Treaties of Medicine Lodge
The Treaties of Medicine Lodge, signed in October 1867, were significant agreements made between the United States government and several southern Plains tribes, including the Comanche, Kiowa, Kiowa Apache, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho. These treaties emerged from a context of conflict and warfare, as the U.S. sought to establish peace after years of hostilities in the region. The negotiations took place at Medicine Lodge Creek in Kansas and involved high-profile figures such as Indian Commissioner Nathaniel G. Taylor and various military generals.
The resulting treaties allocated reservations to the tribes—three million acres for the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho and a similar area for the Comanche, Kiowa, and Kiowa Apache—while granting them the right to hunt bison within designated territories. However, the treaties also imposed restrictions on the tribes' movements and allowed for the presence of white buffalo hunters, which ultimately contributed to the near extinction of bison in the area by the early 1870s. The Treaties of Medicine Lodge thus reflect complex interactions between Native American tribes and the U.S. government, highlighting the challenges of maintaining sovereignty and traditional ways of life in the face of expanding settlement and industrial pressures.
Treaties of Medicine Lodge
Date: October, 1867
Place: Kansas
Tribes affected: Apache of Oklahoma, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa
Significance: In an attempt to end the hostilities between Indians and white settlers in the southern Plains, the United States negotiated the Treaties of Medicine Lodge with the largest southern Plains tribes; the treaties marked the beginning of the reservation period for the Plains Indians
In 1867, after several years of intermittent war between the southern Plains nomads and the United States, the Congress established the Indian Peace Commission to conclude a peace with the southern Plains tribes. The Peace Commission included Indian Commissioner Nathaniel G. Taylor, Senator John B. Henderson of Missouri, the New England reformer Samuel F. Tappan, and army generals Alfred Terry, William S. Harney, William T. Sherman, and John B. Sanborn. Before the Commission met with the southern Plains tribes in October, 1867, Sherman was recalled to Washington and replaced by General C. C. Augur.
In August, 1867, the Peace Commission requested the southern Plains tribes to assemble at Medicine Lodge Creek in southern Kansas. At first, their entreaties attracted only the bands under “friendly” chiefs: Black Kettle of the Cheyenne, Little Raven of the Arapaho, and Poor Bear of the “Kiowa Apache” (Apache of Oklahoma). By October, however, most of the bands had come to Medicine Lodge Creek. When the commissioners arrived at the council, the camp included 100 Comanche lodges, 150 Kiowa lodges, 85 Kiowa Apache lodges, 171 Arapaho lodges, and 250 lodges of Cheyenne.
The Comanche, Kiowa, and Kiowa Apache agreed to a treaty with the commissioners on October 21. Sitting Bear and Satanta of the Kiowa and Ten Bears of the Comanche were among the signatories. The negotiations with the Cheyenne and Arapaho, however, were less expeditious. Their recent successes against the army made the Cheyenne—particularly the soldier societies—reticent to sign a treaty. Yet on October 28, the Cheyenne agreed to a treaty; among the Cheyenne signatories were Black Kettle and Tall Bull; the Arapaho signatories included Little Raven. Both treaties were ratified by the Senate on July 25, 1868.
The Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho gained a reservation of three million acres between the Arkansas and Cimarron rivers; the Comanche, Kiowa, and Kiowa Apache acquired a reservation of a similar size between the Washita and Red rivers. The treaty forbade the tribes to occupy any territory outside the reservations permanently but stipulated that they retained the right to hunt bison anywhere south of the Arkansas River “so long as the buffalo may range thereon in such numbers as to justify the chase.” While the agreements prohibited white settlers from moving into the Indians’ hunting territory, they did not expressly forbid European American buffalo hunters from pursuing the herds south of the Arkansas River. In the early 1870’s, white buffalo hunters nearly exterminated the bison south of the Arkansas.