a lawyer, professor, prolific author, and an officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War and in the Old West during Red Cloud's War...
to establish new forts to watch over the Bozeman Road, the natives refused to sign any treaty and left Fort Laramie quite enraged and determined to defend their land.
Carrington reinforced Fort Reno
Fort Reno
Fort Reno may refer to any of the three United States Army posts named for General Jesse L. Reno:*Fort Reno Park, in Washington, D.C., established 1862...
and established two additional ones further north called Fort Phil Kearny
Fort Phil Kearny
Fort Phil Kearny was an outpost of the United States Army that existed in the late 1860s in present-day northeastern Wyoming along the Bozeman Trail. Construction began Friday July 13, 1866 by Companies A, C, E and H of the 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry, under the direction of the regimental...
and Fort C. F. Smith
Fort C. F. Smith
Fort C. F. Smith was a military post established in the Powder River country by the United States Army in Montana Territory on August 12, 1866, during Red Cloud's War. Established by order of Col. Henry B...
in the summer of 1866. His strategy, although not fully approved by his officers, was mainly to secure the road, rather than fight the Indians. At the same time Red Cloud and the other chiefs soon became aware that they were unable to defeat a fully defended fort, so they kept to raiding every wagon train and traveling party they could find along the road.
Young eager warriors from the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes formed war parties who would attack woodcutter-trains near the forts, to cut their supplies. Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S...
from the Oglala, Gall
Chief Gall
Gall Lakota Phizí, was a battle leader of the Hunkpapa Lakota in the long war against the United States. He was one of the commanders in the Battle of Little Bighorn.-Early years:...
from the Hunkpapas and Hump from the Miniconjou
Miniconjou
The Miniconjou are a Native American people constituting a subdivision of the Lakota Sioux, who formerly inhabited an area from the Black Hills in South Dakota to the Platte River. The contemporary population lives mostly in west-central South Dakota...
s were the best known ones among them.
On December 21, 1866, an estimated 1,000–3,000 Indians laid an ambush against the woodcutters near Fort Phil Kearny. The escorting troops were commanded by a young and reckless Captain called William J. Fetterman
William J. Fetterman
William Judd Fetterman was an officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War and the subsequent Red Cloud's War on the Great Plains. Fetterman and his immediate command were killed during the Fetterman massacre....
. They were seriously defeated. It is reported that the Indians committed severe mutilation on the dead bodies of the Army, very similar to the mutilations Chivington's men committed on the Cheyenne and Arapahos at Sand Creek. Due to the high casualties on the American side, the Indians called the fight the "Battle of the Hundred Slain" ever since; among the Whites, it was called the "Fetterman Massacre".
The US government began to realize that it got increasingly expensive to sustain the forts along the Bozeman Trail and due to the heavy losses, public opinion about it worsened. At the same time it did not bring the intended security for travelers along the Road. However Red Cloud refused to attend any meeting with treaty commissions during 1867. Only after the USA responded to his demand to abandon the forts in the Powder River country and the Indians burned down all three of them, he finally rode into Fort Laramie as a victorious hero in the summer of 1868, where the famous Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
The Treaty of Fort Laramie was an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota, and Arapaho Nation signed in 1868 at Fort Laramie in the Wyoming Territory, guaranteeing to the Lakota ownership of the Black Hills, and further...
was signed. It established the Great Sioux Reservation
Great Sioux reservation
The Great Sioux Reservation was established in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, and includes all of modern western South Dakota and modern Boyd County, Nebraska...
which included all South Dakota territory west of the Missouri river. It also declared additional territory reaching as far as the Yellowstone and North Platte rivers as unceded territory for sole use by the Indians.
Comanche War
The Comanche War from 1867 to 1875 was a series of conflicts that took place throughout the border regions of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas, involving the Arapaho, Comanche, Kiowa, Lakota Sioux, and Cheyenne tribes of native Americans. It was fought mostly between the same tribes which participated in the Colorado War, and includes the campaign known as the Red River WarRed River War
The Red River War was a military campaign launched by the United States Army in 1874, as part of the Comanche War, to remove the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Native American tribes from the Southern Plains and forcibly relocate them to reservations in Indian Territory...
of 1874. The conflict was primarily a guerilla war in which small bands of natives skirmished with American troops.
