Lone Wolf (person)

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This article is about a Kiowa chief. For other uses, see Lone Wolf.

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Lone Wolf.

Lone Wolf (Native name Guipago) was a Kiowa chief who lived from 1820 to 1879.

On December 16,1868, Guipago and Satanta were arrested by Custer and taken to Fort Cobb.

Guipago brought forth an action against US Secretary of the Interior Ethan Hitchcock regarding the disposition of the unratified Treaty of Medicine Lodge. See Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock. In the final decision, which was not decided until 1903, after Guipago's death, the United States Supreme Court ruled that although the treaty was not ratified and its terms then arbitrarily changed without consent through an Act of Congress, it was not relevant because "The power exists to abrogate the provisions of an Indian treaty". Also, Indians were stated to be "wards of the nation" and, like wards of the state such as criminals and the mentally ill, they did not enjoy the same human rights as those considered to be full citizens to whom Constitutional protections apply. This decision still stands today. The principles decided continue to influence and define the United State's relationship toward aboriginal tribes.