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Show 3 fUen and White Meet Once More on Medicine Lodges Historic Ground I Celebrates Uic Seventieth Anniversary of the Peace Treaty That Helped i f Open to Settlement an Empire in the West tb r ft s u l(hi li i1 iiiJH.ii''ii.rAl.mii'lli,1 ivA, n-.......... t niMfiin,,,! 11 minmiii Tffln "i i 4 stood at rest, waiting for the negotiations ne-gotiations to begin." The conference and distribution of gifts dragged along for two weeks. Finally, after the terms of the proposed treaty had been fully explained to the Indians, the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache chiefs signed it on October 21 and ; the Cheyennes and Arapahoes on I October 28. The Indians agreed to accept reservations in what is now Oklahoma, although retaining retain-ing the privilege of hunting buffalo buf-falo in Kansas as far north as the Arkansas river, to refrain from further attacks -on the whites and to withdraw all opposition oppo-sition to the construction of railroads rail-roads and other roads and the building of forts in the western country. In return the government sol-emly sol-emly promised to "set apart for the undisturbed use and occupation occupa-tion of the tribes" the reservations designated in the treaty, to provide pro-vide certain annuities for these tribes for a period of 30 years and to establish agencies, schools, etc., for their use. However, congress con-gress was slow in ratifying the treaty and it was more than a year before some of its provisions were carried out. Angered by this delay, and seeing in it another evi- The Peace Treaty Monument in Medicine Lodge, Kan. l, th .jfj J I fig "v - , ! Law WATSON I Qspot where red 1 & white once held K Smost important I the history of the r. "t, white men and I con be meeting to I V even which , .ee there nearly three- of a century ago. I :eis in Barber coun-i coun-i 3S where Elm creek j Medicine river, and I .October 6, 7 and 8 em city of Medicine sstegirg a pageant enacts the signing i ledicine Lodge peace if October, 18C7. , in the celebration Ration of Indians I -ahoma-Cheyennes, I ,es, Comanches, Kio-I Kio-I i Apaches, descend- ie red signers of the ! A troop of the Sev-I Sev-I airy from Fort Riley, also be there be-oldiers be-oldiers of this regi-tiped regi-tiped escort the white (doners to the treaty eaty was a consequence ;e "peace policy" injuring in-juring the administra-resident administra-resident Andrew Johnson, ore a policy of necessity ! i choice. The govern-far govern-far policy," adopted to 'A to the Indian raids that ed the frontier after the r, had been a failure. So reat White Father' in ion, after his military had whip his erring red chil-xided chil-xided to conquer them iness. At least, his ad-jio ad-jio were advocates of the ace policy," told him that be done that way. :ingly, Col. Jesse H. Leav-i Leav-i agent for the Kiowas manches, was instructed aniel Greene Taylor, com-r com-r of Indian affairs, to ring together all the hos-.thwestern hos-.thwestern tribes for a council. Leavenworth ;on George Bent, the half-ki half-ki of the founder of Bent's the Arkansas, to use his with his mother's peo-Cheyennes, peo-Cheyennes, as well as the ribes, to get them to as-at as-at a Wichita village near :th of the Little Arkansas At i conference there ae of the leading chiefs 5ve tribes, Leavenworth a of his orders and asked i name a place where they meet with commissioners m coming from Washing-cake Washing-cake a treaty. After some Indians designated the ' of Elm creek and the river. Here a great elm trees provided a i camping place where drink and bathe in the waters of the Medicine aw their ponies to graze wet native grasses which a the valleys. ! meantime Thomas Mur-rintendent Mur-rintendent of Indian af-f af-f that district, had arrived urned where great quan-: quan-: wpplies were being 1 'T distribution at the accompanied the party and two of the leading national weeklies were represented by "special artists." art-ists." John D. Rowland, later prominent in Colorado history, was there for Harper's and James E. Taylor, well known for hs spirited drawings of incidents in the Indian campaigns of the next fews years, represented Frank Leslie's, Among the Indian leaders were such famous chiefs as Little Raven, Ra-ven, Spotted Wolf, Yellow Bear, Storm, Powder Face and Ice of the Arapahoes; Black Kettle, Bull Bear, Tall Bull and Grey Head