CRUSHING THE LAST INDIAN RESISTANCE
In August 1877 Dull Knife and the Northern Cheyenne who had surrendered at Camp Robinson were taken to Indian Territory. During the next twelve months they suffered greatly from lack of food and from diseases to which they had no natural immunity. The Cheyenne had reluctantly accepted removal to Indian Territory on a trial basis, but when they requested permission to return north it was refused in spite of their hardships. On September 8, 1878 they took matters into their own hands when, led by Dull Knife and Little Wolf, they began their almost unbelievable march back to their northern homeland. Their bid for freedom is one of the epics of the frontier.
Leaving their tipis standing, the Cheyenne slipped away from the troops guarding them near Fort Reno and proceeded to fight their way across Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, pursued by thousands of infantry and cavalry soldiers. The Indians fought several sharp skirmishes with the troops and managed to elude capture, breaking through lines of intercepting troops along the Kansas Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroads. General Crook ordered General Bradley at Fort Robinson to form a third line of defense. Along with soldiers from Camp Sheridan and other posts the Fort Robinson garrison patrolled the sandhills area of Nebraska. Finally a group of 149 men, women and children led by Dull Knife were met and taken into custody by Captain Johnson’s Company from Fort Robinson.
The Cheyenne had planned to seek refuge among their Sioux friends at Red Cloud Agency, not knowing that it had been relocated. They did not want to go to Fort Robinson, but when additional troops and artillery were brought up the Cheyenne were convinced that resistance was useless.
The Indians were taken to the post and imprisoned in the log cavalry barracks at the southeast corner of the parade ground. From their capture in October 1878 until January 1879 the Indians lived at the Fort. Little Wolf and the remaining Cheyenne stayed nearby for some time, then completed their escape to the northern Plains. That group did not surrender for several more months.
The Cheyenne held at Fort Robinson were told that they would have to return to Indian Territory to live on the reservation there. Dull Knife, speaking for his people, said they had returned to their homeland and that they would be killed there rather than return south. In January efforts were made to starve them into submission, and a few of the men were taken prisoner during conferences.
The Indians decided to try to escape. On the night of January 9, 1879 the Cheyenne Outbreak began. Using the few guns they had managed to hide when they were disarmed and imprisoned the previous October, the warriors opened fire on the soldiers guarding their barracks prison. The guards were killed or wounded, and their arms and ammunition captured by the Cheyenne. While the women and children fled towards the river the men fought a stiff delaying action against the hastily aroused garrison. Troops sleeping in nearby barracks went into action in the bitter cold clad only in their underclothing, engaging the fleeing Indians until the cavalry could mount and ride to the scene. Many Cheyenne fell between the parade ground and the sawmill by the river, but some escaped to the hills behind the post.
The Fort Robinson soldiers spent the next two weeks pursuing the Cheyenne in the rough butte country west of the post. Each day their quarry eluded capture. Both the Cheyenne and the soldiers suffered additional casualties in these encounters. On January 22 the last of the Indians were killed or captured.
About sixty-four Cheyenne died in the outbreak and many others were wounded before being captured. Eleven soldiers were killed and ten wounded along with the Sioux Indian scout, Woman’s Dress. In the medical history Post Surgeon E. B. Mosely wrote:
During this whole period the fighting was of the most desperate character being from a hand to hand struggle up to a range almost always inside of fifty yards. The great proportion of fatal wounds is remarkable and their concentration on the trunk of the body shows a deliberation and skill in handling the improved breech-loading arms with which they were liberally supplied, a fact which explains why this particular tribe enjoyed the reputation of being the best warriors on the Plains. The conduct of the white troops is worthy of the greatest praise. Taken by surprise the first night, they rallied in the most prompt manner and followed the flying enemy even barefooted in the deep snow with thermometer at 10° F. until ordered back by their officers.
In the final charge the men advanced under a heavy and fatal fire to the edge of the hole in which the enemy were hidden and in a few minutes of short work finished the affair.
By an unfortunate fatality a large number of the killed were of the very best and most respected men of the command.[33]
In terms of the number of casualties and intensity of the fighting the Cheyenne Outbreak can be regarded as one of the major battles of the Indian Wars,[34] Many of the Cheyenne had been fighting for, rather than against, the Army only two years before. “Among these Indians,” wrote General Crook “were some of the bravest and most efficient of the auxiliaries who have acted under General Mackenzie and myself in the campaign against the hostile Sioux in 1876 and 1877, and I still preserve a grateful remembrance of their distinguished services of which the government seems to have forgotten.”[35]
When the Indians were removed from northwestern Nebraska, ranchers moved in and established big cattle ranches in the desirable lands by 1878. The Graham, Bronson and Newman ranches were some of the first established, but their uncontested hold on the free range was of relatively short duration.
