On the Kansas plains, the year of 1867 began with Gen. Winfield Hancock’s military campaign against the tribes that had called the western plains home for generations. Hancock claimed he wanted to bring peace to the plains, but his show of force only brought the prospect of annihilation to the people of the plains. The Cheyenne, supported by the Arapaho and Sioux, fought back to bring a bloody summer of war to the plains.

Forts Larned and Dodge stood guard along the Santa Fe Trail. Forts Riley, Harker, Hays and Wallace were upgraded to guard the Smoky Hill Trail.

In the midst of the war, the first railroad to cross Kansas was rapidly building west over the open prairie between Ellsworth and Hays City. Stage lines, wagon trains, railroad workers and sometimes the towns themselves came under attack from the Indians who saw nothing but trouble from the invading hordes out of the east.

Custer and his command of 7th U. S. Cavalry had never seen an Indian before the spring of 1867. By midsummer, the soon-to-befamous 7th found themselves incapable of holding the Indians at bay. The 10th U.S. Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers, made up of Black troops and white officers, likewise had no Indian fighting experience, but 1867 would change all of that.

Custer discovered the decomposing remains of a squad of soldiers in an isolated valley of northwest Kansas. Lt. Lyman S. Kidder had left Fort Sedgwick, Neb., with a dispatch for Custer, but missed Custer’s column. They were surrounded in what can only be described as a very small brush-filled gully. The combined force of Cheyenne and Sioux warriors merely waited for the inexperienced soldiers to run out of ammunition before moving in to overwhelm them.

In another fight, Buffalo Soldiers fought a running battle with 300400 Indians from the Saline River to Fort Hays, some 20-25 miles distant from first contact. The troopers counted themselves lucky that only one man was lost in the fight.

It seemed as though the soldiers were at war with the ravages of nature and disease. Floods ravaged the banks of the Smoky Hill River. Cholera raged from Fort Harker to the western posts along the military trails. Death was a constant companion.

In August, soldiers once again encountered warriors at Prairie Dog Creek in northern Kansas. Troops of the 18th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry joined the Buffalo Soldiers in the three-day battle, which ended in another retreat to Fort Hays. Two soldiers were killed and 24 were wounded.

In the midst of the turmoil with the Plains tribes, Texas cattlemen found their way to a little outpost on the Smoky Hill River named Abilene. The trail they followed became known as the Chisholm Trail, contributing to the beginning of a massive cattle industry.

Meanwhile, the railroad had reached Hays City and was rapidly building toward an isolated location on the prairie. In a wide arc of Coyote Creek, the town of Coyote, Kan., came to life. Death and misery seemed to be at every turn at Coyote, as well as Hays City and Ellsworth. Men awoke in the morning to ask, “Shall we have a man for breakfast?”

Less noticed were the men of peace, working behind the scenes to Continued from Page A4

bring the conflict with the Plains tribes to a quiet end. The Indian Peace Commission arrived in Kansas in October to negotiate a treaty of peace. Representatives to the commission were a combination of military men, politicians and civilians.

Throughout the later part of the summer of 1867, frontiersmen negotiated for a conference with the Plains Indians. Groups of Comanche, Cheyenne and others met at Jesse Chisholm’s trading post at the mouth of the Little Arkansas River (Wichita).

Medicine Lodge Creek was selected as a meeting place to conclude the treaty between the U.S. government and five of the Plains tribes, namely, the Arapaho, Comanche, Prairie Apache, Kiowa and Cheyenne.

George Bent described the September scene in his book, “Life of George Bent.” “The great camp was in a beautiful hollow through which flowed Medicine Lodge Creek, with its lovely, wooded banks. This was a favorite place for the summer medicine-making of the Indians and also for their winter camps.”

The Arapaho camp was 170 lodges, the Comanche 100 lodges, the Kiowa 150 lodges and the Apache had 85 lodges. In the center was a grove of elm trees that served as the council grounds. Across the creek from the council grounds the Cheyenne camped in 250 lodges. Approximately 5,000 Indians were in camp. Indian ponies covered the hills and valleys. Around 600 men represented the U.S.

The treaties were signed, but the individual warrior society known as the Dog Men or Dog Soldiers saw only sorrow in the white man’s treaty. They rode away without signing. There would be no real peace.

That night, a storm set the surrounding prairie afire, which was doused by a deluge of rain. It was an uneasy ending to an uneasy conference between two cultures that had been thrown together in a year of destiny on The Way West.

“The Cowboy” Jim Gray can be reached at 220 21st Rd., Geneseo, KS 67444, (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.