The Treaty of 1868

The grave of Spotted Tail’s daughter near Fort Laramie, about 1881.Courtesy Wyoming Historical Department.

Fort Laramie in 1867.From a sketch by Anton Schoenborn.

By June, a good representation of Brule and Oglala Sioux being present, the commissioners set about negotiating a treaty. In the meantime, unfortunately, the War Department sent out an expedition instructed to open the Bozeman Trail through the Powder River country to the Montana gold mines. Colonel Carrington and his troops arrived at Fort Laramie in the midst of the negotiations and caused serious unrest among the Indians. One chief commented, “Great Father send us presents and wants new road, but white chief goes withsoldiers to steal road before Indian say yes or no,” and a large faction, led by Red Cloud and Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses, withdrew in open opposition to all peace talk. Nevertheless, the remaining Indians agreed to a treaty which provided for the opening of the Bozeman Trail.

In late June the troops under Colonel Carrington marched up the trail, garrisoned Camp Connor (later moved and named Fort Reno), and began building Fort Phil Kearny at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains and Fort C. F. Smith farther north in Montana. Immediately, it became evident that the peace treaty was meaningless. Fort Phil Kearny was the scene of almost daily Indian attacks on traders, wagon trains, wood-cutting parties, and troops. These attacks were climaxed on December 21 when Capt. William Fetterman and 80 men were led into an ambush and annihilated by Indians led by Crazy Horse and Red Cloud. The fort and its remaining garrison were in danger of being overwhelmed, and the nearest aid lay at Fort Laramie, 236 miles away. At midnight, John “Portugee” Phillips, trader and scout, slipped out into a blizzard on the colonel’s favorite horse and in 4 days made his way across the storm-swept, Indian-infested plains to Fort Laramie in one of the truly heroic rides of American history. While his gallant mount lay dying on the parade ground, Phillips interrupted a gay Christmas night party in “Old Bedlam” to deliver his message, and a relief expedition was soon on its way.

The severe weather made an attempted winter campaign against the Indians unsuccessful, and there was no important fighting until summer. On August 2, 1867, the Indians again attacked a woodcutting party near Fort Phil Kearny, but the small detachment led by Captain Powell was armed with the new 1866 Springfield breech-loading rifles and fought off repeated charges by the Indians in the famous Wagon Box Fight.

FORT LARAMIEGENERAL PLAN(FROM AN OLD MAP)1867APRIL 1954 NM-LAR-7004

Again, the peace advocates in Washington were in the ascendancy, and in the summer of 1867 the Congress provided a commission to treat with the Indians, but authorized recruiting an army of 4,000 men if peace was not attained. Treaties with the southern tribes were concluded at Fort Larned in October, and the commissioners came to Fort Laramie in November to treat with the northern tribes. However, few came in and the hostiles, led by Red Cloud, sent word that no treaty was possible until the forts on the Bozeman Trail and in the valley of the Powder River were abandoned to the Indians. They did agree to cease hostilities and to come to Fort Laramie the next spring. In April 1868, the commissioners came again to Fort Laramie and were prepared to grant the Indians’ demands, including abandonment of the Bozeman Trail. By late May, both the Brule and Oglala Sioux had signed the treaty, but Red Cloud refused to sign until the troops had left the Powder River country and his warriors had burned the abandoned Fort Phil Kearny to the ground.

The Peace Commissioners in council with Indians at Fort Laramie in 1868.From a photograph by Alexander Gardner in the Newberry Library.

Indians at the North Platte Ferry in 1868.From a photograph by Alexander Gardner in the Newberry Library.

Dress parade at Fort Laramie in 1868. Note “Old Bedlam” at the extreme right.From a photograph by Alexander Gardner in the Newberry Library.