The Freemont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad which reached Fort Robinson in 1886 stimulated settlement. So many homesteaders followed the railroad that the post commander at Fort Robinson was forced to carefully mark the boundaries of the military wood reserve to prevent its settlement. Rancher-homesteader conflicts developed, but the presence of Fort Robinson was a big factor in preventing a large scale range war. The Fort was also a source of assistance to the settlers. For example, “Old Jules” Sandoz was treated in the post hospital by the Surgeon, Walter Reed. The town of Crawford was founded at the boundary of the Fort Robinson reservation and profited from military business.[36]
A typical “wild-west” town, Crawford and its entertainment facilities caused many a headache for the post commander who was forced to cancel the practice of allowing the cavalrymen to have “mounted” passes during off-duty hours. One Ninth Cavalryman was sentenced to a year at hard labor for riding his horse into a Crawford saloon during a “frolic.” In 1906 a 10th cavalry trooper killed Art Moss, one of the town’s law officers, in a gunfight. During one eighteen month period three soldiers from the post, one a holder of the Congressional Medal of Honor, were murdered in the vicinity. All three crimes went unpunished.[37]
The arrival of the railroad at Fort Robinson not only brought settlers to the area but it brought about the end of a famous military post, Fort Laramie. Fort Robinson was easier to supply by rail and it was closer to the Sioux reservation at Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The expansion of Fort Robinson began in 1887 and Fort Laramie was ultimately abandoned in 1890. The expansion of Fort Robinson resulted in a change in its function and it became a regimental headquarters cavalry post.
Actually the summer of 1885 saw the beginning of this change at Fort Robinson, when the first elements of the Ninth Cavalry arrived to garrison the post. The Ninth was one of the Army’s two all-Negro cavalry regiments.[38] The men of the Ninth continued the routine tasks of repairing telegraph lines, patrolling the area, and pursuing stage-coach and train robbers as well as carrying out their usual military training.
Red Cloud Agency on Issue Day. ca. 1875.
Pencil sketch of Camp Robinson at Red Cloud Agency by Lieutenant W. H. Carter, 1874.
Camp Robinson from the diary of Captain John G. Bourke. ca. 1876. Courtesy of West Point Military Academy.
Soldiers and Indians at Red Cloud Agency, 1874.
1. Lieutenant W. H. Carter. 2. Red Dog. 3. J. Tavernier, artist.
Post Sutler’s Store, Fort Robinson. Courtesy of Denver Public Library Western Collection.
Saloon at Fort Robinson. Courtesy of Denver Public Library Western Collection.
(Seated, from left) Chief Red Cloud, Baptiste Garnier or Little Bat; (Standing, from left) Chief Knife and Jack Red Cloud....
Chief Dull Knife, leader of the imprisoned Cheyenne at Fort Robinson.
Camp of Young Man Afraid of His Horses, Oglala Sioux Leader.
Baptiste Garnier (Little Bat), half breed scout, and his family at Fort Robinson. Little Bat is third from left. Edward Hatch, on horseback, left. Colonel Edward Hatch, Post Commander, on horseback extreme right.
Lieutenant Levi H. Robinson, soldier for whom the post was named.
Captain Wm. H. Jordan, 1874 Commanding Officer in charge of construction of the Post.
Captain Emmet Crawford.
Captain Guy V. Henry.
Troop I, 6th Cavalry, 1897, near Saddle Rock and Lovers’ Leap.
Old Parade Grounds, 1897: buildings left to right include 1874 Adjutant’s Office where Crazy Horse died, 1884 Guardhouse, and 1874 Guardhouse where Crazy Horse was wounded.
Commanding Officer’s Quarters, constructed in 1884. Early 1890’s home of Col. Adna R. Chaffee.
Retreat—evening gun, fired by 10th Cavalry (Negro) troopers, 1907.
Infantry Company in front of 1887 barracks ca. 1898.
Interior of 1887 barracks at Fort Robinson. Courtesy Fort Laramie National Historic Site.
Celebration in front of Post Headquarters on Red Cloud’s last visit, 1906.
Field Music at Fort Robinson ca. 1900. Courtesy Fort Laramie National Historic Site.