The Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) granted the Lakota Sioux and their northern Cheyenne allies a reservation, including the Black Hills, in Dakota Territory and a large area of "unceded territory" in what became Montana and Wyoming. Both areas were for the exclusive use of the Indians, and whites except for government officials, were forbidden to trespass. In August, 1874, soldiers of the Black Hills Expedition under Lieutenant ColonelGeorge A. Custer confirmed the discovery of gold in the Black Hills. This caused the United States to attempt to buy the Hills from the Sioux. The U.S. ordered all bands of Lakota and Cheyenne to come to the Indian agencies on the reservation by January 31, 1876 to negotiate the sale. Some of the bands did not comply and when the deadline of January 31 passed, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Q. Smith, wrote that "without the receipt of any news of Sitting Bull's submission, I see no reason why...military operations against him should not commence at once." On February 8, 1876, General Phillip Sheridan telegraphed Generals George R. Crook and Alfred H. Terry, ordering them to undertake winter campaigns against the "hostiles".[3]
In the early morning hours of March 3, 1876, north of Fort Fetterman, Indian warriors attacked the Big Horn Expedition's cattle herd, numbering over 200 animals. The two herders fired at the warriors, and the Indians fired back. One of the government civilian employees, cattle herder John Wright was severely wounded by a bullet. The warriors then drove off and captured most of the cattle. Wright died of wounds received in the fight on March 28, 1876.[6]
March 4-5
A blizzard on March 5 deposited over a foot of snow and significantly delayed Crook's progress. Temperatures fell so low that the thermometers could not record the cold. The soldiers had to heat their forks in the coals of fires to prevent the tines from freezing to their tongues. Crook's column slowly followed the Bozeman Trail north to Old Fort Reno, reaching it on March 5. The fort had been abandoned by the army eight years earlier. The expedition establish its supply base near the abandoned post and Crook ordered that the wagons be left at the depot. The infantry accompanying the column, Companies C and I of the 4th U.S. Infantry, under the command of Captain Edwin M. Coates would serve as the station's guard. That evening, the expedition camped on the east bank of the Powder River opposite the site of the fort.[7]
Fort Reno skirmish
By 8:00p.m. on March 5, 1876, the soldiers' pickets were on duty and the camp was asleep, when Sioux or Cheyenne warriors hiding near the east end of the camp suddenly fired on the infantry picket lines. The soldiers on guard answered their fire, but being a dark night, all either side could see were the flashes of gunfire. The sleeping camp quickly awoke and many of the soldiers went toward the picket lines. In the firefight that ensued, Private James M. Slavey of Company I, 4th Infantry was wounded in the cheek by a bullet. The skirmish lasted for less than an hour. One aspect that made the engagement rare was that it was a night battle, which was not a common event during the American Indian Wars.[8]
March 6–16
On March 6, the Bighorn expedition continued north, and on March 7 the five cavalry battalions set out toward the confluence of Prairie Dog Creek and the Tongue River. After reaching that point on March 12, the ten cavalry companies rode first down the Tongue, then to the headwaters of Otter Creek, reaching it on March 16. On the 16th, scout Frank Grouard spotted two Oglala Lakota warriors observing the soldiers. Because of this, Grouard believed that the Oglala Lakota camp of the war chief Crazy Horse might be nearby. This was reported to Crook, and at 5 p.m. on March 16, he divided his command and sent ColonelJoseph J. Reynolds (a West Point classmate of President Ulysses S. Grant, and a combat veteran of both the Mexican–American War, and Civil War) on a night march with about 379 men, supplying them with rations for one day, and following the trail of the two Oglala's southeast toward the Powder River. General Crook kept with him about 300 of the expedition's men and the pack train, with which he planned to rendezvous with Reynolds at the mouth of Lodge Pole Creek on the 17th. During the night Frank Grouard and the other scouts led Reynolds's advance and followed the two warriors's trail in the snow. It led to what they were looking for, a Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux Indian village, which they described as containing more than 100 lodges on the west bank of Powder River. The scouts immediately reported this information back to Colonel Reynolds.[9]
The village, however, was somewhat further north than anticipated, with the result that initially only Captain James Egan's 2nd Cavalry Company K, of 47 men, including Second Lieutenant John G. Bourke, charged into the village from the south, while the other companies were delayed by the distance and rough terrain. The soldiers were under fire for approximately five hours when, at about 2:30p.m., with the destruction of the village complete, Reynolds ordered his soldiers to withdraw. Over 700 Indian ponies had been captured. In his premature haste to withdraw, the command left behind the bodies of its three dead soldiers, with one in the village, and two at a field hospital as well as Private Lorenzo E. Ayers, who was badly wounded and subsequently killed by vengeful Indians. The men made their way across to the east side of the frozen Powder River, withdrawing south.[10]
Reynolds's command withdrew about 21 miles (34km) south that afternoon and evening, crossing and recrossing the frozen Powder River when necessary, up the river to the confluence of the Powder and Lodge Pole Creek, arriving there after 9:00p.m. in an exhausted condition. However, General Crook was not there as he had camped over 10 miles (16km) to the northeast and had failed to inform Reynolds of his new location.[11]