of the Cheyennes; Satanta, Sa-tank, Sa-tank, Stumbling Bear and Kicking Bird of the Kiowas; Young Bear, Ten Bears and Painted Lips of the Comanches; and Wolf Sleeve, Poor Bear, Iron Shirt and Crow of the Apaches. Although Black Kettle, Bull Bear and the other Cheyenne chiefs were present to talk with the representatives of the "Great White Father," their main camp was pitched several miles up the Medicine river. They weren't taking any chances on another Sand Creekl In fact, despite the commissioners' military escort of some 6,000 men three troops of the Seventh cavalry, two companies com-panies of infantry and a battery of Gatling guns the Indians were so numerous that they might well have exacted revenge for that massacre if they had been so minded. A Thrilling Spectacle. Two weeks later they staged a demonstration which probably caused the white men some uneasiness. un-easiness. One of the teamsters who had been freighting supplies from Fort Larned was Billy Dixon, Dix-on, later famous as a participant i already pitched along the two streams and that he expected more than 5,000 Indians to be present by the time the commissioners commis-sioners .arrived. They reached Medicine Lodge on October 14. A Congress of Notables. Famous as is the Medicine Lodge treaty in western history, it would be memorable for the number of notables who had a part in it, if for no other reason. Among those who helped in the preliminary work were Kit Carson, Car-son, the renowned scout and guide; Jesse Chisholm, the half-breed half-breed Cherokee whose name is immortalized in the most famous of all cattle trails; Col. A. G. Boone, grandson of the immortal Daniel; William Matthewson, the original "Buffalo Bill"; Black Beaver, the celebrated Delaware Indian scout; and a number of other frontier characters of lesser fame. The commission itself, headed by N. G. Taylor, United States commissioner of Indian affairs and chief exponent of the "peace policy," was composed of Senator John B. Henderson of Missouri, A. S. H. White, secretary, Gen. Alfred H. Terry, Gen. C. C. Augur, Au-gur, Gen. W. L Harney, Gen. John B. Sanborn and Col. S. F. Tappan. General Augur was added to the commission to take the place of Gen. W. T. Sherman, who was recalled re-called to Washington before the party left Fort Larned. Sherman, it will be recalled, was credited with that frank, if brutal, declaration decla-ration that "the only good Indian In-dian is a dead one." Presumably General Harney subscribed to that sentiment, too. Twelve years earlier he had won a reputation as a successful Indian In-dian fighter by attacking the camp of Little Thunder, a friendly Brule Sioux chief, and by killing nearly a hundred men, women and children. Both Harney and Sanborn had been members of another peace commission, which included William Wil-liam Bent and Kit Carson and which had made a treaty with these same tribes at the mouth of the Little Arkansas in October, 1865. Since neither the whites nor the Indians had kept this treaty, both of these generals can be forgiven if they were cynical as to the value of making another here at Medicine Lodge. Other Witnesses. Entitled to the same cynicism were Gov. Samuel J. Crawford of Kansas, ex-Lieut. Gov. J. P. Root and Senator E. G. Ross, who were also present at Medicine Lodge. Within a year some of these red warriors would be raiding raid-ing through Kansas, killing settlers, set-tlers, burning their homes and carrying women and children away into captivity and Governor Crawford would resign his office to lead the Nineteenth Kansas cavalry in an expedition against thelostiles. And then, ironically enough, this expedition, led by Gen. George A. Custer, would attack at-tack a camp of the Cheyennes on the banks of the Washita river in Oklahoma (where they had a perfect per-fect right, under the terms of the Medicine Lodge treaty, to be) and kill their chief. Black Kettle, and with him 13 men, 16 women and 9 children. . Other witnesses to the treary were Maj. E. W. Wynkoop, Superintendent Su-perintendent Murphy, Colonel Leavenworth and Col. J. K. Rankin, Ran-kin, representing the Indian department, de-partment, and John Smith and George Bent, who acted as m-terprlters. m-terprlters. In addition there was present also a considerable press gaUery"'composed of representatives represent-atives from the leading newspa-pers newspa-pers of the country. 