ONE of the motives that prompted the government to construct a fortification at the confluence of Pawnee creek and the Arkansas river was to provide a base from which troops might protect Santa Fe Trail commerce in an area that was notorious as an Indian rendezvous. Equally important was the desire for a more centralized annuity distribution point to carry out the government's treaty obligations to the Plains Indians.
In this year period, however, only three official military escorts were provided. The acquisition of vast new stretches of territory through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided an added impetus to traffic.
Louis, reported that between March 1 and July 31 2, men, wagons, horses, 4, mules, 15, oxen, 73 carriages, and over 1, tons of freight left Missouri for New Mexico. These were exclusive of the gold left Missouri for New Mexico. These were exclusive of the gold seekers who "were to numerous to count.
As white settlements became more numerous in Texas during the 's, depredations by Indians increased. The belligerent attitude of the people of Texas forced large groups of Kiowa and Comanche Indians to relocate farther north, especially along the heavily traveled Santa Fe trail. Robinson, superintendent of Indian affairs for the Central Superintendency at St. Louis, reported on October 5, , that he had encountered 2, Kiowa and Comanche warriors at the mouth of Walnut creek 25 miles east of Pawnee Fork.
Bent also stated that he had witnessed, to October of , 60, white people along the trail. Greenwood, commissioner of Indian affairs, in his annual report , enlarged upon the critical relations between Indians and travelers on the trail. He attributed the accelerated traffic to the discovery of gold in the Pike's Peak region, and his report pointed out the difficulty the Indians were having to maintain their natural subsistence.
In his appeal for military protection, he stated,. I consider it essential to have two permanent stations for troops, one at the mouth of Pawnee Fork, and one at Big Timbers, both upon the Arkansas River.
To control them the Indians , it is essential to have among them the perpetual presence of a controlling military force. There was no legal barrier to the establishment of a permanent military post and mail escort station.
On October 22, , Maj. The exact location of this installation was at the base of Lookout Hill now known as Jenkins Hill , on the south side of the Pawnee, eight miles from its confluence with the Arkansas River.
George H. This company had been busy during the summer patrolling the region between Cow creek and Fort Union. A description of the first structures of "Camp on the Pawnee Fork" is given in Capt. Lambert Wolf's diary,. October 23, plans are made for the horse and cattle stable, also for officers' and company quarters, all of which are to be built of sod, cut with spades by members of our company.
Our stable [probably meaning fortification] is to be feet square. These plans, however, apparently were deferred for several months, since as late as July 22, , a letter from Camp Alert as the installation was then called , failed to note anything more permanent than tents in the fort. The forces of Stewart and Wessels remained at "Camp on the Pawnee Fork" until November 27, , when they were relieved by a detail of 40 men under the command of one Lieutenant Bell, whose specific instructions were to act as a construction crew for the permanent site.
Just prior to the completion of the sod buildings and earth works, the post was given its third and lasting name, Fort Larned. On May 29, , pursuant to General Order No. Benjamin F. Larned, paymaster of the United States army. On April 24, , Major Wessels left Fort Riley to return to the nearly completed fortification with men who had been based at Fort Riley.
To support this assumption is the fact that Col. Jesse Leavenworth at Fort Larned was known to be sending reports about these Indians in Efforts to relocate the Southern Cheyennes and Arapahoes farther south came in , the year that Fort Larned was under construction. In this year congress authorized the negotiation of a treaty to take place at Fort Wise [20] on the Arkansas.
Initial parleys with several Indian chiefs left the opinion that there was little hope that a permanent treaty would be drawn Up. The treaty authorized annual payments and it provided for a new reservation farther south that would initiate these Indians to an agricultural economy.
Fort Lyon was located in this reservation and was headquarters for these Cheyennes and Arapahoes. Great difficulty was experienced in keeping the Indians confined to a permanent location, as evidenced by the report of a large group of Indians camped near Fort Larned on August 5, In support of this assumption is the fact that Fort Larned was much closer to Forts Riley and Leavenworth, the general supply depots for Indian annuities, and as such, the freight to Fort Larned would have been considerably less than to Fort Lyon.
With the establishment of Fort Larned, the roving Indians began, for awhile, to respect the trail commerce. In August, , Colonel Leavenworth, reporting from Fort Larned, stated that the Indians had left the Santa Fe trail area and that there was no apprehension of any hostilities in the near future.
In May, , Gen. Albert Pike, Confederate officer in Texas, arranged an alliance with some Kiowas and a group of renegade Seminoles. This alliance had as its design the seizure of Forts Larned and Wise by these Indians. Nothing came of this, since as soon as the weather permitted, the Indians left for their annual hunt.