This treaty gave the Indians all of what is now South Dakota west of the Missouri River as a reservation. It also gave them control and hunting rights in the great territory north of the North Platte River and east of the Bighorn Mountains as unceded Indian lands. The Indian agencies were to be built on the Missouri River. Many of the Indians, however, objected to giving up trading at Fort Laramie as had been their custom, and, in 1870, a temporary agency for Red Cloud’s band was established on the North Platte River 30 miles below the fort, at the present Nebraska-Wyoming line. Finally, in 1873, after he and other chiefs had twice been taken to Washington and New York to view the numbers and power of the white man, Red Cloud agreed tohaving his agency moved north to a site on White River away from Fort Laramie and the Platte Road.

Indians and whites at Fort Laramie in 1868.From a photograph by Alexander Gardner in the Newberry Library.

In the meantime, peace prevailed on the high plains, and, in 1872, it was reported that not a white man was killed in the department of the Platte.

Later in 1873, however, the attitude of many Indians toward their agents at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies became so hostile that the agents requested that troops be stationed at the agencies. Although the Indians protested this as a violation of their treaty rights, Camp Robinson and Camp Sheridan were established at these respectiveagencies in 1874. At the same time, funds were obtained for an iron bridge over the North Platte at Fort Laramie. Its completion, early in 1876, gave the troops there ready access to the Indian country.

Fort Laramie in 1868.U. S. Geological Survey photograph by William H. Jackson.

Fort Laramie in 1876.Illustration: Courtesy D. S. Mitchell.

Rumors of gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota had persisted for many years, which induced the Government to send an expedition under Col. George A. Custer from Fort Abraham Lincoln on the upper Missouri to investigate the area. Proceeding without opposition from the Indians, the expedition confirmed the presence of gold in the hills and sent out word of their discoveries to Fort Laramie in August 1874. The resulting rush of prospecting parties was at first forbidden by the military, who rounded up several and imprisoned some of their leaders at Fort Laramie, while other parties were attacked by the Indians for flagrant violation of the treaty of 1868.

A second expedition, led by Col. R. I. Dodge and Prof. W. P. Jenney, set out from Fort Laramie the next spring to explore and evaluate the gold deposits in the Black Hills. Miners also thronged the hills, and efforts to make them await negotiations with the Indians were only partly successful. Meanwhile, the Government did make an effort to buy the Black Hills from the Sioux; but the Indians, led by Chief Spotted Tail, set a justly high price on the area, which the Government refused to meet. Moreover, the wild bands of Sitting Bull and other chiefs refused to sell at any price and warned the whites to stay out. No longer restrained by the Army, the miners now swarmed into the hills, which became a powder keg.

Ignoring existing treaties, the Government decided to force the wild Sioux onto their reservation, and when the order for them to comein was not instantly complied with, the Army prepared for action. A double enveloping campaign was planned, to be led by Gen. George Crook with troops based at Fort Laramie and Fort Fetterman, and by Gen. Alfred H. Terry with Custer’s Seventh Cavalry from Fort Abraham Lincoln and Col. John Gibbon’s command from Fort Ellis, Mont. In March, Crook marched north from Fort Fetterman, 80 miles northwest of Fort Laramie, with 12 companies of soldiers. His cavalry surprised a large village of Sioux and Cheyenne on the Little Powder River in Montana, but Crazy Horse rallied the Indians and forced the troops to retreat. Again in late May, Crook moved north with 20 companies of men plus 300 friendly Shoshones and Crows, and once more, on June 17, on the Rosebud, he was defeated by a great array of warriors led by Crazy Horse. Retreating to his supply camp, Crook again decided to send for reinforcements.

Meanwhile, General Terry’s command had marched west from Fort Abraham Lincoln and met Colonel Gibbon’s detachment on the Yellowstone River. Again dividing his forces, Terry sent Custer and the entire Seventh Cavalry up the Rosebud River, while he and Gibbon, with 12 companies of infantry and four troops of cavalry, proceeded up the Bighorn River.

