After the terrible massacre of 1862 in Minnesota[[29]] the Indians became bolder, and having received recruits from the bands who had fled from Minnesota they held up several large wagon-trains, killed or captured the escorts and appropriated the goods. When the news of this affair reached Washington, Colonels Carrington and Fetterman were ordered to subdue the Plains Indians, and were sent to Wyoming, where they established Fort Phil. Kearny on the Piney fork of the Powder River. Not only was this movement necessary on the part of the Government because of the hostility of the Sioux, but it was desired to open a road through the Powder River country to Virginia City and other mining towns in the mountains, and also to the coast. Part of the territory was owned by the Crows, but the Dakotas had usurped most of it as hunting-grounds for themselves. Several conferences between the authorities and the Indians were held, but as dissatisfaction among the Indians was manifest, no settlement could be effected. “We will lose,” said they, “all our best hunting territory if this route is established.” Red Cloud and other chiefs (Crazy Horse, American Horse, etc.) saw opportunity for war and openly urged hostilities. Clouds of warriors flocked to his standard. During the long and tedious struggle he won great reputation as a leader. General Dodge said:[[30]] “Several forts were established, but they only protected what was inside the palisades. A load of wood for fuel could not be cut outside without a conflict.”
During these troublous times Fort Laramie was the center of importance, peace conferences, Indians coming and going, troops and supplies arriving from the East. When Colonel Carrington and his troops left Laramie, June, 1866, they were constantly watched by Red Cloud, and a reliable report states that upon the visit of some Indians at headquarters the commander was informed of his movements, in detail, during the entire journey. With the troops was Capt. Frederick H. Brown, noted for his bravery and contempt of Indians, and after the establishment of the post he infused in Col. William J. Fetterman some of his own spirit. Both officers declared that a nervy White could put to flight a hundred Sioux. When calling one evening, Brown told Colonel Carrington’s wife that he must have Red Cloud’s scalp before he returned East, but, instead, Red Cloud took his scalp on the day of the Fetterman fight, December 21, 1866.
The warriors harassed the garrison of Fort Phil. Kearny constantly, killing small parties of wood-cutters. It became necessary to send out a guard of fifty to eighty men with every wood-train. Red Cloud drilled his warriors daily, seeming to possess a system of signals equally as good as those in use at the fort. Colonel Carrington, in his description of the events at the post, says on one occasion Red Cloud’s signals covered a line of seven miles, and were rapidly and accurately displayed. Again, on December 6, a number of soldiers were killed. On the 21st the picket signaled that the wagon-train was surrounded, and ninety-seven men were sent to its relief. Afterward it was ascertained that the train was threatened but not attacked; in fact, the teams and escort came in safely that night. Red Cloud had made a feint to draw troops some distance from the post that he might engage them successfully. The world knows the result, and it is not necessary for me to enter into details here. The entire command under Fetterman and Brown was killed, including several citizens accompanying it. Col. H. B. Carrington, in his official report, says: “The officers who fell believed that no Indian force could overwhelm that number of troops well held in hand.”
Red Cloud’s name was heard throughout the land, and among his own people he arose to be supreme chief; hundreds of recruits joined his camp, and he was given an immense medicine dance and heralded as invincible.
August 2, 1867, Major James Powell was attacked by a large force under the command of Red Cloud and Spotted Tail. In this fight Red Cloud and his warriors exhibited, with scarcely an exception, the greatest bravery ever shown by Indians in the history of the West. Unknown to the Indians, special wagon-beds, constructed of iron, were mounted on wheels by the Government blacksmiths. As soon as the attack began, the troops removed these from the trucks and placed them in a small circle, the men concealing themselves beneath. The iron was sufficiently heavy to stop or deflect bullets, and the men were armed with the first repeating rifles brought on the Plains. They were thus better equipped than their adversaries. Red Cloud charged no less than eight or ten times, frequently coming within thirty or forty feet, many of his dead falling less than twenty or thirty yards from the improvised fortification. The Indians could not understand how so small a body of men could fire with such rapidity. Red Cloud said to Spotted Tail, as the two sat their horses on a little knoll a few hundred yards distant, that he believed the Americans had “medicine guns,” which never ceased firing. The entire force of the Sioux and Cheyennes was hurled against the enemy, Red Cloud’s nephew distinguishing himself by riding among the foremost and the two chiefs accompanying the charge. One Indian fell near enough to touch the beds with his coup-stick before he died. But for the protection, the Whites would have been wiped out of existence, for nearly every spot on the outer surface of the iron as large as one’s hand showed a bullet mark. An Indian chief told Colonel Dodge afterwards that they lost 1137 in the fight. A famous scout said to Major Powell that at least a thousand were struck, and the most conservative estimate places the number at three or four hundred. Not only was great bravery manifested in these charges, but after the battle many of the dead and wounded were recovered in spite of a heavy fire kept up by the troops. In the Fetterman fight Red Cloud had been victorious. In the Powell engagement he was badly defeated.
