Chronology of American Indian History

July 8

The Fourteenth Amendment denies the vote
to Indians.
Congress ratifies the Fourteenth Amendment,
which grants citizenship rights to African-Ameri-
can males. The amendment also specifies that
“Indians not taxed” will not be counted in deter-
mining the number of a state’s representatives in
Congress. This provision will later be cited in the
Supreme Court decision of Elk v. Wilkins (see entry
for 1884), which determines that the guarantees of
citizenship in the Fourteenth Amendment do not
apply to Indians.

September 17

Indian warriors attack U.S. troops on Beecher
Island.
After several months of skirmishes between Indians
and whites in Kansas, a company of soldiers led by
Major George A. Forsyth follow a group of Indian
raiders to the Arikara River. Camped on an island,
the 50 troops are set upon by a war party of 600
Cheyenne, Lakota Sioux, and Arapaho. The siege
continues for more than a week, during which the
soldiers suffer many casualties and are forced to eat
the flesh of their fallen horses to survive. After nine
days, reinforcements finally arrive to drive the Indi-
ans away. The island will become known as Beecher
Island after Lieutenant Frederick Beecher (nephew
of the abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher), who is
killed in the conflict.

October 7 to 8

The U.S. Peace Commission meets for the last
time.
In the wake of the Battle of Beecher Island (see
entry for SEPTEMBER 17, 1868), the mission of the
U.S. Peace Commission (see entry for JULY 1867) is
reexamined during a meeting in Chicago. Rallying
around General William T. Sherman, the majority
of those in attendance maintain that Indian tribes
should no longer be recognized as sovereign na-

tions, therefore eliminating the need for the United

States to make peace treaties with them. When the

meeting disbands, so does the commission.

November 7

Red Cloud approves the Fort Laramie

treaty.

Red Cloud and his followers are the last Lakota

Sioux to agree to the Treaty of Fort Laramie (see

entry for APRIL TO AUGUST 1868). In the final

treaty, the Lakota promise to end their attacks on

U.S. forts. In exchange, the United States agrees to

abandon its forts on the Bozeman Trail (see entry

for JULY 1866), prevent non-Indians from settling

along the trail, and establish the Great Sioux Res-

ervation between the Missouri River and the Rocky

Mountains for the Lakota’s “absolute and undis-

turbed” use. The federal government also promises

to provide the Indians with schools and agencies

from which the government will distribute supplies,

such as clothing and seeds. The treaty includes a

provision stating that it cannot be amended unless

three-fourths of Lakota males approve the change.

(See also entries for APRIL TO JUNE 1870 and for

1877.)

November 27

Black Kettle’s band is slaughtered in the

Washita River Massacre.

The Southern Cheyenne led by Black Kettle are

camped along the Washita River on the reserva-

tion established for them by the Medicine Lodge

Creek Treaty (see entry for OCTOBER 21 TO 28,

1867), when a war party of young Cheyenne men

approach the camp. The warriors, who have been

raiding white settlements in Kansas, are followed by

the Seventh Cavalry, headed by Lieutenant Colonel

George Armstrong Custer.

Blaming Black Kettle’s people erroneously

for the recent attacks, Custer’s men attack the

Washita camp at dawn. Eerily reminiscent of the

Sand Creek Massacre (see entry for November 29,

1864)—which occurred four years before almost