Difficulties continued at Red Cloud. Interpreter Rowland, who had
delivered Saville’s message calling for troops, attempted to conceal his
part in the arrival of the Sioux Expedition but was unable to do so. A
Cheyenne, Crawls in the Water, attempted to shoot Rowland but was
himself killed. Rowland fled to the military camp for protection, and
agency employees rescued his wife and children while the hostiles burned
his house and haystack.
The young warriors amused themselves by shooting over the military tents
and Colonel Smith warned that he would attack the Indian village if any
of his men were injured. Troops from Camp Robinson generally carried
arms, and the daily wood train was under heavy escort.
Gradually the Indians became more reconciled to the presence of troops,
and when the annual Sun Dance was held at Red Cloud in the early summer,
Lieutenant Carter was able to arrange for J. Tavernier, a French artist
employed by _Harper’s Weekly_, to attend the dance. Unfortunately,
lightning struck the sacred pole during the height of the ceremonies.
This was interpreted by the Indians as supernatural disapproval of their
visitors, and the artist and officer hastily left the scene.
The infantry at Camp Robinson had their camp alongside the agency
stockade while Lt. Emmet Crawford’s troop of Third Cavalry camped a
short distance away in the bottomlands of the White River. By spring it
was evident that the location of Camp Robinson in close proximity to Red
Cloud Agency was not an ideal arrangement. Daily contact invited
friction between soldiers and Indian warriors, but an even more serious
problem was the lack of sufficient grass for the cavalry horses. When
warm weather made the rotting refuse of butchered issue beef “difficult
to bear” the need for relocating the encampment became critical. In May
1874 Colonel Smith moved Camp Robinson a mile and a half west of the
agency; there near the confluence of Soldier Creek and the White River
the permanent post was later built. The troops remained in tents
throughout the first summer.
Soon after Camp Robinson was moved to its new site the Indian warriors
made an attack on the military encampment. This very serious affair
occurred as the result of the arrest of an escaped convict, Toussaint
Kenssler, by Lieutenants Crawford and Ray at Red Cloud Agency. Kenssler
had escaped from a jail in Wyoming Territory and hidden among his Indian
friends. While at Red Cloud he threatened the agent, his employees, and
the Army officer who had originally arrested him. He attempted to
assault a man who had been a witness during his trial and on one
occasion delayed the Camp Robinson mail carrier for several hours. When
the officers identified Kenssler they tried to apprehend him. He
attempted to escape and Lieutenant Ray shot him through the legs. This
action incensed many of the Indians and the two officers experienced
some tense moments before they got their prisoner safely from the agency
to Camp Robinson.
About midnight the Indians made an attempt to rescue the prisoner by
attacking the military camp. The soldiers formed a skirmish line and
moved out towards the flashing Indian guns. The warriors fell back in
the face of the soldiers’ gunfire and the troops withdrew to their camp
only to discover that their entire supply of beef on the hoof had been
driven off by other Indians during the brief engagement. Lieutenant
Crawford and the cavalry troop recovered a large number of the stolen
cattle.
The Kenssler affair was a demonstration that despite the small size of
the garrisons the troops were not going to allow themselves to be
intimidated by the Indian warriors. Rifle target practice was held at
Camp Robinson, and at Camp Sheridan target practice with the Gatling gun
was held in July. Such impressive demonstrations of military power must
have had a tempering effect on the Indians at the agency.
Other activities also occupied the post garrison. For example, in July
Lieutenant Crawford spent a great deal of time giving assistance to
homesteaders in the Loup Valley of Nebraska where a serious plague of
grasshoppers struck.
Since neither of the two agencies was on the permanent Sioux
reservation, the military hesitated to begin construction of winter
quarters. An Indian commission headed by Bishop Hare arrived to
investigate the recent troubles at the agency and to settle this
problem, and during July and August troops from Camp Robinson escorted
the commissioners. Bishop Hare decided that Red Cloud Agency would
remain at its White River location despite the fact that it was not
within the limits of the permanent reservation. After considerable
discussion Spotted Tail agreed to the relocation of his agency and both
the Spotted Tail Agency and its associated military establishment, Camp
Sheridan, were moved to a more favorable site on Beaver Creek. With the
location question settled, the Army began construction of permanent
quarters for the troops.