In June of the same year, Fort Larned's small garrison was threatened by a large group of hostile Indians. This incident, which took place in August, , was thwarted by the ever watchful Colonel Leavenworth. As more white people came to the area along the Arkansas river, the buffalo supply diminished immensely, with the result that the Indians resorted to looting in order to survive.
It was this siutation that brought about what is called the Nine Mile Ridge massacre. In the excitement that followed, a teamster wounded one of the Indians. This prompted them to return before daylight and massacre all the teamsters, excluding one who escaped to the protection of Fort Larned. The deterioration of peaceful relationships between the Santa Fe traders and the Indians in the early 's was furthered by the killing of an Indian chief at Fort Larned.
In August, , Little Heart, en route from his Cheyenne village just west of Fort Larned to the fort for the purpose of obtaining supplies, was shot by a sentry. It was later determined that Little Heart had been drunk and that he had attempted to ride over Isaac Marrs, the sentry.
Gifts presented to this Cheyenne tribe by the Indian agent at the fort to compensate for the killing seemed to have little effects. Conditions precipitated by the Civil War resulted in further responsibilities for Fort Larned. On January 25, , S. These chiefs represented one thousand Indians who farmed near Fort Cobb, in present Oklahoma. They told Colley that they had been abandoned by their agent, a man by the Name of Leaper, who had deserted to the Confederate army.
Not wanting to join the Confederate army, these Indians drifted north to seek aid. Being very destitute, they were befriended by the authorities at Fort Larned, and W. Since these Indians had been accustomed to farming, this money was used to set up a farm along the banks of Pawnee creek.
Accordingly, 2, acres of land were surveyed on the south side of the Pawnee; this site was chosen over a Fort Lyon site because it was the opinion that more water would be available for irrigation purposes. Corn was planted the following spring, and here was probably the first instance of a large scale irrigation attempt in the Pawnee valley, an area that today is noted for irrigated farming.
This farming enterprise of the Caddos lasted till the fall of , when open hostilities broke out in the area. By October 4, , acres of corn had been planted and buildings were being built.
These Caddos, fearing that they might become involved in the Indian war, drifted to the southeast and finally established themselves between Cow and Crow creeks. They left all their crops, buildings, and equipment, and what the warring Indians did not take was plundered by soldiers from Fort Larned and freighters on the Santa Fe trail. In the early months of conditions between the whites and the Indians became progressively worse, with the result that a general war broke out on the Plains.
The underlying factor appears to have been that the Indians, due to the encroachments of white settlers, were having difficulty finding enough game to live on. Also it is a fact that most of the military posts on the Plains, due to the Civil War, were not adequately garrisoned [35] and that a good per cent of these meager garrisons did not appreciate the Indians' predicament.
At Fort Larned, for example, the soldiers were reported, on January 28, , to be selling whisky to the Indians and demoralizing their women. From an examination of the documents concerning this incident, it appears that a very basic factor was that some Indians were openly friendly and that others were not, but that it was, in many cases, difficult to determine the one group from the other.
The decision was made by the War Department to subdue by force the Indians who were guilty of depredations. On July 27, , Gov. John Evans of Colorado territory ordered all friendly Indians to the military posts, so that only the belligerent ones would remain in the field.
In the summer of large numbers of horses and mules were stolen by angry Indians who found that ration day did not provide adequate supplies. These same orders severely reprimanded Fort Larned for not having a stone blockhouse or enclosures for the animals. James H. Ford reported the erection of a stone fortifications. During the Indian war of , Lt.
George Eayre used Fort Larned as a base for a campaign against the Cheyennes. He engaged the Cheyennes about 50 miles northwest of Fort Larned, an encounter that Grinnell thought to be an unprovoked attack. Soon after the battle, Eayre moved his force to Fort Larned. The fort was under the command of Captain Parmeter, who had been warned by a group of Kiowas that they intended to run off Lieutenant Eayre's horses.
Parmeter was reported drunk, and while the Indians were entertaining the fort's garrison, other Indians were stealing horses and mules. Subsequent events led to even more strained relations.
Chivington campaigned in the vicinity of Fort Larned during this same period. On July 26, , upon his return to Denver from Fort Larned, he reported that ten men had been killed at that post, and that all coaches on the Santa Fe trail were given an escort of between ten and forty men.