On the morning of June 25, 1876, Custer’s scouts sighted the Indian village in the valley of the Little Bighorn. He divided his command to attack the village from three directions. The Indians, however, first met Maj. Marcus A. Reno’s contingent of three troops in the afternoon in overwhelming numbers and forced them to retreat to a defensive position, where they were joined by a similar detachment under Capt. Frederick W. Benteen and the pack train. Meanwhile, the great part of the Indians had swung away to meet and wipe out Custer’s personal command of five troops. Again the warriors attacked Reno, but since he was on favorable ground he was able to fight them off until the next day when their scouts detected the approach of General Terry. Firing the grass, the Indians moved off into the Bighorn Mountain, leaving over 260 soldiers dead on the battlefield. It was an empty victory, however, as the Indians were compelled to scatter to hunt for food. By winter, reinforced armies under General Crook and Colonel Miles had defeated bands led by Dull Knife and Crazy Horse, forcing them to return to the reservation and surrender, while Sitting Bull’s band fled north into Canada.

In the meantime, the Government had decreed that no annuities should be paid to the hostile bands or to any Sioux until they had ceded the coveted Black Hills to the whites. A commission succeeded in getting the Sioux to sign an agreement effecting that end when it became law in February 1877.

The Northern Cheyennes were taken south to the Indian territory in 1877, but they broke away the next year, led by Dull Knife and Little Wolf, and headed north for their old home in the Dakotas.After hard campaigning by troops from Fort Laramie and other posts, many of Dull Knife’s band were killed and all others were captured. These, however, were permitted to remain on the northern reservation.

In 1888, officers’ row featured boardwalks, picket fences, and family gatherings on vine-shaded verandas.Courtesy Col. Louis Brechemin.

The rush to the Black Hills gave new importance to Fort Laramie, for, with its bridge across the North Platte, it was the gateway to the gold-mining region via the trail leading north from Cheyenne, whose merchants advertised the route as being well guarded. Although the troops from the fort were virtually all engaged in the effort to combat Indian depredations and provide escorts, travel to the gold fields was in fact extremely hazardous. Regular service by the Cheyenne and Black Hills stage line was impossible, until conditions improved in the fall of 1876. But no sooner had Indian raids on the trail lessened than the activities of “road agents” threatened the traveler. Even armored coaches with shotgun guards failed to deter the bandits seeking gold shipments.

Beginning in the late 1870’s, other changes took place around Fort Laramie. With the Indians removed to reservations, ranchers and other settlers came in, and great herds of cattle replaced the buffalo on the Wyoming plains. To many of these settlers the fort on the Laramie was a supply center, as well as insurance against Indian outbreaks and lawless white men.

FORT LARAMIEPLAN OF POST1888

Officers’ row in the winter of 1889.Courtesy U. S. Signal Corps.

During these same years, Fort Laramie was assuming a false air of permanence as many of the old buildings of frame, log, and adobe construction were replaced by sturdy new structures with lime-concrete walls. A water system changed the parade ground from a gravelly flat to a tree-shaded greensward. The last cavalry unit to be stationed at the fort rode away in 1883 with Col. Wesley Merritt. Part of the Seventh Infantry, commanded by Colonel Gibbon, then garrisoned the post.

General view of Fort Laramie in 1889.Courtesy U. S. Signal Corp.

Fort Laramie’s importance had been threatened by construction of the Union Pacific Railroad 100 miles to the south. Its fate was now sealed by construction, in the late 1880’s, of the Northwestern Line 50 miles to the north. This made Fort Robinson the logical guardian of the Indian reservations to the north, and by 1886 Col. Henry Merriam, then commanding officer of the Seventh Infantry and Fort Laramie, was ready to agree that further development of the old post was unwise. Not until August 31, 1889, however, was abandonment of the proud old fort decreed. At the request of Wyoming’s Governor Warren, troops remained at the post until March 2, 1890, when the last two companies of the Seventh Infantry marched away. A few men were left to ship movable property, while a detachment from FortRobinson dismantled some of the structures and on April 9, 1890, auctioned off the buildings and fixtures. At that auction, Lt. C. M. Taylor of the Ninth Cavalry sold the buildings of historic Fort Laramie at prices ranging from $2.50 to $100. Thirty-five lots of buildings and much miscellaneous furniture and fixtures brought a total of $1,395.