In June 1874 Capt. W. H. Jordan and Companies A and I of the Ninth
Infantry arrived at Camp Robinson, replacing Company F, Eighth Infantry
and Company F of the Fourteenth Infantry. Post Commander Jordan soon
issued orders to start cutting logs and to begin construction of
barracks. Ten wagons and sixty mules were employed in hauling materials,
and the sawmill at Red Cloud Agency was made available for use by the
troops. By November, although barracks and urgently needed warehouses
were ready, only two sets of the adobe officers’ quarters were
completed. The post surgeon complained bitterly of “criminal
neglect”[14] when the delivery of heating stoves was unnecessarily
delayed.
The northern hostiles, absent during much of the summer, began returning
to Red Cloud Agency in October 1874 in anticipation of the issue of
annuity goods in November. With their arrival came new troubles at the
agency, and it almost seemed as if the agent was trying to create
problems for himself and the Army. Saville requested the aid of the
soldiers at Camp Robinson in arresting those responsible for killing
Frank Appleton the previous February, but when he found that the
military commander was instructed that his function was to protect the
agency and not to make arrests, Saville gave up the idea. It was just as
well that military help was denied because an attempt to make such an
arrest would surely have had serious results.
Next Saville decided to erect a flagpole at the agency and for this
purpose had a tall pine cut and brought inside the agency stockade. The
chiefs were opposed to the flagpole, but Saville did not take their
objections seriously. The northern faction was strongly opposed to the
flagpole and on October 23, 1874 a group of armed warriors entered the
agency stockade while Saville was inside his office talking to Red Cloud
and Red Dog. He was called out just in time to see the flagpole being
chopped to bits by the warriors, led by the same men who had made him a
prisoner in his own office the year before.
Saville immediately sent a messenger to Camp Robinson with a request for
a troop of cavalry, but he neglected to inform the commanding officer of
the serious nature of the disturbance then in progress. Shorthanded
because some of the cavalry were off on an escort mission, Captain
Jordan sent only twenty-two men, led by Lt. Emmet Crawford. When
Lieutenants Crawford and Steever and their men reached the agency they
were immediately surrounded by some four hundred Indian warriors.
A group of Akicita or Indian camp police arrived on the scene, led by
Sitting Bull of the South who carried a distinctive three-bladed club.
These Indians rushed between the troops and the angry warriors and with
their clubs beat the hostiles back, clearing a path so that the soldiers
could gain the safety of the agency stockade. Old Man Afraid of His
Horses then dispelled the crowd after a long harangue, and several other
agency leaders were helpful in preventing further trouble.[15]
One report of the affair stated that flagpoles at Indian agencies were
both unusual and unnecessary. The flagpole incident caused considerable
ill feeling between the agent and the military men, the latter believing
the agent had needlessly put the soldiers in a very serious position.
Whether or not it had anything to do with the flagpole incident at Red
Cloud Agency in 1874, the American flag was not raised over Camp
Robinson until Washington’s Birthday, 1876. The honor of raising the
flag on that occasion went to Sgt. John Kailey, Ninth Infantry, whose
twenty-seven years of service were the longest of any man then stationed
at the post.[16]
Indian Agent Saville’s efforts to get a count of the Indians receiving
supplies at Red Cloud were finally crowned with success on November 30,
1874. Two factors combined to produce this result. First, Saville
announced that no more rations would be issued until the Indians
submitted to counting. In the face of this threat Old Man Afraid of His
Horses changed his mind and counting began. He is also reported to have
compelled Red Cloud to withdraw his opposition. The enumeration revealed
a total of about 12,000 Indians: 9,339 Sioux, 1202 Cheyenne and 1092
Arapaho.”[17]
Events at the agency and the camp still did not go well. Indian leaders
were quick to sense the divided opinions of various authorities and
would complain to the Army officers about the agent’s handling of their
affairs. When officers listened, the agent regarded it as interference
on the part of the military. Many soldiers did not agree with the aims
and methods of the Grant Peace Policy of agency administration under
which various church groups nominated Indian Agents. As one officer put
it, the efforts were to “civilize these people immediately whether they
are willing or not. This may be good church theory but it is very
impractical. These Indians had better by far be left alone at their
agency than to be forced into hostilities by being forced to accept
civilization and a religion they can’t understand and don’t want to
understand.”[18] Another officer assessed the plans to convert the Sioux
to peaceful farmers in the following way: “... it is not easy to see how
they are to become farmers when they have no good farming land to work
on....”[19]
Red Cloud Agency had many visitors, including Professor O. C. Marsh
whose paleontological expedition into the nearby fossil area was
furnished with a military escort. Professor Marsh was instrumental in
focusing national attention on Red Cloud Agency. In the course of
securing permission of the Indians to excavate fossils in their land
Marsh became acquainted with Chief Red Cloud. He was given samples of
particularly foul supplies which he was told were normal issue goods.
