_Major-General_.
General Connor, in compliance with his orders, moved south from Fort
Connor to distribute at the different posts where they had been assigned,
the forces not ordered to be mustered out. As soon as he started south to
Fort Laramie the Indians followed him and swarmed immediately on the
overland routes, both the North and South Platte, reaching even as far as
the Arkansas, and committed great depredations. The troops along those
lines had been mustered out, and the regular-army force that was to take
their places had not arrived. It was a harvest for the Indians. In my
absence General Pope had assigned to the different districts regular-army
officers for permanent command. They were to take the places of the
volunteers. Under my instructions I immediately sent word to the Indians
to come to Fort Laramie for the purpose of a consultation. To accomplish
this I sent out the best-posted guides (using chiefs, sub-chiefs,
half-breeds of friendly Indians) that I knew on the plains, to each of the
hostile tribes asking them to come into Fort Laramie. I instructed the
messengers to tell them that if any of their people had gone to the
Missouri River for peaceable purposes to let them go, but to bring in all
that were left, providing they felt disposed to settle without delay. I
sent them word that if they did not come in and settle they would find
that our summer campaign was only a taste of what they would get this
winter, for we would give them no rest. I posted the district commanders
thoroughly, telling them what we wanted was to settle with the Indians
before they discovered the smallness of our forces on the plains. I told
them they might say, also, that all of the Indians south of the Arkansas
had made peace, and gave instructions that they be told about the battle
with the Arapahoes and Cheyennes on Powder and Tongue Rivers. I sent the
district commanders word to show Big Ribs, one of my messengers, the
forces at their posts, and to impress upon him our power. The effect of
this appeal to the different tribes was that early in the spring of 1866
we got together at Fort Laramie the principal chiefs and the head men of
the North Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and the different tribes of the Sioux,
when a council was held.
I had instructed General Frank Wheaton, who commanded at Fort Laramie,
that we would agree to almost anything to bring a permanent peace except
to allow the Indians to come down to the North Platte and occupy the
country through which the new military road was laid out to Bozeman, Mont.
Our troops, in passing up the east base of the Black Hills, had discovered
gold. There were Colorado and California Regiments in the commands, and I
knew, and so did General Connor, that many were preparing, as soon as a
treaty was made, to go back into that country and prospect it, and I gave
that reason to the Indians for holding them north of the Belle Fourche
Fork of the Cheyenne River; but that country was their best
hunting-ground. They were perfectly willing to give up all the country
south of the Platte River, and not to interfere with the building of the
Union Pacific road or with any of the overland routes up the North or
South Platte; but they would not consent to give up the Black Hills north
of the North Platte. Finally we made an agreement with them that they
should occupy the country north of the North Platte River until such time
as the Government should see proper to send a commission out to negotiate
a permanent peace with them. I gave instructions to tell them that if the
white men went into their territory and we did not keep them out, they
were at liberty to do so. I knew that would deter any white man going in
there, and as long as they kept the peace, we would. Red Cloud, who had
then come to the head of the Ogalalla band of the Sioux Indians, took a
prominent part in this conference, and was backed by such chiefs as
Spotted Tail, Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses, Big Ribs, and the Bent boys on
behalf of the Cheyennes. He declared that they would never give up their
country north of the Platte. "You may take my country," said Red Cloud,
"but I will mark every mile of that Bozeman trail from the North Platte to
Yellowstone with the bodies of your soldiers;" and this he pretty nearly
accomplished. This agreement, made at Fort Laramie, accomplished nothing.