In June 1890, the military reservation of some 35,000 acres was turned over to the Department of the Interior and opened to homesteading. John Hunton was appointed custodian of the abandoned military reservation for the General Land Office. He first came to Fort Laramie in 1867 to work for the sutler. Later, he became a ranch operator, and in 1888 he succeeded John London as post trader. Hunton was a major buyer at the final auction and managed to homestead the northwest side of the old parade grounds of the fort, continuing to operate the sutler’s store briefly, and living next door in the former officers’ quarters for nearly 30 years.

Another of the major purchasers at the auction was one Joe Wilde, who also homesteaded part of the fort grounds, including the commissary storehouse and the cavalry barracks. He converted the buildings into a combination hotel, dance hall, and saloon and operated them as a social center for North Platte Valley residents for over 25 years. The west end of the parade grounds and the site of the old adobe trading post which the Army had demolished in 1862 was homesteaded by the widow of Thomas Sandercock, a civilian engineer at the fort, who made her home in the officers’ quarters which had been built in 1870.

A dozen or more buildings used by these civilian owners were preserved with some alterations; but the bulk of the buildings were soon dismantled for lumber by their purchasers, and the old fort became a part of many a ranch home, homestead shack, or barn.

A GUIDE TOFORT LARAMIENATIONAL MONUMENTWYOMINGAPRIL 1954 NM-LAR-7006

John Hunton and a few other citizens recognized the historic importance of the old fort and expressed regret at its decay. In 1913, despairing anything better, they erected a monument commemorating its long service as a military post on the Oregon Trail.

Lands and buildings changed hands. Absentee landlords, tenants, and souvenir hunters contributed much to the destruction of the historic buildings and to the scattering of priceless relics. Creation of the Wyoming Historical Landmark Commission in 1927 initiated efforts to achieve public ownership and to protect this historic site. Ten years later the State of Wyoming appropriated funds for the purchase and donation to the Federal Government of 214 acres of land, including the surviving buildings. By Presidential proclamation, this became Fort Laramie National Monument on July 16, 1938, under the administration of the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior.

At Fort Laramie, the National Park Service is endeavoring to preserve the surviving features of the military period and, after exhaustive research, to restore standing buildings and related portions of the grounds to their appearance around 1888. Certain of the older structures provide glimpses of the fort scene as early as 1849.

The numbers in the following guide section correspond to numbers on the guide map.

It is suggested that you stop first at the Information Center in the former cavalry barracks. Here information and free literature are provided and a variety of publications are on sale. Some exhibits will aid you to visualize the appearance and significance of the fort at various periods in its long career. The structure is also being utilized temporarily for National Park Service headquarters, utility shops, and residential units.

The cavalry barracks, as originally constructed in 1875, provided quarters, kitchens, messhalls, washrooms, reading rooms, and other facilities for two 60-man units of troops.

Walking 100 yards southwest, past a commemorative monument and the site of the sutler’s residence, you reach the sutler’s store. Erected in 1849 or early 1850, the adobe section of this structure housed a general store. The stone section was added about 1852 and used in part as quarters for the sutler. During thenext three decades, many other additions were made, all of which had disappeared by 1883. At that time, the present lime-concrete section was constructed. This addition housed the officers’ club, storage rooms, and a public saloon which connected with a poolroom in part of the stone section. The balance of the stone section then housed the sutler’s office and the post office connecting with the original general store. Operated by the sutler, or post trader as he was officially known after 1867, under a permit from the War Department, this versatile institution served many notable western travelers, residents, and warriors—both red and white—during its 40 active years.

The sutler’s store in 1875.Courtesy University of Wyoming Archives and Western History Department.

“Old Bedlam” in 1875.Courtesy H. C. Bretney.

With mansard roof and lime-concrete walls, there stands next to the sutler’s store the last officers’ quarters erectedat Fort Laramie in 1884. After the abandonment of the fort, it became the home of the last post trader, John Hunton.

The sutler’s store and officers’ row, 1954.

Next in “Officers’ Row” stands a lime-concrete walled duplex. Erected during the building boom at Fort Laramie in 1875-76, it is typical of the officers’ quarters of that day.

