Upon the arrival of Mackenzie’s forces, Red Cloud and Red Leaf had moved their camps some twenty-five miles away from the agency to Chadron Creek. In October, in preparation for the coming winter campaign, Colonel Mackenzie sent two battalions of cavalry and the newly arrived Pawnee Scout battalion, led by Nebraskans, Frank and Luther North, to disarm these bands and to prevent their joining the hostiles. Two hundred thirty-nine Indians and 722 ponies were captured. The friendly Arapaho and Cut-Off Sioux were not disarmed. Crook noted that this was the first time in the history of Red Cloud Agency that the friendly Indians were treated better than the stubborn ones.
Preparations for the winter campaign were observed by a visiting delegation of Japanese army officers at Camp Robinson before Crook and Mackenzie moved their forces to Fort Fetterman where the campaign would begin. In the meantime General Miles transported fresh troops to the northern plains by Missouri River steamboat. Miles fought several engagements with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Crook sent Mackenzie and the cavalry and Pawnee Scouts on ahead of his main column and in late November they routed and destroyed Dull Knife’s Cheyenne village, moving relentlessly to crush the hostiles’ resistance.
In September 1876, long before the winter victories, the successful purchase of the Black Hills was negotiated by a new commission headed by George Manypenny. This Black Hills treaty was signed at Red Cloud Agency September 26. The commission met the Indians at each agency separately, thus depriving them of the solidarity of numbers. It also took advantage of the fact that the hostiles were not present to create confusion. The Indians later claimed that the use of whiskey, bribes, threats of loss of all rations and false impressions of the terms of the treaty were methods employed by the commission, and the validity of the treaty was questioned. The treaty of 1868 had provided for a specific proportion of signatures to validate future treaties, and in 1876 only forty Indian signatures were obtained at Red Cloud, whereas it was later estimated some 2,267 were needed. However, the Black Hills passed to U.S. ownership.
THE HOSTILES SURRENDER
The winter successes of the Crook-Mackenzie and Miles campaigns foreshadowed the end of the Sioux War. In April one thousand Sioux hostiles led by Touch the Clouds surrendered at Spotted Tail Agency and Dull Knife brought his Cheyenne in to Camp Robinson. The final total of hostiles who surrendered at Camps Robinson and Sheridan reached almost 4,500 people.[21]
Emissaries to the hostile camps brought back word that Crazy Horse was on the way in and on May 6, 1877 he and his followers, 889 men, women and children, surrendered at Camp Robinson. They gave up some 2,000 ponies, and the 217 men turned in 117 guns and pistols. The impressive surrender march of Crazy Horse’s band was described by the officer who met the hostiles:
When the Sioux Chief Crazy Horse came in and surrendered in 1877, he formed all of his warriors in line, in advance of the women and children; then, in front of this line, also mounted, he had some ten of his headmen; and then in front of these he rode alone. I had been sent with Indian scouts to meet him. He sent me word requesting a similar formation on our part, and asked that I should ride on in advance alone. Then we were to dismount and first shake hands, while seated on the ground, that the peace might be solid. After all this had been done his headmen came up, the peacepipe was produced, and we solemnly smoked. One of his headmen put a scalp-jacket and war-bonnet on me, and presented me the pipe with which peace had been made.[22]
What to do with the surrendering hostiles was a problem. Crazy Horse and some of the other warriors were enrolled as scouts, and a grand review was held for General Crook. Nevertheless, in General Sheridan’s opinion these hostiles should be given the same treatment as troublesome Kiowa and Cheyenne warriors who had been imprisoned at Fort Marion, near St. Augustine, Florida, following previous campaigns.
Too, Crazy Horse acted in a manner which aroused suspicion on the part of the military authorities at Camp Robinson. The soldiers described his attitude as sullen and restless despite his expressed desire to live peacefully. Some chiefs of the agency bands also found his increasing popularity among their followers a threat to their positions.
Indian opposition to Crazy Horse was intensified after a council with seventy leaders was held at Red Cloud Agency on July 27, 1877. General Crook sent word that the Indians were free to go on the forty day buffalo hunt he had promised them, and they in turn were to give their word to return to the agency after the hunt. A delegation to Washington, D. C. was also discussed. A feast was a usual part of such an important meeting, and when Young Man Afraid of His Horses suggested that the feast be held at the camp of Crazy Horse and Little Big Man no one objected, but Red Cloud and his followers left the council room. Later that night the Red Cloud faction voiced their objections to feasting at Crazy Horse’s camp to Agent Irwin. They said Crazy Horse was unreconstructed, tricky, unfaithful and waiting for his chance to escape from the agency. Because the possibility that the hostiles would flee, rejoin Sitting Bull in Canada, and begin the war anew was not a pleasant prospect, the buffalo hunt was cancelled as a precautionary measure.