'Outstanding among these was Henry M Stanley, Stan-ley, correspodent for the New Sk TribunTwho later became famous as an African explorer when James Gordon Bennett of the Herald sent him to the Dark Continent to "find LJingstone A photographer named Willis aiso 7 KW-V.lWffiU J.w.'JEtfWre " "rV ' j ' '-i'yk .j It 2 Z ft ,-s, t i ft vb 1 I ? i ' CHIEF SATANTA dence of the white man's bad faith, war parties from some of the tribes resumed their raids in Kansas and in Texas. Even if the government had lived up to the letter of its agree ment, it is doubtful if peace would have prevailed throughout the region. re-gion. The authority of chiefs over their followers was slight, at best, and a leader who may have wished to live at peace with the whites could not always control con-trol his young braves who wished to win honor on the war trail. Then, too, as George Bird Grinnell has pointed out in his book, "The Fighting Cheyennes," "the giving of a few presents and the signing of treaties by a few chiefs would not appease the Indians, whose livelihood, the buffalo, was being destroyed and driven away." The clash of conflicting interests was inevitable, and when it came, nothing could restrain the Indians from raiding the settlements and the government could not turn a deaf ear to the settlers' demands that military force be used against the marauders. , Importance of the Treaty. So the "peace" that was made at Medicine Lodge proved, to be a hollow one and another ten years was to elapse before the Indians were anally conquered and forced to remain within the bounds of their reservations. However, How-ever, the Medicine Lodge treaty was important because it gave the white man a basis for his claims to the right to settle western Kansas Kan-sas and certain parts of Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, and it cleared the way for the completion comple-tion of the Union Pacific railroad and building the Santa Fe. When the "iron horse" entered this vast empire, the buffalo was doomed and that meant the end of the Indian, also. Tall Bull of the Cheyennes would lead a few more raids against the hated white men, then die at the Battle of Summit Springs in Colorado two years after he had signed the Medicine Lodge treaty. Satanta of the Kiowas, the "Orator of the Plains," would fight vainly against the fate that was overtaking overtak-ing his people and die in a Texas prison, a suicide. Little Raven, great chief of the Arapahoes, would bow to the inevitable and end his days peacefully on the reservation alloted to him by tho "Great White Father." But before be-fore that came about, the land over which his tribesmen had roamed for centuries would be coming into the Union as the new state of Colorado and within a few years more Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, once the hunting grounds of the tribes who signed at Medicine Lodge, would be joining join-ing Colorado in the sisterhood of states. , Weatern NaJMpaper Union. Ml CHIEF LITTLE RAVEN in the Adobe Walls and Buffalo Wallow fights during the war of 1874-75. He describes the demon-station demon-station as follows: "I shall never forget that morning morn-ing At a distance of about two miles from our camp was the crest of a low swell in the Plains. The background was blue sky a blue curtain that touched the brown Plains. For a moment I was dumbfounded at the sight of what was rising over that crest and flowing with commotion toward to-ward us. It was a glittering, fluttering, gaily colored mass of barbarism, the flower and perfection perfec-tion of the war strength of the Plains Indian tribes. The resplendent resplen-dent warriors, armed with ag their equipment and adorned with 11 the regalia of battle, seemed number was estimated at 15,000, Eut I cannot vouch for its accu-racy. accu-racy. "As they came into plainer view the Indians spread their ranks wider and wider, to create as profound an impression as Possible, and inspire us deep y 5th thete power. Now they could S heard chanting and singing. Having arrived within a quarter 5 Jmae of our camp, the Indians charged Se a whirlwind, firing their guns. The charge was ab-ruptiy ab-ruptiy halted, and the Indians . .. , p W- S. HARNEY tjincluded a herd of Cbi ht3 and Nothing ?2n'etoverfromthf . Jwhich the War de- 4rSlf?r distri- 1 month 50 for more W umule ams W Port rU,ingihia ma-nds ma-nds Urned 10 toe Murgathered ttere tm pVn hand to ""a 431 lodge, were |