Medicine Lodge Treaty

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Signing of the Medicine Lodge Treaty
Signing of the Medicine Lodge Treaty

The Medicine Lodge Treaty was a set of three treaties signed between the United States of America and the Kiowa, Comanche, Plains Apache, Southern Cheyenne, and Southern Arapaho at Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas in October 1867.

Though commonly referred to in the singular, the Medicine Lodge Treaty actually consisted of three separate treaties. The first was signed October 21, 1867 with the Kiowa and Comanche tribes.[1] The second, with the Kiowa-Apache,[2] was signed the same day, while the third, with the Cheyenne and Arapaho, was signed on October 28.[3]

The United States federal government during this time repeatedly reduced the size of Indian reservations. The Medicine Lodge Treaty assigned reservations with the aforementioned tribes, bringing them in close contact with the Sioux, Shoshones, Bannocks, and Navajos, setting the scene for more conflict for dwindling resources.

Contents

[edit] Indian peace Commission

On June 20, 1867, Congress established the Indian Peace Commission to negotiate peace with Plains Indian tribes who were warring with the United States.[4][5] The commission met in St. Louis, Missouri on August 6, 1867, where its first order of business was to elect Nathaniel G. Taylor, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, as its president. Commissioners agreed that last peace was contingent upon separating Indians regarded as "hostile" from those regarded as friendly, removing all Indian tribes onto reservations away from the routes of U.S. westward expansion, and making provision for their maintenance.[4][6]

Beside the Indian Commissioner Nathaniel G. Taylor as president, other members of the peace commission were Lt. Gen. William T. Sherman, commander of the Military Division of the Missouri; Maj. Gen. William S. Harney (retired), who had taken part in earlier conflicts with the Cheyenne and Sioux along the Platte River; Brig. Gen. Alfred H. Terry, commander of the Military Department of Dakota; Senator John B. Henderson of Missouri, Chairman of the Senate Indian Appropriations Committee, who had introduced the bill that created the peace commission; Col. Samuel F. Tappan, formerly of the First Colorado Volunteer Cavalry and a peace advocate who had led the U.S. Army's investigation of the Sand Creek massacre; Maj. Gen. John B. Sanborn, formerly commander of the Upper Arkansas District who had previously helped to negotiate the Treaty of the Little Arkansas of 1865.[4][7][8] Sherman, having made public remarks indicating his disagreement with the peace policy, was called to Washington, D.C.[7] and could not be present at the councils on the southern plains, including the council at Medicine Lodge Creek. Maj. Gen. Christopher C. Augur, commander of the Military Department of the Platte, replaced him as a temporary appointment.[4][7]

[edit] Medicine Lodge Creek councils

After an abortive meeting with northern Plains Indians in September,[6], the commission gathered at Fort Leavenworth in early October and traveled from there by rail to Fort Harker,[9] where it was joined by an escort of five hundred troops of the 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment[6][10] and Battery B of the 4th artillery armed with two Gatling guns,[9][10] all under the command of Maj. Joel H. Elliott,[6] who had been excused from attending the court martial proceedings for Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer then underway at Fort Leavenworth.[9] The commission was also accompanied by a large number of newspaper reporters who provided detailed coverage of the people and events related to the commission's work.[6][11]

The commission arrived at Fort Larned on October 11, where some chiefs were already present, including Black Kettle of the Cheyenne,[4] Little Raven of the Arapaho, and Satanta of the Kiowa.[12] At the insistence of the tribes, the meetings were moved from Larned to Medicine Lodge Creek, a traditional Indian ceremonial site.[4] Preliminary discussions beginning on October 15 concluded that the Hancock expedition led earlier in 1867 by Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, during which a large Cheyenne and Sioux village at Pawnee Fork had been destroyed, had been ill-conceived. This conclusion, and the commissioners' apology for the village's destruction, served to clear the air and create a more positive atmosphere for the councils,[6][4] which began in earnest on October 19.[6][4][13]

[edit] Treaty terms and signatories

The treaties negotiated at Medicine Lodge Creek were similar in their terms, involving surrender of traditional tribal territories in exchange for much smaller reservations in Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma and allowances of food, clothing, equipment, and weapons and ammunition for hunting.[6]