The first important engagement, involving the Lakota Sioux, was during the Battle of Beecher Island
Battle of Beecher Island
The Battle of Beecher Island, also known as the Battle of Arikaree Fork, was an armed conflict between elements of the United States Army and several of the Plains native American tribes in September 1868...
where the northern Cheyenne, under Chief Roman Nose
Roman Nose
Roman Nose, a.k.a. Hook Nose , was a Native American of the Northern Cheyenne, and possibly the greatest and most influential warrior during the Plains Indian War of the 1860s...
, engaged a small force of civilian scouts under George A. Forsyth. In the fight hundreds of Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Lakota engaged fifty Americans only to be repulsed. Roman Nose was killed and the battle was considered one of the greatest in the Plains Indian Wars. The next significant engagement to have involved the Sioux was at Summit Springs
Battle of Summit Springs
The Battle of Summit Springs, on July 11, 1869, was an armed conflict between elements of the United States Army under the command of Colonel Eugene A. Carr and a group of Cheyenne Dog Soldiers led by Tall Bull, who died during the engagement...
near Sterling
Sterling, Colorado
The City of Sterling is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Logan County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 14,777 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Sterling is located at...
, Colorado. Chief Tall Bull
Tall Bull
Tall Bull was a chief of the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers. He was shot and killed in the Battle of Summit Springs in Colorado by Major Frank North leader of the Pawnee Scouts....
, a Cheyenne chief, led approximately 450 warriors against about 300 American soldiers and Pawnee scouts. Ultimately Tall Bull was killed with several of his men and the remainder of whom retreated.
Great Sioux War
The Great Sioux War refers to series of conflicts from 1876 to 1877 involving the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne tribes. Following the influx of gold miners to the Black HillsBlack Hills
The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, USA. Set off from the main body of the Rocky Mountains, the region is something of a geological anomaly—accurately described as an "island of...
of South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
, war broke out when the native followers of Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse left their reservations, apparently to go on the war path and defend the sacred Black Hills. In the first major fight of the war, on March 17, 1876, about 300 men under Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds
Joseph J. Reynolds
Joseph Jones Reynolds was an American engineer, educator, and military officer who fought in the American Civil War and the postbellum Indian Wars.-Early life and career:Reynolds was born in Flemingsburg, Kentucky...
attacked approximately 225 Northern Cheyenne warriors in the Battle of Powder River
Battle of Powder River
The Battle of Powder River occurred March 17, 1876, in the Montana Territory between the United States Army and a force of Cheyenne Native Americans during Crook's Big Horn Expedition in the Great Sioux War of 1876.-Overview:...
which ended with a United States victory. During the fighting, the Cheyenne were forced to retreat with their families further up the Powder River, leaving behind large quantities of weapons and ammunition. Next came the major Battle of Rosebud on June 17 when 1,500 Cheyenne warriors, led by Crazy Horse himself, defeated a force of 1,300 Americans under General George Crook
George Crook
George R. Crook was a career United States Army officer, most noted for his distinguished service during the American Civil War and the Indian Wars.-Early life:...
. Crook retreated which helped lead to the infamous Battle of Little Big Horn beginning on June 25. General George Custer, commanding a force of over 600 troops, was bady defeated with the loss of over 300 men killed or wounded, including himself. The next major engagement occurred at Slim Buttes
Battle of Slim Buttes
The Battle of Slim Buttes was fought on September 9–10, 1876, in the Great Sioux Reservation between the United States Army and Miniconjou Sioux during the Great Sioux War of 1876...
on September 9 and 10. There General Crook redeemed himself from his earlier loss at Rosebud and defeated about 700 of Crazy Horse's warriors. The Dull Knife Fight
Dull Knife Fight
The Dull Knife Fight, or the Battle of Bates Creek, was a Great Plains battle in the Wyoming Territory between the United States Army and the Northern Cheyenne as part of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77. The battle essentially ended the Cheyennes' ability to wage war.After the battles of the Rosebud...
, on November 25, and the Battle of Wolf Mountain
Battle of Wolf Mountain
The Battle of Wolf Mountain, also known the Battle of the Wolf Mountains, Miles's Battle on the Tongue River, and the Battle of the Butte, occurred January 8, 1877 in the Montana Territory between the United States Army and a force of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne during the Great Sioux War of...
on January 8, 1877 were some of the last in the conflict, during the latter, Nelson A. Miles
Nelson A. Miles
Nelson Appleton Miles was a United States soldier who served in the American Civil War, Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War.-Early life:Miles was born in Westminster, Massachusetts, on his family's farm...
defended a ridge from a series of failed attacks led by Crazy Horse, and shortly thereafter he surrendered at Camp Robinson, thus ending the war.