The professor’s evidence of frauds at the agency was given wide
publicity, and Red Cloud Agency became a political as well as a military
hot-spot. A full scale investigation of agency affairs followed, and
newspaper accounts of the hearings were full of possible frauds by the
supply and freight contractors. Although Agent Saville was exonerated,
he was removed from his post and replaced by J. S. Hastings.
Although war with the Sioux had been a latent possibility during some of
the more serious difficulties at Red Cloud Agency, it had been avoided.
While incidents at the agency failed to spark a general conflict, events
not too far off were developing into a situation which led to war with
the hostile Indians in 1876.
The Sidney Trail was developed to supply the agencies and the military
posts; it also became a major route to the Black Hills following the
discovery of gold there by the Custer Expedition in 1874. Men from Camps
Robinson and Sheridan were called upon to check the illegal influx of
miners into the Black Hills, an area guaranteed to the Indians by
treaty. Although the soldiers frequently removed parties from the Hills
there were far too few troops to cope with the situation. Soldiers from
Camp Robinson took regular turns at the base camp near Harney Peak, and
at the subpost on Hat Creek.
The Black Hills patrols from Camp Robinson produced one of the heroic
marches of the period. On the day after Christmas, 1874, Capt. Guy V.
Henry was ordered to take his troop of Third Cavalry, accompanied by
Lieutenant Carpenter and fifteen men of the Ninth Infantry, to the Black
Hills in search of gold miners. They failed to find the miners, but on
their return the command was caught in a severe blizzard and would have
perished but for Captain Henry’s leadership. Nearly all of the men were
badly frozen and on their return to Camp Robinson in January 1875 the
new additions brought the sick list to over 50 per cent of the garrison.
As late as January 20 Mr. Raymond, the scout, was still in the hospital.
Some miners, like California Joe, served the Army as scouts and used the
time thus spent in the Black Hills to prospect future claims. California
Joe served as guide for the 1875 Jenney geological expedition escorted
by Col. R. I. Dodge and eight companies of troops.
Indians were not the only persons contributing to the troubles at Red
Cloud Agency which occupied the attention of the soldiers from Camp
Robinson. Many horse thieves such as “Doc” Middleton’s gang hung out in
the area and stole Indian mounts. The agency became “a mighty tough
place” according to George Colhoff, an employee at the Yates Trading
Company. It was a road agents’ rendezvous, with men like Black Doak, Fly
Speck Billy, Lame Johnny, Paddy Simons, Tom Reed and Herman Leisner
frequenting the agency between their attacks on the stagecoaches
traveling the Sidney-Deadwood and Cheyenne-Deadwood trails.[20]
Excitement still prevailed at Red Cloud Agency during the winter of
1875-76 when the agent, Hastings, reported considerable trouble with
whiskey runners. Some of the Army’s valuable scouts, Big Bat Pourier and
Frank Grouard, were involved in fights at the agency as well. The camp
Robinson mail carriers were killed by Indians on December 25, 1876, and
in the spring (1876) Indians not only ran off the agency beef herd in
broad daylight but killed Charles Clarke, the civilian mail driver, near
the White River. Agency trader J. W. Dear recovered Clarke’s body and
mentioned in a description of the affair that the Indians had also run
off stock at his ranch and attacked the wagon train of the Yates Trading
Company.