The attempt by the Allison commission to purchase the gold-rich Black
Hills from the Sioux, in a treaty conference near Camp Robinson in
September 1875, developed into another incident in the almost incredible
series of near disasters which plagued dealings with the Indians at Red
Cloud Agency.
The first meeting of the commission was held on September 17 in the
council room of the agency, but the Indians refused to attend, saying
they would sign no treaty under duress. Despite Spotted Tail’s warnings
of possible trouble, the commission agreed to move the treaty site to a
point some eight miles east of Camp Robinson where a meeting was held
under a lone cottonwood tree. The assembled throng of Indians numbered
several thousand, with large numbers from each of the several Sioux
agencies. A troop of cavalry lined each side of the canvas shelter
provided for the commissioners. Young Man Afraid of His Horses ranged
his friendly camp police behind the hostile Indian warriors, and his
assistance in the ensuing troubles was credited with preventing disaster
once again.
Both Red Cloud and Spotted Tail were scheduled to speak in favor of
selling the Black Hills but just as Red Cloud began to make his oration
Little Big Man, armed to the teeth, threatened to shoot the first Indian
who spoke in favor of ceding the Black Hills to the white men. Spotted
Tail advised the commissioners to return to the safety of Camp Robinson
immediately—advice which they took.
The dismal failure of the treaty effort almost assured a war with the
hostile Sioux. The coming campaigns were to be led by the Army’s supreme
Indian fighter, General George Crook, who had taken command of the
critical Department of the Platte the previous spring and had
immediately set about to bring the companies of the Third Cavalry up to
full strength.
General Crook’s first campaign against the hostiles was no more
successful than the Black Hills treaty efforts had been. When cavalrymen
led by Colonel Reynolds attacked and managed to destroy the greater part
of a hostile camp on the Little Powder River on March 17, 1876 they were
forced to withdraw rapidly from the captured village. In an ensuing
running fight the captured Indian horse herd changed hands so many times
that General Crook had the remaining ponies killed to prevent their
recapture. The destruction of the property of one camp did not drive the
hostiles to the agencies in submission; if anything it stiffened their
resistance.
With the spring campaigns inconclusive, Crook prepared for the summer.
The summer campaign of 1876 was designed to trap the hostiles between
three columns: Gibbon from the west, Terry and Custer from the east, and
Crook from the south. Crook’s force numbered 1,774 men and Terry had
1,873. To raise these columns all posts in the Departments of the Platte
and Dakota were stripped of their garrisons. Crook’s column met Crazy
Horse and the hostiles on June 17, 1876 in the Battle of Rosebud Creek
and, although the General claimed a victory when the Indians left the
field, he fell back to his base camp to await reinforcements. On June 25
at the Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Black Moon led
the same hostiles and crushed Custer’s command. Even before the Omaha
Military Headquarters had heard of Custer’s defeat, the Indians at Red
Cloud Agency were discussing it. Frank Yates, one of the traders at the
agency, was a brother of the Captain Yates who fell with Custer. When
the rumors were reported to him he went to Camp Robinson where officers
rejected the possibility of such a disaster. They telegraphed Omaha but
no word had yet reached officers there.
On July 17, 1876, seventeen officers and 346 men of the Fifth Cavalry
commanded by Col. Wesley Merritt passed through Camp Robinson on their
way to reinforce Crook. They paused long enough to intercept a group of
about eight hundred Cheyenne Indians who were leaving Red Cloud Agency.
The Indians claimed to be going on a buffalo hunt, but it was feared
that they were attempting to join the victorious hostiles. Met by the
troops, the Indians were forced to return to the agency after a brief
skirmish. During the fighting Yellow Hand was killed by gunfire and the
scout “Buffalo Bill” Cody took his scalp in an incident which was later
much publicized and embellished.
The great Indian victories brought an end to the Peace Policy, and on
July 22, 1876 control of the Indian agencies was transferred from the
Department of the Interior to the War Department and on June 31 Lt. O.
