Across the Fence: Prelude to Battle

Not many miles east of the Nebraska-Wyoming border, where the North Platte River crosses that boundary, a tiny Wyoming-born tributary takes a sharp turn north in the final leg of its eastward journey. The water that flows through this draw, named Horse Creek, empties into the Platte and joins with the waters of that wide and shallow river until it reaches the waters of the Missouri.

It was in this area on September 17, 1851 that the Fort Laramie Treaty was signed. The gathering of more than 12,000 Native Americans from the plains tribes of Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, Assiniboine, Mandan, Gros Ventre and Arikara was, at that time, the largest assemblage of Native Americans ever held. It was there, on the extreme western edge of what is now the Nebraska Panhandle, that the first major treaty with the plains tribes was negotiated and signed.

More commonly known as The Horse Creek Treaty, the historic event marked the first significant outward sign that the plains tribes were willing to negotiate a lasting peace with the whites. The treaty promised an area of 1.1 million acres that encompassed most of the land from the Republican River in the south to the Canadian border north, the Continental Divide west to the Missouri River in the east. Also promised was a $50,000 annual annuity for the following 50 years. In exchange, the plains tribes were to grant passage of trappers, traders, soldiers and settlers through this vast territory.

David D. Mitchell, Superintendent of Indian Affairs urged congress to pursue peace with the Plains Indians in 1849 with this stern warning; "It is only by some measure [of conciliation] that we can ever establish friendly relations with these Indians. The bones of American citizens that now whiten the plains from borders of the western states to the Rocky Mountains all admonish of the necessity for peace. We can never whip them into friendship; the prowess of our troops and the vast resources of the government would be wasted in long and toilsome marches over plains in the pursuit of an ignis fatuus [deceptive goal]; they would never see an enemy...justice, as well as policy, requires that we should make remuneration for the damages which the Indians sustain in consequence of the destruction of game, timber, etc., by whites passing through their country." Mitchell, along with his good friend and fellow agent Thomas Fitzpatrick, organized and orchestrated the treaty council. Father Pierre De Smet drew the map that delineated the 1.1 million acres by being given descriptions of the land by Jim Bridger and a handful of trappers who were the only white men who knew the country.

Of course, history tells us that ultimately none of these promises were kept because the young warriors of these tribes resented the "soft" peace-seeking intentions of their elders, and white settlers were unwilling to settle for less than all of the land and wealth of the west.

Conquering Bear of the Brule Lakota was appointed by the U.S. Government to be the head chief of all the Sioux and it was Conquering Bear who signed the Horse Creek Treaty on behalf of the Sioux nation. Less than three years later, August 1854, Conquering Bear was killed by troops under Lt. Grattan when he refused to surrender a member of the tribe for slaughtering a stray cow that had belonged to a Mormon immigrant. The ensuing battle is known as the Grattan Massacre.

The Horse Creek Treaty gathering was at first planned for the area around Fort Laramie. However, a shortage of forage for the nearly 20,000 ponies that the Indians brought with them forced the assembly farther east, along the southern banks of the Platte where grass was more plentiful. The gathering lasted nearly a month and at its conclusion, as the people and ponies and soldiers left, many thousands of acres lay stripped and barren and great clouds of dust billowed skyward ahead of the strong prairie winds.

In the years that followed, the terms of the treaty slowly and steadily eroded. Small but deadly raids were frequent along the soldier roads and both settlers and soldiers suffered the consequences of brutal raids. Old men, women and children, on both sides, were victims of barbaric atrocities and revenge fueled the ever-escalating attacks that shattered any hope of a lasting peace.

In the spring of 1865 Two Face and Black Foot, each leaders of their respective Sioux bands, brought their people to Fort Laramie to proclaim their desire for peace. As an attempted show of good faith, Two Face brought a white woman, Lucinda Eubanks, to the fort. Two Face claimed to have bought her from the Cheyenne, who had captured her nearly a year earlier during a raid on the Little Blue, and wanted to return her to the whites. Mrs. Eubanks had been severely mistreated and assaulted by the Cheyenne, and not so well treated while with the Sioux. Two Face's wives had forced her to work and beat her often. Her report to the post commander, Col. Thomas Moonlight, revealed the horrific treatment she had endured while a Cheyenne captive and also accused Two Face of forced relations.

Col. Moonlight concluded that Two Face was the true captor and that Black Foot was obviously an accomplice. Col Moonlight ordered the two chiefs to be arrested and to serve as an example they were to be hanged. The orders were carried out immediately and the Sioux families who had accompanied them were placed under guard.

Black Foot and Two Face were bound, hand and foot, by chains and placed on the bed of a wagon where they stood under a quickly constructed gallows. Chains were flung over the crossbeam then wrapped around the chief's necks. Both men began to chant their death songs and Two Face was heard to say, "Meah washts" (I am brave). Then, speaking in English, he told his executioners that he had killed white men before and if they turned him lose he would kill white men again. The wagon was drawn from under the gallows and Two Face and Black Foot struggled for breath as they slowly strangled to death.

Col. Moonlight ordered that the bodies of the two chiefs were to remain hanging and not to be taken down in order to serve as an example. They hung until their decomposing bodies fell from the chains that held them.

On the 11th day of June, 1865 Major Mackey of Fort Laramie issued orders to Captain W.D. Fouts of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry. Captain Fouts was to command 135 enlisted men and 4 officers to escort the more than 1,500 Sioux friendlies, who had followed Two Face and Black Foot, from Fort Laramie to Fort Sedgwick near Julesburg. The troops and the Indians under escort followed the south side of the North Platte River, a common route for the military. From Julesburg the Sioux bands were to be transported to reservations on the Missouri.

According to archived military reports, most all of the Indians were armed with bows and arrows and many also carried firearms. Apparently, Captain Fouts assumed that the 1,500 well armed friendlies posed no serious threat and so issued orders that the troops were not to be given any ammunition. What ammunition was available was crated and stored in the supply wagons along with equipment and rations for the troops and the Indians.

Among the Sioux, it is told that during the march from Fort Laramie, young boys that raced along the rivers edge would be caught and punished by being tied to a wagon wheel and whipped. Small children at play would be tossed into the river where they would struggle against the current of spring floods to regain the safety of the riverbank, while the soldiers laughed at their peril. It is also said that some soldiers would take young Sioux women into their tents at night while fathers and mothers stood silent, too fearful to interfere. But among the young men, those whose veins still pulsed with the hot blood of a warrior, the anger rose and they waited and secretly planned their revenge.

In the north, warriors such as Crazy Horse, Hump and He Dog, as well as Spotted Tail and Red Cloud, who had relatives among those captive Sioux, gathered together their warriors and headed south toward the Platte, sending their scouts ahead to mingle with the people as they journeyed toward Julesburg.

After a two-day march, on June 13, 1865, the convoy of soldiers and Sioux camped on the east bank of Horse Creek. At this campsite, 14 years earlier, Conquering Bear had made his mark on the treaty that was to bring peace among the whites and the Indians of the plains, a treaty that had been broken many times over in the previous years.

Next week: The Battle on Horse Creek

M. Timothy Nolting is an award winning Nebraska columnist and freelance writer. To contact Tim; email, [email protected]