These two fights, and the series of peace treaties held by the Indian Peace Commissioners August 13 to September 13, 1867, brought about what the Sioux desired—the evacuation and destruction of several forts in favorite hunting territory, the promise of extra annuities and rations, and paved the way for the great Dakota treaty of 1868.
In 1868–’69 Hon. William Blackmore of London, visited the Plains tribes and made a lasting friendship with Red Cloud. At that time Red Cloud scorned the “white man’s road” and refused to have his photograph taken; but it is noteworthy that he made an exception in favor of Mr. Blackmore, and in the first portrait of this distinguished red man we see him standing side by side with the patron of the great South Kensington (Blackmore) museum. Why did he do this? Because he knew that the British treated the Indians well, and that for a century Indians in Canada lived unmolested, whereas just over the American border bloodshed and robbery were rampant.
After the treaty Red Cloud himself went to war no more, but instead became distinguished as a councilman and treaty maker. He was, with Spotted Trail, uncompromising, and insisted upon the fulfillment of every condition of the later treaties.
Sitting Bull, a shaman, had made “medicine” for most of the battles, and about the year 1870 came into prominence. To the Indian “medicine” means much. Upon going into action he places implicit confidence in the efficacy of his medicine first, in his own courage second. Sitting Bull, being very crafty, a schemer and a politician, became known as the “battle-medicine maker” of the Dakotas. Before the Custer fight he made several dozen medicine sacks, filled them with the “mystery,” and hastily distributed them among the chief warriors and subchiefs. After the fight he and his friends claimed the honor of the victory, saying that it was through his miraculous medicine alone that the Sioux prevailed over the soldiers. Sitting Bull seldom was a warrior, claimed little distinction as a fighter, and owes his reputation among the Whites as the leader of the forces on the Little Big Horn to the misdirected energy of the newspapers. Red Cloud was friendly with Sitting Bull, but was seldom associated with him either in councils or upon the field. The two present marked contrasts. The latter was very outspoken in his hatred of the Whites, lacked the tact and judgment displayed by Red Cloud in his later years, and appears decidedly the inferior man of the two. Sitting Bull’s temper was easily ruffled, and even as late as 1890 (he was killed December 15, 1890) he persisted in open censure of Government authorities. To give an idea of his language, he told General Miles, upon the occasion of their first meeting, that “God Almighty made me; God Almighty did not make me an agency Indian, and I’ll fight and die fighting before any white man can make me an agency Indian.” His prophecy was fulfilled.
So when Red Cloud settled down upon his reservation near Fort Robinson, Sitting Bull continued to range about the Plains and in the valleys of the Tongue, Powder, Yellowstone and Big Horn Rivers. Some of the turbulent element in Red Cloud’s camp joined him, but by far the greater portion of those who followed Sitting Bull until after the Custer fight were not Oglalas. In 1874–’75, when Professor Marsh of Yale, passed through the agency, he noted that there were some 13,000 Indians under the care of the authorities. He reported that the provisions issued them were of poor quality and insufficient, and tardily delivered. Lieutenant Carpenter also complained that the Indians were compelled to eat ponies, dogs and wolves to avoid starvation. Professor Marsh stated that the goods purchased by the Government, carefully and honestly delivered and distributed, would prevent all suffering. Eastern newspapers published Marsh’s charges, and the “Indian ring” of politicians was defeated. Marsh was well received by Red Cloud, who accompanied him East. The two were photographed together, holding the peace-pipe in common. The Sioux called Professor Marsh the “Big Bone Chief,” because he hunted fossils in the Bad Lands. And while Bills and Dicks of frontier fame howled about the “hostile Injuns” and engaged in frequent fights with the Sioux, Marsh came and went in that wild country safe. The “murderers” knew he was to be trusted! (See page [176])