Ghost Dance War
From November 1890 to January 1891, unresolved grievances led to the last major conflict with the Sioux. A lopsided engagement that involved almost half the infantry and cavalry of the Regular Army caused the surviving warriors to lay down their arms and retreat to their reservations.That autumn, the Sioux were moved to a large reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
in the Dakota Territory
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...
, but the government pressured them to sign a treaty giving up much of their land. Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull Sitting Bull Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (in Standard Lakota Orthography), also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies...
had returned from Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and held the Sioux resistance together for a few years. But in the summer of 1889, the reservation agent, James McLaughlin, was able to secure the Sioux’s signatures by keeping the final treaty council a secret from Sitting Bull. The treaty broke up their 35,000 acres (142 km²) into six small reservations.
In October 1890, Kicking Bear
Kicking Bear
Kicking Bear , also called Matȟó Wanáȟtake, was an Oglala Lakota who became a band chief of the Minneconjou Lakota Sioux. He fought in several battles during the War for the Black Hills, including the Battle of Little Big Horn...
and Short Bull
Short Bull
Short Bull may refer to:* Arnold Short Bull , Sicangu Lakota leader, associated with Ghost Dance* Grant Short Bull , Oglala Lakota leader* A fictional US tank from Panzer Front....
brought the Sioux one last hope of resistance. They taught them the Ghost Dance
Ghost Dance
The Ghost Dance was a new religious movement which was incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. The traditional ritual used in the Ghost Dance, the circle dance, has been used by many Native Americans since prehistoric times...
, something they had learned from Wovoka
Wovoka
Wovoka , also known as Jack Wilson, was the Northern Paiute religious leader who founded the Ghost Dance movement. Wovoka means "cutter" or "wood cutter" in the Northern Paiute language.-Biography:...
, a Paiute
Paiute
Paiute refers to three closely related groups of Native Americans — the Northern Paiute of California, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon; the Owens Valley Paiute of California and Nevada; and the Southern Paiute of Arizona, southeastern California and Nevada, and Utah.-Origin of name:The origin of...
medicine man
Medicine man
"Medicine man" or "Medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples...
. He told them that in the spring, the earth would be covered with a new layer of soil that would bury the white men while the Native Americans who did the Ghost Dance would be suspended in the air. The grass and the buffalo
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
would return, along with the ghosts of their dead ancestors. The Ghost Dance movement spread across western reservations. The U.S. government considered it a threat and sent out its military.
On the Sioux reservations, McLaughlin had Kicking Bear arrested, while Sitting Bull’s arrest on December 15, 1890, resulted in a struggle between reservation police and Ghost Dancers in which Sitting Bull was killed. Two weeks later, the military intercepted Big Foot’s band of Ghost Dancers. They were Minneconjou Sioux, mostly women who had lost husbands and other male relatives in the wars with the U.S. military. When Colonel Forsyth tried to disarm the last Minneconjou of his rifle, a shot broke out, and the surrounding soldiers opened fire. Hotchkiss gun
Hotchkiss gun
The Hotchkiss gun can refer to different products of the Hotchkiss arms company starting in the late 19th century. It usually refers to the 1.65-inch light mountain gun; there was also a 3-inch Hotchkiss gun...
s shredded the camp on Wounded Knee Creek
Wounded Knee Creek
Wounded Knee Creek is a tributary of the White River, approximately long, in southwestern South Dakota in the United States. Its Lakota name is '....
, killing, according to one estimate, 300 of 350 men, women, and children.
See also
- Dakota War of 1862Dakota War of 1862The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux. It began on August 17, 1862, along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota...
- Red Cloud's WarRed Cloud's WarRed Cloud's War was an armed conflict between the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho and the United States in the Wyoming Territory and the Montana Territory from 1866 to 1868. The war was fought over control of the Powder River Country in north central present day Wyoming...
- Great Sioux War of 1876-77Great Sioux War of 1876-77The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations which occurred between 1876 and 1877 involving the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne, against the United States...
- Wounded Knee MassacreWounded Knee MassacreThe Wounded Knee Massacre happened on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, USA. On the day before, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M...
- Apache WarsApache WarsThe Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States and Apaches fought in the Southwest from 1849 to 1886, though other minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. The Confederate Army participated in the wars during the early 1860s, for instance in Texas, before being...