The Aftermath of the Fort Laramie Treaty

When I republished the book by William V. Wade, little did I realize how fruitful facts of his life would be for this amateur historian.  Terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 were starting to be ignored when miners began entering the Black Hills in their search for gold.  Wade had earned respect from both the white and Indian communities in this area and was asked in 1875 to accompany the Lakota Indians from Fort Yates to Fort Robinson, NE where the Allison Commission convened a large gathering of government representatives and upwards of 5,000 Indians to discuss Black Hills access.

Things did not go well and Wade gives us this eye-witness account:  “After quite a bit of parley our Indians agreed to move up within 11 milies of Fort Robinson.  I think they were being just a bit cautious as we had heard Crazy Horse from out at the hostile camp had sent 100 warriors under the “Little-Big-Man” to break up the council with the Washington Commissioners.  … We were soon asked to come to the Agency to meet the twelve Commissioners.  Among them were Senator Allison from Iowa, General Terry and a Frenchman…  Allison said to our Indians, “We did not come here to buy your Black Hills, we just want you to loan them to us for 10 years.  The white men are bound to go in there and we cannot stop them.  If you will loan them to us we will let the people go in and see what they can find and at the end of that time, if they find gold we will buy the Hills from you and if they don’t find anything they want, we will let you have them back again.”  The Indians talked the matter over among themselves and the old Chiefs said, “We cannot lend these hills to the whitemen … If the white soldiers can’t keep their people out of the Hills, we will have to.”

Wade goes on to describe how a bit of intimidation on the part of the Commission backfired when they arrived for a day’s parley with thirty armed cavalrymen.  “As soon as the Commissioners went inside and the soldiers lined up on four sides of the tent with their horses facing toward the tent.”  One of the onlookers punched Wade in the ribs and said, ‘Look here.’  He jerked his thumb in the direction of the mounted guard, and, Lo and Behold, there were as many as three mounted Indians behind every soldier with their guns aimed at the soldiers’ backs"

Wade painted quite the picture of tension.  The following year the Battle of the Little Big Horn occurred.  This book sold well, but after its fourth printing, quite a few copies remain at $10 each and $3 postage.  In my "Complete Profile" you can email me.