Turning your back to “Officers’ Row,” you see the stone foundations of a long, three-company barracks erected in 1868 which faced one end of the historic parade ground, and had behind it messhalls and kitchens for each company.

“Old Bedlam” in 1889.Courtesy E. A. Brininstool.

“Old Bedlam” in 1938, prior to restoration.

To the rear of “Officers’ Row” stands a rough stone-walled structure originally built by 1850 as post magazine. In later years it served as an outbuilding under several types of roofs.

Officers and children in front of now-missing units of officers’ row, about 1889.Courtesy Gen. G. W. McIver.

Passing the sites of missing units of “Officers’ Row,” you reach this two-storied frame structure which has dominated the scene since the late summer of 1849, when it was partially completed of lumber sawed locally by horsepower and millwork hauled overland from Fort Leavenworth. While post headquarters—home of the commanding officer until 1867 and often the stronghold of bachelor officers—countless notables, including soldier, civilian, and Indian sat at its dinner and council tables. It has been intimately associated with many historic events, among the most dramatic of which was John “Portugee” Phillips’ 236-mile, 4-day ride through December blizzards with the news of the Fetterman disaster at Fort Phil Kearny in 1866. Its brick-filled, clapboard walls echoing to historic tumult and social gaiety, it early acquired the name “Old Bedlam,” which was immortalized in Gen. Charles King’s novelLaramie, or the Queenof Bedlam, first published in 1889. As originally constructed, it had side wings and outside stairways. These were removed and the present rear wing added in 1881.

The cast of an amateur tableau in 1889 featured Col. H. C. Merriam, the commanding officer.Courtesy Col. Louis Brechemin.

Three sets of crumbling lime-concrete walls are all that remain of two commodious duplexes and a spacious veranda-rimmed mansion for the commanding officer, which were erected in 1881. They are stark reminders of the dismantling of many fine buildings for lumber after the public auction of 1890.

Turning the corner of the parade ground by the remains of a small brick fountain and passing the site of another now-missing officers’ quarters, you reach the site of the fort built in 1841 by the American Fur Co. Located on high ground in a bend of the Laramie River, it dominated the then treeless valley from bluff to bluff. Many historians believe this was also the site of log-stockaded Fort William, erected in 1834, but conclusive evidence as to its location is lacking.

Guard mount, about 1885, facing officers’ quarters, now in ruins.Courtesy Wyoming Historical Department.

Occupying part of the site of Fort John is a large frame building used as officers’ quarters and built in 1870. Originally designed for one family, it was later divided into a duplex with two kitchen wings and verandas on three sides.

Turning the far corner of the parade ground where once stood several minor buildings, including a printing office, you reach the ruins of the fine administration building erected in 1885 to house not only the headquarters offices but the post theater and a schoolroom for officers’ children.

Facing the shallow stream, which is all that modern irrigation reservoirs have left of the rushing Laramie River, are the stone walls and barred windows and doors of the guardhouse, or prison, built in 1866. The upper floor was used largely by the post guard contingent, while prisoners, regardless of the degree of their offense, languished in the basement room where remains of a solitary cell suggests the probable harshness of military penal discipline. Bricked-up windows and doorway are evidences of later use of this structure for ordnance storage.

The long, low mound on the southeast side of the parade ground marks the site of another two-company barracks behind which were kitchens and messhalls. These also were built in 1866.

Barracks for five companies and the new guardhouse viewed across the parade grounds about 1889.Courtesy U. S. Signal Corps.

At the east angle of the parade ground stands the walls of a guardhouse erected in 1876 to improve the lot ofboth guards and prisoners. To the right are the foundations of the general sink, and, to the left, the barracks foundations described underNo. 5.

The administration building at Fort Laramie shortly after its completion in 1885.Courtesy U. S. Signal Corps.

One hundred yards to the east, this brick and lime-concrete structure, built in 1876 to replace an earlier bakehouse, has been restored to its condition as a granary, the use to which it was put after 1885 when a new bakery, now in ruin to the east, was constructed.