Although the Indians suffered only two to three killed and one to three wounded during the battle, they lost most of their property and, in the words of the Cheyenne warrior Wooden Leg, were "rendered very poor." The people walked several days to reach the Oglala Sioux village of Crazy Horse farther north near the Little Powder River, where they were given shelter and food. On the way, several Cheyenne froze to death. The army stated that the village consisted of about 104 lodges, including tipis and wikiups, while Cheyenne accounts said the village had about 40-65 tipis, and about 50 other structures. Therefore, around a hundred total structures made up the Indian village that day. The number of warriors involved in the battle numbered between 100 and 250, while there were about 379 U. S. soldiers and civilians present.[12]
March 18–26
Early in the morning of March 18, the Cheyenne recaptured over 500 of their ponies, but Colonel Reynolds ordered his men not to pursue. At approximately 1:30p.m. that day, Crook's command rejoined Reynolds with the pack train, and the six companies were finally able to collect their rations and blankets. The reunited column returned to the supply base at Old Fort Reno, where the wounded soldiers were placed in wagons, and Captain Coates's companies of the 4th Infantry rejoined the Big Horn Expedition after two weeks of separation. On March 26, 1876, the entire command, except for the four soldiers killed on March 17, returned to Fort Fetterman, Wyoming Territory, ending the 26-day campaign.[13]
Aftermath
The Big Horn Expedition's path covered over 410 miles (660km) across five present-day counties in two states. The command suffered more than 79 casualties from various causes, including 4 killed, 8 wounded, 1 injured in an accident, and over 66 frostbitten. Colonel Reynolds was accused of dereliction of duty for failing to properly support the first charge at Powder River with his entire command; for burning the captured supplies, food, blankets, buffalo robes, and ammunition instead of keeping them for army use; and most of all, for losing hundreds of the captured horses. In January, 1877, his court-martial at Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory found Reynolds guilty of all three charges. He was sentenced to suspension from rank and command for one year. Reynolds's friend and West Point classmate, President Ulysses S. Grant, remitted the sentence, but he never served again. Joseph J. Reynolds retired on disability leave on June 25, 1877, exactly one year after the culminating battle of the Great Sioux War at the Little Bighorn. Crook's and Reynolds's failed expedition and their inability to seriously damage the Lakota and Cheyenne probably encouraged Indian resistance to the demands of the United States.[14]
Vaughn, J. W., The Reynolds Campaign On Powder River, University of Oklahoma Press, 1961.
Dillon, Richard H., North American Indian Wars 1983.
Greene, Jerome A. (editor), Battles and Skirmishes of the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877: The Military View, University of Oklahoma Press, 1993. ISBN0-8061-2535-7.
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle, which resulted in the defeat of U.S. forces, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana Territory.
Red Cloud's War was an armed conflict between an alliance of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho peoples against the United States and the Crow Nation that took place in the Wyoming and Montana territories from 1866 to 1868. The war was fought over control of the western Powder River Country in present north-central Wyoming.
The Battle of the Rosebud took place on June 17, 1876, in the Montana Territory between the United States Army and its Crow and Shoshoni allies against a force consisting mostly of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne Indians during the Great Sioux War of 1876. The Cheyenne called it the Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother because of an incident during the fight involving Buffalo Calf Road Woman. General George Crook's offensive was stymied by the Indians, led by Crazy Horse, and he awaited reinforcements before resuming the campaign in August.
The Sioux Wars were a series of conflicts between the United States and various subgroups of the Sioux people which occurred in the later half of the 19th century. The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, when Sioux warriors killed 31 American soldiers in the Grattan Massacre, and the final came in 1890 during the Ghost Dance War.
The Powder River Expedition of 1865 also known as the Powder River War or Powder River Invasion, was a large and far-flung military operation of the United States Army against the Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians in Montana Territory and Dakota Territory. Although soldiers destroyed one Arapaho village and established Fort Connor to protect gold miners on the Bozeman Trail, the expedition is considered a failure because it failed to defeat or intimidate the Indians.
The Dull Knife Fight, or the Battle on the Red Fork, part of the Great Sioux War of 1876, was fought on November 25, 1876, in present-day Johnson County, Wyoming between soldiers and scouts of the United States Army and warriors of the Northern Cheyenne. The battle essentially ended the Northern Cheyennes' ability to continue the fight for their freedom on the Great Plains.
The Horsemeat March of 1876, also known as the Mud March and the Starvation March, was a military expedition led by General George Crook in pursuit of a band of Sioux fleeing from anticipated retaliation for their overwhelming victory over George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Poorly rationed and hampered by muddy conditions, the soldiers eventually had to butcher and eat their horses and mules as they became lame or injured. The Horsemeat March ended with the Battle of Slim Buttes and the capture and looting of American Horse the Elder's richly stocked village.