[edit] Treaties with the Kiowa, Comanche, and Plains Apache

Under the first of the three Medicine Lodge treaties, the Kiowa and Comanche were compelled to give up move than 60,000 square miles (160,000 km²) of traditional tribal territories in exchange for a 3 million acre (12,000 km²) in the southwest corner of Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), most of it lying between the North Fork of the Red River and the North Canadian River.[1][6][14] The tribes would also be provided houses, barns, and schools worth $30,000, which the tribes did not actually want.[14] Through second treaty, the Plains or Kiowa-Apache were incorporated into the first treaty;[15] this treaty was signed by all the Kiowa and Comanche signatories of the first treaty, along with several Plains Apache chiefs.[2] The treaties with the Kiowa, Commanche, and Plains Apache tribes were concluded on October 21, 1867.[6]

Kiowa chiefs signing[1][2]

Comanche chiefs signing[1][2]

  • Parry-wah-say-men, or Ten Bears
  • Tep-pe-navon, or Painted Lips
  • To-sa-in (To-she-wi), or Silver Brooch
  • Cear-chi-neka, or Standing Feather
  • Ho-we-ar, or Gap in the Woods
  • Tir-ha-yah-gua-hip, or Horse's Back
  • Es-a-nanaca (Es-a-man-a-ca), or Wolf's Name
  • Ah-te-es-ta, or Little Horn
  • Pooh-yah-to-yeh-be, or Iron Mountain
  • Sad-dy-yo, or Dog Fat

Plains Apache chiefs signing[2]

  • Mah-vip-pah, Wolf's Sleeve
  • Kon-zhon-ta-co, Poor Bear
  • Cho-se-ta, or Bad Back
  • Nah-tan, or Brave Man
  • Ba-zhe-ech, Iron Shirt
  • Til-la-ka, or WhiteHorn

At that conference, the Comanche Chief Parry-wah-say-men (Ten Bears) gave an eloquent address that foretold the future of his people:

“ My heart is filled with joy when I see you here, as the brooks fill with water when the snow melts in the spring; and I feel glad, as the ponies do when the fresh grass starts in the beginning of the year. I heard of your coming when I was many sleeps away, and I made but a few camps when I met you. I know that you had come to do good to me and my people. I looked for benefits which would last forever, and so my face shines with joy as I look upon you. My people have never first drawn a bow or fired a gun against the whites. There has been trouble on the line between us and my young men have danced the war dance. But it was not begun by us. It was you to send the first soldier and we who sent out the second. Two years ago I came upon this road, following the buffalo, that my wives and children might have their cheeks plump and their bodies warm. But the soldiers fired on us, and since that time there has been a noise like that of a thunderstorm and we have not known which way to go. So it was upon the Canadian. Nor have we been made to cry alone. The blue dressed soldiers and the Utes came from out of the night when it was dark and still, and for camp fires they lit our lodges. Instead of hunting game they killed my braves, and the warriors of the tribe cut short their hair for the dead. So it was in Texas. They made sorrow come in our camps, and we went out like the buffalo bulls when the cows are attacked. When we found them, we killed them, and their scalps hang in our lodges. The Comanches are not weak and blind, like the pups of a dog when seven sleeps old. They are strong and farsighted, like grown horses. We took their road and we went on it. The white women cried and our women laughed.

But there are things which you have said which I do not like. They were not sweet like sugar but bitter like gourds. You said that you wanted to put us upon reservation, to build our houses and make us medicine lodges. I do not want them. I was born on the prairie where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no inclosures [sic] and where everything drew a free breath. I want to die there and not within walls. I know every stream and every wood between the Rio Grande and the Arkansas. I have hunted and lived over the country. I lived like my fathers before me, and like them, I lived happily.

When I was at Washington the Great Father told me that all the Comanche land was ours and that no one should hinder us in living upon it. So, why do you ask us to leave the rivers and the sun and the wind and live in houses? Do not ask us to give up the buffalo for the sheep. The young men have heard talk of this, and it has made them sad and angry. Do not speak of it more. I love to carry out the talk I got from the Great Father. When I get goods and presents I and my people feel glad, since it shows that he holds us in his eye.

If the Texans had kept out of my country there might have been peace. But that which you now say we must live on is too small. The Texans have taken away the places where the grass grew the thickest and the timber was the best. Had we kept that we might have done the things you ask. But it is too late. The white man has the country which we loved, and we only wish to wander on the prairie until we die. Any good thing you say to me shall not be forgotten. I shall carry it as near to my heart as my children, and it shall be as often on my tongue as the name of the Great Father. I want no blood upon my land to stain the grass. I want it all clear and pure and I wish it so that all who go through among my people may find peace when they come in and leave it when they go out.