The restored commissary-storehouse, the old bakery, and ruined new bakery, 1954.

This large, lime-concrete walled structure was erected in 1883 and included offices, issue rooms, and storerooms for the variety of clothing, foodstuffs, and supplies controlled bythe commissary. In one large section of this structure are displayed vehicles, implements, stoves, and furnishings, either relics of the fort or acquisitions for eventual refurnishing of certain of the historic structures.

You have now returned to the parking area and Information Center, but may continue your tour to additional sites.

On the hill to the north stand the ruins of the post hospital erected in 1873. The hospital contained a 12-bed ward, dispensary, kitchen, dining room, isolation rooms, surgeon’s office, rooms for orderlies and storage, but no laboratory or operating rooms. It was the first lime-concrete building erected at Fort Laramie. There is good evidence that this building stands in the midst of the Cemetery used by the fur traders before 1849 and by the Army before 1868. These early burials, probably including that of Milton Sublette in 1836, remain undisturbed.

East of the hospital is the ruin of a long, one-story building. Built in 1884, it consisted of six four-room apartments for married noncommissioned staff Officers.

Looking west from “Hospital Hill,” you may gaze down on the sites of the Cheyenne-Black Hills Stage Co.’s stables and the Rustic Hotel, another of the post trader’s enterprises during the Black Hills rush. Farther west stand the ruined walls of a sawmill-pumphouse erected in 1887 to replace a predecessor destroyed by fire.

Outside the present boundaries of the national monument, but closely related to the historic fort, are several other points of interest.

A view of Fort Laramie, 1954.

The cavalry barracks, 1954, partially restored.

When approaching the fort, the visitor crosses the North Platte River on a picturesque iron truss bridge which was built by the Army in 1875-76 with materials hauled by ox team from Cheyenne. A short distance above the bridge, on the south bank of the river, is the site of old Fort Platte, rival of the second Fort Laramie (Fort John). Farther on, to the left of the road, is a modern cemetery which includes a few marked burials of soldiers and civilians of the late military period. The remains of enlisted men once buried here, along with remains of soldiers slain in the Grattan massacre, have been removed to Fort McPherson National Cemetery in Nebraska.

Just beyond the boundary fence to the northeast, adjoining the cavalry barracks and commissary storehouse, once stood numerousutility shops, stables, corrals, the Indian agent’s office, and the telegraph office. On the opposite side of Laramie River were other structures associated with the fort, including a laundresses’ quarters and the Brown’s Hotel.

In historic times there were various bridges across the Laramie for the accommodation of soldiers and civilian travelers. The abutments of one of these may still be seen to the east of the old bakery.

Fort Laramie National Monument is on a paved country road 3 miles southwest of the town of Fort Laramie, Wyo., which is on U. S. 26 midway between its junctions with U. S. 85 and 87.

The Burlington Railroad and Bus Lines offer service to the town of Fort Laramie, but there is no public transportation between the town and the monument. You must arrange your own transportation between these points.

Fort Laramie National Monument is administered by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior. A superintendent, whose address is Fort Laramie, Wyo., is in immediate charge.

Included in the National Park System are many other important areas connected with various periods in American history. In addition to Fort Laramie National Monument, those commemorating related phases of Western history include: Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, Mo.; Homestead and Scotts Bluff National Monuments, Nebr.; Custer Battlefield and Big Hole Battlefield National Monuments, Mont.; Grand Teton National Park, Wyo.; Whitman National Monument, Wash.; Lava Beds National Monument, Calif.; Pipe Spring National Monument, Ariz.; and McLoughlin House National Historic Site, Oreg.

Fort Laramie National Monument has no facilities for camping parties. Trailer parks, motels, hotel accommodations, and restaurantsmay be found in the nearby towns of Torrington, Lingle, Fort Laramie, and Guernsey.

The area is open the entire year. Historical information and literature are available at the administrative office and museum, which is open every day during the summer. Special interpretive service is available to groups making prior arrangements with the superintendent.

(Price lists of National Park Service publications may be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D.C.)

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