Spotted Tail was a Sichangu Lakota tribal chief. Famed as a great warrior since his youth, warring on Ute, Pawnee and Absaroke (“Crow”), and having taken a leading part in the Grattan Massacre, he led his warriors in the Colorado and Platte River uprising after the massacre performed by John M. Chivington's Colorado Volunteers of the peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho camping on Sand Creek, but declined to participate in Red Cloud's War.
The Battle of Slim Buttes was fought on September 9–10, 1876, in the Great Sioux Reservation between the United States Army and Miniconjou Sioux during the Great Sioux War of 1876. It marked the first significant victory for the army since the stunning defeat of General George Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in June.
American Horse was an Oglala Lakota warrior chief renowned for courage and honor. American Horse is notable in American history as one of the principal war chiefs allied with Crazy Horse during Red Cloud's War (1866–1868) and the Battle of the Little Bighorn during the Great Sioux War of 1876–1877. Chief American Horse was a son of Old Chief Smoke, an Oglala Lakota head chief and one of the last great Shirt Wearers, a highly prestigious Lakota warrior society. He was a signatory to the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, along with his brothers Chief Red Cloud and Chief Blue Horse. A month or so after the Treaty, American Horse was chosen a "Ogle Tanka Un" along with Crazy Horse, Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses and Man That Owns a Sword. On September 9, 1876, American Horse was mortally wounded in the Battle of Slim Buttes fighting to protect his family and defending against the white invasion of the "Paha Sapa" Black Hills.
Wooden Leg was a Northern Cheyenne warrior who fought against Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
The Battle of Powder River, also known as the Reynolds Battle, occurred on March 17, 1876, in Montana Territory, United States as part of the Big Horn Expedition. The attack on a Northern Cheyenne and Oglala Lakota Indian encampment by Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds initiated the Great Sioux War of 1876. Although destroying a large amount of Indian property, the attack was poorly carried out and solidified Northern Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux resistance to the U.S. attempt to force them to sell the Black Hills and live on a reservation.
Fort Reno also known as Fort Connor or Old Fort Reno, was a wooden fort established on August 15, 1865 by the United States Army in Dakota Territory in present-day Johnson County, Wyoming. The fort was built to protect travelers on the Bozeman Trail from Native American tribes.
Joseph Jones Reynolds was an American engineer, educator, and military officer who fought in the American Civil War and the postbellum Indian Wars.
The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations that occurred in 1876 and 1877 in an alliance of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne against the United States. The cause of the war was the desire of the US government to obtain ownership of the Black Hills. Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills, settlers began to encroach onto Native American lands, and the Sioux and the Cheyenne refused to cede ownership. Traditionally, American military and historians place the Lakota at the center of the story, especially because of their numbers, but some Native Americans believe the Cheyenne were the primary target of the American campaign.
Pawnee Scouts were employed by the United States Army in the latter half of the 19th century. Like other groups of Indian scouts, Pawnee men were recruited in large numbers to aid in the ongoing conflicts between settlers and the Native Americans in the United States. Because the Pawnee people were at war with the Sioux and Cheyenne and had been under constant pressure and aggression by those tribes, some of them were more than willing to serve with the army for pay. A number of Pawnee served between 1864 and 1871. They were armed with rifles, revolvers and were issued scout uniforms.
The Battle of Prairie Dog Creek, also known as the Skirmish at Tongue River Heights, or the Battle of the Tongue River (1876), part of the Great Sioux War of 1876, occurred on June 9, 1876, at the confluence of Prairie Dog Creek and the Tongue River primarily in Wyoming Territory.
William C. Bryan was a United States Army soldier who received the Medal of Honor. His award came for gallantry during the American Indian Wars.
The Yellowstone Expedition of 1873 was an expedition of the United States Army in the summer of 1873 in Dakota Territory and Montana Territory, to survey a route for the Northern Pacific Railroad along the Yellowstone River. The expedition was under the overall command of Colonel David S. Stanley, with Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer second in command.
The Powder River Battles were a series of battles and skirmishes fought between September 1–15, 1865 by United States soldiers and civilians against Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors. The fighting occurred along the Powder River in Montana Territory and Dakota Territory, in present-day Custer and Powder River counties, Montana and northeastern Wyoming.
↑ Greene, Jerome A. Lakota and Cheyenne: Indian Views of the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877 Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994, p. xvi
↑ Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Secretary of the Interior, January 31st, 1876; Secretary of the Interior to the Secretary of War, February 1st, 1876; Colonel Drum to Gen. Terry and Gen. Crook, February 8th, 1876, National Archives.
↑ Collins, Jr., Charles D. Atlas of the Sioux Wars, Second edition, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2006, Map 14, 15
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