 ”

—Ten Bears [16]

[edit] Treaty with the Cheyenne and Arapaho

Under the Treaty of the Little Arkansas (1865), the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes had been assigned as a reservation those portions of Kansas and Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) between the Arkansas and Cimarron rivers that lay east of an imaginary line running north from Buffalo Creek on the Cimarron up to the Arkansas.[17] Under the Medicine Lodge Treaty, their assigned territory was cut to less than half of the territory of the 1865 treaty, to only that land that was south of the Kansas state line,[18] for a total of 4,300,000 acres (17,400 km²) of land. Additionally, the tribes were to be permitted to continue to hunt north of the Arkansas River for as long as the buffalo remained, as long as they stayed away from white settlements and roads. This concession was made in in order to obtain the participation of the Dog Soldiers.[6]

Cheyenne chiefs signing[3]

  • O-to-ah-nac-co, Bull Bear
  • Moke-tav-a-to, Black Kettle
  • Nac-co-hah-ket, Little Bear
  • Mo-a-vo-va-ast, Spotted Elk
  • Is-se-von-ne-ve, Buffalo Chief
  • Vip-po-nah, Slim Face
  • Wo-pah-ah, Gray Head
  • O-ni-hah-ket, Little Rock
  • Ma-mo-ki, or Curly Hair
  • O-to-ah-has-tis, Tall Bull
  • Wo-po-ham, or White Horse
  • Hah-ket-home-mah, Little Robe
  • Min-nin-ne-wah, Whirlwind
  • Mo-yan-histe-histow, Heap of Birds

Arapaho chiefs signing[3]

  • Little Raven
  • Yellow Bear
  • Storm
  • White Rabbit
  • Spotted Wolf
  • Little Big Mouth
  • Young Colt
  • Tall Bear

[edit] Unratified

The alleged Treaty was immediately controversial and contested by both the members and leadership of most of the involved tribes. Because the tribes involved were all democratic societies, acceptance of the treaty was contingent upon ratification of 3/4 of the adult members of each of the tribes. This condition was part of the treaty itself. This ratification was never obtained, and thus the treaty was never made valid or legal. This conflict continued for years until the Kiowa Chief Lone Wolf sued the US Secretary of the Interior on behalf of the entirety of the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache tribes, all of whom were defrauded by the government. The case, Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, was decided by the US Supreme Court in 1903. In the decision the Court conceded that the tribes had never agreed to the treaty, but concluded that it did not matter because American Indians did not merit protection of the Bill of Rights, claiming that they were "wards of the nation... Dependent [on the United States] for their daily food". With this same legal status as the institutionalized such as the criminally insane and mentally retarded, they did not have the same rights as full persons of other races who were considered able to make some decisions for themselves. This legal precedent has never been overturned and still influences the position of the United States government towards all aboriginal American tribes.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d "Treaty with the Kiowa and Comanche, 1867" (Medicine Lodge Treaty), 15 Stats. 581, Oct. 21, 1867.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Treaty with the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache, 1867" (Medicine Lodge Treaty), 15 Stats. 589, Oct. 21, 1867.
  3. ^ a b c "Treaty with the Cheyenne and Arapaho, 1867" (Medicine Lodge Treaty), 15 Stats. 593, Oct. 28, 1867.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Greene 2004, p. 34.
  5. ^ Cozzens 2003, p. xxvi.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cozzens 2003, p. xxvii.
  7. ^ a b c Hoig 1980, p. 23.
  8. ^ Cozzens 2003, p. 664.
  9. ^ a b c Hoig 1980, p. 24.
  10. ^ a b Greene 2004, p. 36.
  11. ^ Hoig 1980, p. 25.
  12. ^ Hoig 1980, p. 26.
  13. ^ Hoig 1980, p. 29.
  14. ^ a b Hoig 1980, p. 30.
  15. ^ Hoig 1980, p. 31.
  16. ^ Taylor, Nathaniel G., et. al, (1910) Papers Relating to Talks and Councils Held with the Indians in Dakota and Montana in the years 1866-1869. Washington: Government Printing Office. (Original in the National Archives, Records of the Indian Division, Office of the Secretary of the Interior, Record Group 48.)
  17. ^ Greene 2004, p. 28.
  18. ^ Greene 2004, p. 37.

[edit] References

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