Hey, Where Did Our Horses Go?

In May of 1865, the United States government decided to move all of the Sioux that were camped in and around Fort Laramie. The 180 plus lodges were to be moved to Pawnee land in Nebraska. But when the group reached Horse Creek, the site of the 1851 conference at Fort Laramie, old animosities were aroused. The Sioux had been pushed far enough. They took a stand, killing one officer and seven soldiers. Thirteen others were wounded before the Indians escaped south across the North Platte River.

North Platte River

Col. Thomas Moonlight, the commander at Fort Laramie, took one of his famous or infamous missteps. (I have blogged about him before when he was governor many years later)Moonlight led a force of soldiers out of the fort to capture or punish the Indians. He chased but did not catch the Sioux. Exhausted, he encamped the troops for the night. The men ate and rested, meanwhile when darkness came the Sioux helped themselves to the soldiers mounts, all of them. 

Bet the soldiers were happy to be back home in their barracks at Fort Laramie

The next day the soldiers started their march back to Fort Laramie – on foot.

The Peace Council of 1866

Between the famous peace treaties of 1851 and 1868 was the lesser known attempt at a peace council in 1866 at Fort Laramie. Colonel Henry B. Carrington came with more than 2,000 troopers and 226 mule teams pulling freight wagons loaded with a few gifts and tons of supplies, enough to stock an entire post in the west.

Fort Laramie today as seen from the Oregon Trail North and West

This meeting, for peace, never had a chance. Red Cloud and Man Afraid of His Horses were asked to take part and did go to the fort. But once there refused all efforts put forth by the representatives of the U.S. Government. Why did they refuse? Because the soldiers were representing business and government interests who wanted to build a new road, the Bozeman Trail, to the gold fields. With trails came forts, the native peoples wanted nothing to do with any of this.

One fort, Fort Connor, also known as Fort Reno or old Fort Reno located in Johnson County, Wyoming near the present city of Buffalo was already in a place unacceptable to the tribes. The fort was in prime buffalo hunting country and an area set off limits by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851.

Red Cloud stood firm, no roads and no forts. Never the less the treaty was signed, signed for the gifts brought by the white soldiers. The treaty signed by, under chiefs or sub-chiefs who had no power to sign off on anything that affected their entire tribe. Because of this the treaty was never respected and did nothing for peace in the area. Instead of peace it actually increased hostilities and led to what historians later referred to as the years of the bloody Bozeman.

The three forts built or restocked and fortified as a result of this 1866 meeting, Reno/Connor (built 1865), Phil Kearny and C.F. Smith were in a constant state of battle over the next decade and did little to protect gold seekers heading to Montana. Of the three forts, Phil Kearny seemed to be the worst in the eyes of the Indians living and hunting in the area. In one six-month span, the fort or soldiers on detail from the fort were attacked 50 times. All three forts were closed and abandoned by august of 1868.

Fort Laramie Council of 1866

After the famous Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 and before the second Fort Laramie Treaty in 1868 came an important but less know event, The Council of 1866.

Parade Grounds at Fort Laramie

During this meeting between soldiers and nearly 2,000 Sioux Col. Henry B. Carrington showed up, with his men, on their way to establish a series of forts on the Bozeman Trail. The forts, soon to become, Reno, Phil Kearny and C. F. Smith in Montana ruined any chance at peace the meeting had. The Indian delegation wanted the whites out of the Bozeman trail area, not more forts, and more soldiers.

 Housing at the Fort

Modern Day Camp on the Laramie River, near the site of Sioux Camp in 1866

Red Cloud accused the whites of treachery and left the meeting. The treaty of 1868 did little to appease the feelings of the tribes, and within a decade the Indian wars were at their height in Wyoming and the west.