Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 - 150 Years

On April 29, 1868, a treaty was signed between the United States Government and the Sioux Nation.  The treaty would move the Sioux away from the war on the plains, and onto a Black Hills Reservation in Dakota Territory. This treaty following the treaty of 1851 attempted to bring peace to the frontier part of the United States. For moving to the Black Hills the Sioux were to be given food, clothing, and annuity payments, on an annual basis. The government also agreed to close travel along the Bozeman Trail along with the forts along that trail.

150 Year Anniversary of the Treaty of 1858

Starting Saturday, April 28, and running through Tuesday, May 2, Fort Laramie will be hosting – Honoring the Spirit On the Northern Great Plains. The fort is expecting nice crowds of up to 4,000 on Saturday and great crowds for the other three days of the celebration. Looks like a terrific time.

Did the Treaty Work?

It was working, as well as most treaties, for a few years, and then Custer and his men found gold in the Black Hills, which for all practical purposes ended the usefulness of the treaty. The government tried to purchase, then lease, the Black Hills so that gold seekers could head into the area. The Sioux already pushed to their limit, refused. Two years later, Custer and the Seventh Cavalry were wiped out at Little Big Horn, escalating a decade of Indian Wars in the west.

Honoring the Spirit On the Northern Great Plains, a celebration to be held the last two days of April and the first two days of May 2018. Click the links to read all about it.

Today's photos from my many trips to Fort Laramie, a terrific place, and one all western history buffs need to visit.

https://twitter.com/FortLaramieNPS

https://www.nps.gov/fola/planyourvisit/calendar.htm

The Jim Bridger Trail

In 1862, gold was discovered in Virginia City, Montana Territory. Gold seekers, businessmen, thieves and get rich schemers quickly followed. The fastest and most efficient way to reach the fields from the east was to travel along the Bozeman Trail. To do so, travelers would follow the Oregon Trail to present-day Douglas, Wyoming where the trail turned north and went into present day Montana then turned west. Today a driver could take I-25 north to I-90 then turn west. From my little village of Guernsey, it is a drive of 603 miles and can be made in about 9 hours, in today’s world.

The road may have been fast, but there was trouble, Indians along the way did not want people traveling it. The entire Powder River Basin had been long held by local tribes, and they were not about to give it up for a white man’s road to gold. Bozeman was a great promoter of his road, and many lives were lost because of it, but there was another way.

The Jim Bridger Road, or Bridger Trail, was much less known, but it was safe and as fast to Virginia City as the Bozeman Trail.

Old Gabe - Jim Bridger

This trail, instead of turning north at Douglas, continued another 100, or so, miles along what is today Highway 20/26, then turned north at the Waltman crossing and worked its way north and west through Thermopolis and up into Montana. Not a difficult area to traverse and safe all the way to the gold.

Sign at the Waltman Wyoming Reststop

So why was it never use? Difficult to say other than the fact the government did not attempt to sell this better way. If settlers and miners would have used Bridger’s road Western history would have been forever changed. Battles like the Hayfield fight, Wagon Box fight, and the Fetterman Massacre may well never have happened. It is also possible that Lt. Col George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh may have never been sent to Montana if not for the Bozeman Trail and the trouble it caused.

Still a desolate area - this shot from a few miles east of the crossing

Custer, Smoke Signals and Hollywood

At the time of the massacre of Custer and the 7^th Frank Grouard read smoke signals in the sky and reported a battle was going on and the Indians were winning.

General Crook had sent Lt. F. W. Sibley and twenty-five men to locate the Indians. Frank Grouard and Big Bat Puerrier led the troopers. Sibley, recently out of West Point, was told by Crook  to do whatever Grouard said, but Sibley still would not believe a group of Indians could win a battle against the army.

So did Smoke Signals really convey messages or was it something Hollywood made up?

Maybe more Hollywood than fact. But if you can see much smoke from an Indian campfire it would indicate they were not worried about anyone seeing it-therefore all is well. I have books in my personal library that explain how to build a smoke signal box to send real, American Indian smoke signals. I think this may be more modern day Boy Scouts than Indians. Smoke may have been used as a predetermined signal, such as, If you see smoke keep away or come on in, but I doubt any tribes had any real Morse code of smoke signals.

This means when Grouard saw the big smoke he knew the Indians were celebrating, a guess, maybe, but an educated and correct one by a truly great scout.