James Blunt and Maj. Scott Anthony met a group of Cheyennes at Walnut creek, with the result that nine Indians were killed. Leavenworth, Kiowa and Comanche agent, January 9, It is impossible for me to express to you [addressed to the commissioner of Indian affairs] the horror with which I view this transaction [Chivington massacre]; it has destroyed the last vestige of confidence between red and white man. What can be done? Nothing; unless the department takes the matter up in earnest, and demands that the parties who were the cause of this wicked treatment of the Indians be properly dealt with.
In the spring of Colonel Leavenworth requested the government to authorize him to bold a peace treaty with the various warring tribes. At the same time, Gen. Ford, commander of the Upper Arkansas district, was marching to Fort Larned with orders to pay no attention to any peace movements.
Ford was overruled on June 15, , when President Andrew Johnson authorized Leavenworth to go ahead with his treaty plans. At this treaty conference, Col. Wynkoop as their agent. Continued depredations by roving bands of Cheyennes in and early prompted the War Department to plan an extensive campaign to chastise the so-called dog soldiers. For this job the department chose Gen.
Winfield S. Hancock, a hero of the Battle of Gettysburg. Just prior to marching to Fort Larned, he wrote to Agent Wynkoop that he was able to chastise any tribes who might molest people traveling across the Plains. His force, numbering nearly 1, men, included four companies of the 7th cavalry, six companies of infantry, one company of the 37th infantry under George Custer and some artillery.
At the suggestion of Agents Wynkoop and Leavenworth, Hancock was induced to hold a council with the Cheyenne chiefs on April 13, about 20 miles up the Pawnee, near the Cheyenne village. Nothing came of this council, so, on the following day, Hancock moved within a mile of the village, where he met the dog soldiers.
Hancock's understanding was that the Indians were to remain, but during the ensuing night, the Cheyennes quietly slipped away, much to his disgust. General Custer was sent after these Indians, but was not able to locate them. They the Cheyennes crossed over to the Smoky Hill river, where they destroyed some stations of the Overland Stage Company.
When notified by Custer of this action, General Hancock ordered the whole Indian village to be burned to the ground. General Hancock had great difficulty understanding the conduct of these Cheyenne Indians, when he found out later that they thought he was planning another Sand creek massacre.
Before leaving the plains General Hancock had a council with Satanta, Kiowa chief. In a meeting at Fort Larned, it became apparent that the Civil War hero was no match for the Kiowa chief. Hancock was so impressed with Satanta's peace overtures that he presented the chief with a coat of a Union major general.
A few days later Satanta proudly displayed this new wearing apparel while stampeding the livestock at Fort Dodge.
By the fall of the Indians had agreed to peace councils to be held on Medicine Lodge creek. A preliminary council was held at Fort Larned, and on October 13, , the peace commissioners and chiefs left Larned for Medicine Lodge creek.
At the same time the gifts for the oncoming treaties were being shipped from Fort Larned to the treaty grounds, a task that took nearly a month. Upon the completion of the Medicine Lodge treaty arrangements, [64] it became obvious that the Indians were not quick to remove themselves to their new homes. As late as July 4, , Gen. Just after this order was issued, the Cheyennes raided the Kaw settlements near Council Grove where they stole some livestock. Since Wynkoop was not aware of this incident and since he still did not believe that any of the Indians of his agency would deceive him, he acted contrary to his orders by issuing arms to a group of Cheyennes who argued that unless they were issued arms and ammunition, they would starve.
These very same Indians, with their newly acquired weapons, proceeded to the Saline and Solomon where they killed 16 white farmers and ravished several women. The War Department acted swiftly after these depredations were reported.
William T. Fort Cobb, in the Indian territory, had thus inherited the functions of Fort Larned with respect to the five Indian tribes. Troops remained at Fort Larned to as late as , but these garrisons saw very little action.
In the early 's Fort Larned troops were used to subdue the Wichita and Osage Indians who were revolting against railroad construction, [70] and in three Fort Larned cavalrymen were wounded in a battle which saw five Indians killed.
These Indians had scalped a man south of Dodge City. Ralph Wallace, manager of the Larned Tiller and Toiler , stated that newspaper files record deaths of red and white men in the vicinity of Fort Larned from the year to In addition to this, Wallace stated that there were approximately another wounded cases recorded, bringing the total casualties to nearly for the period that Fort Larned was active in Indian affairs.
It will be remembered that early as February, , General Ford had erected a stone blockhouse, primarily because of an official reprimand from the War Department. The type of defenses at Fort Larned prior to this construction were described as "earthenworks [that] were.
There may have been some who entertained the idea that the treaty at the camp on the Little Arkansas in the fall of had resolved the Indian troubles, but surely it was not the War Department. John Pope, in a letter dated August 11, , to General Sherman, stated that he was sure that hostilities would break out in the near future.