During the years 1866, 1867 and 1868 the Indians swarmed across the lines
agreed upon and occupied the country, especially along the Union Pacific,
which was then being constructed through that country. The Government had
to send in additional troops, and all the military posts over the country
had to be re-occupied the same as they had been before. The Government
endeavored to again reach these Indians through a peace commission in
1868. General W. T. Sherman was at the head of it, and it was composed of
General Harney and others. They visited me at Fort Sanders, Wyo., before
they went to make a treaty with the Indians, and wished to know my reasons
for the position I took in the consultation of 1866. I then told General
Sherman that my soldiers had found gold in all the streams heading in the
Black Hills north of the North Platte, and that as soon as he allowed
those Indians to come to the North Platte under a treaty of peace, he
would not be across the Missouri River on his return before that country
would be covered by prospectors from California and Colorado. General
Sherman answered that their instructions were to make such a peace and
they were sent there to do it, and, sure enough, they did; and as soon as
the treaty was made the miners poured into the country. One of the first
mines that was discovered was the Homestake or Homestead. Sitting Bull,
who had taken part in this treaty and whose country was the Black Hills,
sent in protest after protest, demanding that the Government live up to
the terms of the treaty and drive the miners out, but no attention was
paid to them. The miners and settlers poured into the Black Hills country
and drove the Indians out, and Sitting Bull said in a conference he had
with some of the Army officers in the 70's that if the Government did not
protect their territory as provided in the treaty, they would themselves;
and they started to do it. The massacres of that year came from his band,
the troubles finally ending with the sacrifice of the Custer Regiment in
1876. While this was a horrible event, the Indians, under the treaty, were
fully justified in it. During this same time Red Cloud occupied the
Bozeman trail. He killed emigrants, besides murdering Captain Fetterman
and his company at Fort Phil Kearney, and other troops located at the
posts that we established along there in 1866, such as Forts Reno,
McKinney, Phil Kearney, and C. F. Smith. It was not until after the Custer
massacre that these Indians were brought to time and put on reservations;
since then peace has prevailed.
The Government had the same difficulty on the Arkansas River route that we
had on the Platte routes in the summer of 1866, 1867, and 1868. The
Indians that had made the agreement with Colonel Leavenworth were all
committing depredations until finally the Government sent General Sheridan
there with instructions to punish them. They tried to play the same game
with Sheridan that they had played with us, but he would have none of it.
There was no one in Washington who would force him to listen to the
appeals of the peace commission. His troops, under Colonels Custer, Evans,
and others, fought three battles south of the Arkansas, noticeably wiping
out some bands, and making them give up their prisoners, stop their
murders, and go on reservations in the Indians' territory. From that time
on they have been peaceable.
We were much better prepared, in the fall of 1865, both on the Arkansas
and on the Yellowstone, to conquer these Indians. We had got up to their
villages and had plenty of troops, plenty of provisions, and plenty of
clothing, and could carry on the campaign through the winter, if
necessary; and so, if we had allowed General Ford or General Sanborn to
have gone forward with the columns and punish those southern Indians, they
would have made a permanent peace. But the fact is the Indians did not
give up until they were thoroughly thrashed and made to recognize the
power and authority of the Government.
The policy of the United States in dealing with the Indian problem is
beyond the comprehension of any sensible man. They were treated the same
as foreign nations; and while they made treaties they never carried out
their part of them, breaking them whenever the trend of civilization
westward interfered with them in any way. The Government attempted to deal
with and govern the Indians with civil agents and at the same time tried
to enforce peace through the military authorities. This caused friction;
and deception and cheating in the supplying of them through their
contractors and civil agents brought untold complaints. If the Government
had treated the Indians as a ward that they were bound to protect, as the
English did, they would have had very little trouble in handling them. The
military force would have held all conferences with them; fed them when
they needed it; located them in an early day on unoccupied good
hunting-grounds; and finally, as civilization moved into their territories
and as their tribes wasted away, would have given them reservations where
the Government from the money they received from the lands the Indians
claimed, could have kept and fed them without any great burden or cost. In
all the days of Indian warfare and treaties, there never was such a farce,
or failure to comprehend the frontier situation, as in the years 1865 and
1866, and the failure of the Government to take advantage of the
comprehensive plans instituted by the military authorities, as well as of
the great expenditures made, and to punish the Indians as they deserved,
brought, in after years, greater expenditures and more disturbances than
ever.
Early in the campaign, after General Pope had made known his views to the
Government, he requested me to write fully mine to the Secretary of the
Interior, who had charge of Indian affairs, and who was from my state, and
I sent him this letter: