Chronology of American Indian History

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August 1 to 2

The Cheyenne and Lakota battle U.S. troops
in the Hayfield and Wagon Box Fights.
On August 1, a Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux war
party falls on a group of whites cutting hay near
Fort C. F. Smith on the Bozeman Trail (see entry
for JULY 1866). The haycutters and about 20 troops
guarding them retreat into a small log corral they
built for protection in case of Indian attack. Armed
with new breech-loading rifles, the soldiers are able
to hold off the warriors until reinforcements arrive.
The following day, Lakota warriors led by Red
Cloud attack about 30 soldiers near Fort Phil Ke-
arny, the target of the Fetterman Fight a year before
(see entry for DECEMBER 21, 1866). The troops are
guarding whites loading logs into wagon boxes on
an open plain at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains.
Barricading themselves behind the wagon boxes, the
soldiers, like those in the previous day’s fight, suffer
few casualties, largely because of their superior weap-
onry. Popularly known as the Hayfield Fight and the
Wagon Box Fight, these two encounters will be the
last major conflicts of Red Cloud’s War.

October 18

Alaska becomes part of the United States.
By the terms of the Treaty of Cession with Russia,
Alaska becomes the property of the United States.
In return, the United States agrees to pay Russia
$7.2 million. Russia’s right to sell the territory is
questionable, however, because it has never entered
negotiations with Alaskan Natives for the cession of
their territory. The United States similarly makes no
effort to compensate the natives for their land. Also
without their consultation or knowledge, the treaty
stipulates that the “uncivilized tribes” of Alaska
will be subject to whatever laws the United States
chooses to apply to them.

October 21 to 28

U.S. Peace Commission meets with Plains
tribes at Medicine Lodge Creek.
Five thousand Kiowa, Comanche, Southern Arap-
aho, and Southern Cheyenne Indians meet near

Fort Larned in Kansas at the invitation of the

U.S. Peace Commission (see entry for JULY 1867).

Accompanied by some 600 soldiers, the commis-

sioners hope to reach a settlement that will end

the conflicts with these tribes and guarantee that

railroads can be built through their lands without

interference.

“All the chiefs of the Kiowas,

Comanches, and Arapahos are

here today; they have come

to listen to good words. We

have been waiting here a long

time to see you and are getting

tired. All the land south of Ar-

kansas belongs to the Kiowas

and Comanches, and I don’t

want to give away any of it. I

love the land and the buffalo

and will not part with it. I want

you to understand well what I

say. Write it on paper. Let the

Great Father [U.S. president]

see it, and let me hear what he

has to say.”

—Kiowa leader Satanta during the

negotiation of the Treaty of Medi-

cine Lodge Creek

Under a shaded arbor, the commissioners de-

liver speeches in which they insist that the Indians

cede the majority of their hunting lands in ex-

change for reservations. The Indians are resistant,

but Kiowa and Comanche leaders, offered many

gifts and eager to end the conference, sign the

commissioners’ treaty. The agreement relinquishes

the tribes’ claim to 90 million acres for firm title

to nearly 3 million acres of land in Indian Ter-

ritory, which was forfeited by the Five Civilized

Tribes in their peace treaty with the United States