He went on to say that he would order the military posts on the frontier to be placed in the best possible condition, since he did not believe the Treaty of worth the paper that it was written on.
Also in Gen. Grant, in a letter to Secretary of War Stanton, remarked on the adverse condition of the frontier military posts. Explaining the great need for more suitable barracks and storehouses, he suggested that the appropriations needed to correct the situation could be held to a minimum by having the garrisons of each fort do their own construction work.
In the late s, Fort Larned became a key post during the Indian Wars , provided military protection for federal land surveys, and emerged as a major federal commissary for supplying the increasing number of Indian agencies in Indian Territory south of Kansas. It also played a party in a number of treaties including the Medicine Lodge treaties of At the time, the fort was exceeded in importance only by Forts Leavenworth and Riley.
From to , the 10th U. Cavalry, an African-American regiment, more familiarly known as Buffalo Soldiers were stationed at the post. By ; however, the Indians had been moved to various reservations, and the communities of Larned , La Crosse and Kinsley had been formed, which served the farmers and the ranchers of the area.
The Army deactivated the post in June and it was abandoned on July 19, In January , Senator Plumb, from the Committee on Military Affairs, recommended the passage of a bill to provide for the sale of the reservation to area settlers.
The land and buildings were then sold and for the next 80 years, the property was privately owned. Amazingly, the buildings remained intact and in August , Fort Larned became a national historic site and a unit of the National Park System.
Photo by Kathy Weiser-Alexander. The buildings were then extensively restored and one was turned into a museum and gift shop. The antelope, that were plenty a few years ago, are now thin. When they shall all die away, we shall be hungry; we shall want something to eat and will be compelled to come into the fort.
Your young men must not fire on us. When they see us, they fire, and we fire on them. Hancock accepted, and continued marching his troops forward until they stopped and made camp within a few hundred yards of the village.
The sight of soldiers gathering near their homes evoked images of the Sand Creek Massacre, and the villagers fled as fast as they could, abandoning almost all of their possessions.
Sources disagree on what exactly compelled Hancock to give the order, but in general, his decisions seemed to be driven by impatience and mistrust of the Indians, as well as a general sense of superiority. Regardless, his mishandling of the situation at the village caused tempers to flare, and his expedition sparked off a series of raids, skirmishes, and massacres across the area.
After several months, the expedition would be called to an end, and Hancock would be transferred from his post and replaced with General Phillip J. With the continued fighting on the plains, the US government decided that it would be in their best interest to resolve the situation diplomatically.
In July, , it was decided that a peace commission should be created, and over the next two years, this commission would travel around the frontier, holding meetings and signing treaties.
Native leaders not to disrupt military posts or railroad construction and to relinquish their claims to land between the Platte and Arkansas rivers; in return, they received large reservations and massive allotments of goods. Rather than end violence on the plains, the agreements made at Medicine Lodge intensified it. This peace would be short-lived, and soon the expeditions of Generals Sheridan and Custer swept through the Midwest and completely wiped out any further Indian resistance.
After years of bloodshed, the US military finally succeeded in its goal of confining Native Americans to reservations—far away from significant trails and railroad routes. By late , all of the Southern Plains tribes were evicted from their homelands in Kansas. The fort stayed operational for about ten more years, mainly providing troops to protect railroad workers, but the amount of activity in the fort was greatly reduced.
Operations slowly wound down until the fort was abandoned in Between and , Fort Larned was left to the elements, and with the help of scavengers, slowly deteriorated. However, in the land was sold at an auction and quickly passed through the hands of several owners who eventually converted the fort into a ranching operation. The barracks were converted into barns, new silos and corrals were erected, and many of its more temporary structures were demolished.
By , the site had been turned from a rough military outpost into a stylish, cultivated ranch, and it remained as such until its designation as a National Historic Site in Since then, the National Park Service has tried its best to remove these changes.
Ultimately, the legacy of Fort Larned consists of two major parts: its importance to the military, and its role in diplomacy on the Western frontier. To the military, the fort was relatively insignificant for the majority of its life.
Although its military role was often underwhelming, its diplomatic activities left a lasting legacy. It was the main distribution point for gifts and annuities to the Southern Plains tribes, and its location on the Santa Fe Trail made it an easy spot for diplomats to meet and negotiate treaties.
However, as we know today, the deals made between Native American tribes and the US government were often underhanded and one-sided, leading to many atrocities in subsequent years.
Chalfant, W. Norman, Okla. Clark Company, Coates, I. Boulder, Colo. Clary, David. Oman, K. Pahre, R. Pusey, A. Medicine Lodge Treaty Is Signed.
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