William W. Bent and Christopher (Kit) Carson were among the men who represented the United States as commissioners in peace talks with the Plains Indians.
On October 14, 1865, at a meeting place along the Little Arkansas River in Kansas, chiefs of the Arapaho, Cheyenne and Apache nations signed a treaty with the U.S. government. The Apaches left their alliance with the Kiowa and Commanche to join with the Arapaho and Cheyenne.
Indian commissioners; Colorado connections Part 2
Dining In A Kiowa Lodge
In April 1864, Special Agent H.T. Ketcham visited Kiowa camps along the Arkansas River. He included this description in an April 10, 1864 report to H.P. Dole, Commissioner of Indian Affairs:
“I was four days in Satana, or White Bear’s village, who is, I believe, their principal chief. He is a fine-looking Indian, very energetic, and as sharp as a brier. He and his people treated me with much friendship. I ate my meals regularly three times a day with him in his lodge. He puts on a good deal of style; spreads a carpet for his guests to sit on, and has painted fire-boards, twenty inches wide and three feet long, ornamented with bright brass tacks driven all around the edges, which they use for tables; he had a brass French horn, which he blew vigorously when the meals were ready. I slept [in the teepee of] Yellow Buffalo, who was one of the chiefs that visited Washington with Major Colley.”
“They have quite a number of cows and calves, and a good many oxen and some mules and American horses, that they say they stole from Texas. A body of Kiowas and Comanches, and some Cheyennes, intend to make another raid into Texas in about five or six weeks.. I apprehend that their successful expedition there will embolden them to make aggressions on trains passing up the Santa Fé road this spring and summer.”
Ketchum noted that these Indians were likely to let wagon trains pass in exchange for a few gifts of food.
In his1984 book Son of the Morning Star, Evan S. Connell writes that Satana lived in a red painted lodge, painted his body red when he road to war and carried a red shield.
Photo by William S. Soule ca. 1969-1874 courtesy National Archives and Records Administration, American Indian Select List #130
Quoted text from an undated letter from H.T. Ketcham to Colorado Territorial Governor John Evans, found in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1864.
Too Many Indians
Honoring the 150th Anniversary of Colorado Territory (officially formed February 28, 1861), this series of posts offers a brief glimpse into Indian affairs during the terms of the seven territorial governors.
John Evans took over as Governor of Colorado Territory on May 17, 1862. He identified the parts of the territory claimed by various Indians in his October 30, 1862 letter to the Commisioner of Indian Affairs.
By the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians claimed land that included “portions of the State of Kansas and Nebraska Territory [plus] all that part of the present Territory of Colorado north of the Arkansas river and east of the snowy range of the Rocky mountains.”
The Kiowa and Comanche Indians occupied the territory “south of the Arkansas [River]and east of the snowy range.” Evans estimated there were about five thousand Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Kiowa and Comanche reporting to Agent S. G. Colley, who was based at Fort Lyon.
Evans reported that “all that part of the Territory lying west of the great snowy range or Cordilleras is occupied by the various bands of the Utah [Ute] Indians. These Indians are reported to be about ten thousand strong, and are active, independent, and warlike. They have never been at war with the whites, and have little idea of the military prowess of the government, making the danger of hostilities by them more imminent.”
“There are two bands of these Indians [Utahs or Utes] that go down into New Mexico to report to…agencies there…[B]ut by far the larger part of them obtain the goods which the government distributes for the purpose of securing their friendship from Lafayette Head…of the Conejos agencies.”
Evans noted that Congress had approved an additional agency for the Green River and Uintah bands of Utes but no agent had been appointed and the agency was not in operation.
In addition to urging the necessity of treaties with the Indians belonging to Colorado territory, Evans reported a new problem. “We have been troubled by the presence in Colorado, for a good part of the summer, of different bands of the Ogillullah and Brule Sioux Indians, belonging to the neighboring agency at Fort Laramie. They settle along the Platte river for the purpose of begging from, if not committing depredations upon, the great stream of travel to and from the settlements of Colorado.”
Note: Governor Evans misspelled the name of the Oglala Indians.
Photo of John Evans courtesy Denver Public Library, Western History Collection
Quoted text from the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1862.