Elting of Camp Robinson became the acting agent at Red Cloud Indian
Agency. In August the officers discovered a serious shortage in Indian
Department funds and the Army had to loan needed supplies for issue to
the Indians at the agency.
Crook’s column remained in the field throughout the summer, following
the battles of the Rosebud and the Little Big Horn. In September, while
marching towards the Black Hills, Crook found that his supplies were
exhausted, and his men ate their dying mounts in the famed “Horsemeat
March.” A small detachment was sent ahead to obtain supplies. Led by
Capt. Anson Mills and including Lieutenant Crawford of the Third
Cavalry, the advance party discovered and captured a Sioux camp in the
Battle of Slim Buttes, obtaining a considerable supply of meat.
Additional supplies were taken by troops from Camp Robinson to meet the
expedition in the Black Hills. Crook and his staff left the troops, came
in to Robinson, and went on to Fort Laramie. On October 23 and 24, 1876
the men of his command reached Camp Robinson, where the expedition was
disbanded. The sick and wounded were placed in the post hospital, and
Contract Surgeon Valentine T. McGillycuddy was assigned to duty there.
Col. Ranald Mackenzie had come to Camp Robinson with eight companies of
cavalry in August. Mackenzie assumed the command of the post and the
additional troops were quartered in three temporary cantonments. One of
these, Camp Canby, was the original Sioux Expedition cavalry camp. The
others were called Camp Custer and Camp of the Second Battalion, Fourth
Cavalry. In October groups of recruits of 85 and 224 men arrived to
bring the companies up to strength. Colonel Forsyth reported some
companies consisted of nearly two-thirds recruits, owing to recent
discharges of disabled soldiers.
For the brief period when the men of both Crook’s and Mackenzie’s
commands were there, Camp Robinson and its cantonments were very
crowded. General Crook took advantage of the temporary presence of the
fifty-three companies of troops at the post to hold a conference with
Indian leaders at Red Cloud Agency and in no uncertain terms demanded
loyal behavior of them.
Upon the arrival of Mackenzie’s forces, Red Cloud and Red Leaf had moved
their camps some twenty-five miles away from the agency to Chadron
Creek. In October, in preparation for the coming winter campaign,
Colonel Mackenzie sent two battalions of cavalry and the newly arrived
Pawnee Scout battalion, led by Nebraskans, Frank and Luther North, to
disarm these bands and to prevent their joining the hostiles. Two
hundred thirty-nine Indians and 722 ponies were captured. The friendly
Arapaho and Cut-Off Sioux were not disarmed. Crook noted that this was
the first time in the history of Red Cloud Agency that the friendly
Indians were treated better than the stubborn ones.
Preparations for the winter campaign were observed by a visiting
delegation of Japanese army officers at Camp Robinson before Crook and
Mackenzie moved their forces to Fort Fetterman where the campaign would
begin. In the meantime General Miles transported fresh troops to the
northern plains by Missouri River steamboat. Miles fought several
engagements with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Crook sent Mackenzie and
the cavalry and Pawnee Scouts on ahead of his main column and in late
November they routed and destroyed Dull Knife’s Cheyenne village, moving
relentlessly to crush the hostiles’ resistance.
In September 1876, long before the winter victories, the successful
purchase of the Black Hills was negotiated by a new commission headed by
George Manypenny. This Black Hills treaty was signed at Red Cloud Agency
September 26. The commission met the Indians at each agency separately,
thus depriving them of the solidarity of numbers. It also took advantage
of the fact that the hostiles were not present to create confusion. The
Indians later claimed that the use of whiskey, bribes, threats of loss
of all rations and false impressions of the terms of the treaty were
methods employed by the commission, and the validity of the treaty was
questioned. The treaty of 1868 had provided for a specific proportion of
signatures to validate future treaties, and in 1876 only forty Indian
signatures were obtained at Red Cloud, whereas it was later estimated
some 2,267 were needed. However, the Black Hills passed to U.S.
ownership.