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This dissertation hasb e e n microfilmed exactly as received 67-15,910 CARRIKER, Robert Charles, 1940- FORT SUPPLY, INDIAN TERRITORY; FRONTIER OUT POST ON TH E SOUTHERN PLAINS, 1868-1894. The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D,, 1967 History, general University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan Copyright I967 by Robert Charles Carrlker THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE FORT SUPPLY, INDIAN TERRITORY; FRONTIER OUTPOST ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS, 1868-1894 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY ROBERT CHARLES CARRIKER Norman, Oklahoma 1967 FORT SUPPLY, INDIAN TERRITORY: FRONTIER OUTPOST ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS, 1868-1894 APPROVED BY mmK K ^ __ 2 DISSERTATION COMMITTEE PREFACE In my first month of graduate training in Western his tory at the University of Oklahoma I was introduced to Fort Supply. At the time I was working part-time for the Division of Manuscripts on the Walter S. Campbell Collection. Many of the interests of Campbell soon became my own. Indians, Dodge City, the Santa Fe Trail, and dozens of other western topics spiced the correspondence, manuscripts and research papers of the late Professor Campbell, who often wrote under the pseudo nym Stanley Vestal. In the volumes of material one military post. Fort Supply, northwestern Indian Territory, struck my fancy. Some weeks after my initial contact with the post, in the fall of 1963, I spent several days at a friend's house in the Oklahoma Panhandle on Beaver River. On my journey north west from Norman I passed through Supply, Oklahoma and the scattered buildings of the old fort, now a State Mental Hospi tal. Those next few days on Beaver River, an area often scout ed by troopers from Fort Supply, left me with an abiding in- iii terest in the post and region. A short time later I presented a paper on the formation of Port Supply in Professor Donald J. Berthrong's Western his tory seminar. Once I had located the post I determined to tell the complete story. For three years I kept the post in jpind, visited the region four times more, and gathered maps and a list of sources. At last in the spring of 1965 I began full time research on the project and the reward has been great. Port Supply has yielded an exciting story of frontier life in western Indian Territory. Many persons have assisted me in this study, and in each case the aid has been a significant contribution. The staff of the University of Oklahoma Division of Manuscripts has been particularly gracious. Professor of History, Arrell M. Gibson has given encouragement and counsel during all of the difficult research and later corrected the manuscript with a professional eye. Curator Jack D. Haley worked with me on Port Supply since my first encounter with the post, and has consistently offered good advice, friendship and research leads. Professor Donald J. Berthrong has taken time from his duties as Chairman of the Department of History to lead me through the difficult years of the 1870's and greatly enhanced the value of the study by allowing the author to use his own iv painstaking research from the Office of Indian Affairs at the National Archives. Miss Sara Jackson of the Old Army Records Division, National Archives guided my research with unfailing skill and good humor. Thanks are also offered to Professors Arthur H. DeRosier and D. Edward Harrell for reading the manu script. A special commendation is due Dean Carl Riggs of the University of Oklahoma Graduate College for financial assist ance through the National Science Foundation, Science Faculty Fellowship which made possible my National Archives research. Mr. and Mrs. William Zimmerer of Arlington, Virginia, very dear friends, opened their house to me for the month I scoured the National Archives, and made my stay enjoyable as well as profitable. My wife, Eleanor, has assisted me in many ways, not least of which was to correct and proof-read the manuscript. The mistakes are, of course, all my own. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE .......................................... iii LIST OF MAPS...................................... viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.............................. viii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION........................... 1 II. CAMP SUPPLY IN THE WINTER CAMPAIGN, 1868 11 III. INDIAN UNREST AT CAMP SUPPLY, 1869- 1870................................. 44 IV. INDIANS, WHITES AND WHISKEY, 1871- 1873................................. 84 V. CAMP SUPPLY IN THE INDIAN TERRITORY EXPEDITION, 1874-1875 ............. 130 VI. INDIANS, WHITES AND THIEVERY, 1875- 1879................................. 165 VII. SOLDIER AND CITIZEN AT FORT SUPPLY. 214 VIII. CATTLE, RESERVATIONS AND TRAILS, 1880- 1889................................. 244 IX. CATTLE, THE OUTLET AND LEASES, 1880- 1892.......................... 291 VI X. OPENING THE OUTLET AND CLOSING THE POST, 1893-1894 .................... 323 XI. CONCLUSION............................. 354 BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................... 361 Vll LIST OF MAPS Page FORT SUPPLY A R E A ............................... 10 DEEP CREEK TRAIL REFINEMENT.................... 282 MILITARY OPENING OF THE CHEROKEE OUTLET. 333 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page CAMP SUPPLY IN 1869............................. 30 ISSUING RATIONS AT CAMP SUPPLY IN 1870 .... 49 GROUND PLAN OF CAMP SUPPLY, 1870 ............. 83 POST BUILDINGS ...................................... 217 POST BUILDINGS ...................................... 218 GROUND PLAN OF FORT SUPPLY, 1886 .................. 247 CAVALRY INSPECTION .................................. 305 Vlll FORT SUPPLY, INDIAN TERRITORY; FRONTIER OUTPOST ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS, 1868-1894 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Fort Supply was established in 1868 as an operational base for the United States Army in its extended campaign to control the Southern Plains. The years following the Civil War saw this region ripped by savage warfare. Relentlessly pushed by white intruders, warriors from the plains tribes mounted violent raids along the frontiers of Colorado, Kansas and Texas. Wagon trains were attacked and burned, horses and mules stolen, settlers and miners killed. Torture, murder and pillage became the fate of numerous pioneers. It cost the United States $40,000,000 and countless lives to contain the Plains Indians after the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre.1 The energy of 8,000 troops was expended until ^Senate Exec. Doc. No. 13, 40 Cong., 1 Sess., 2. October, 1865 when a full treaty commission, consisting of Major General John B. Sanborn, Major General W. S. Harney, Kit Carson, William Bent, Jesse Leavenworth, James Steele and Thomas Murphy met with the hostiles. The Treaty of the Little Arkansas River brought temporary peace as Cheyennes and Arap- ahoes, Kiowa-Apaches and Kiowas and Comanches accepted reser- 2 vations. The truce, however, succumbed in the early months of 1866. Texas' control of its public lands nullified the pro posed reservation for the Kiowas and Comanches, and Kansas similarly refused Cheyenne settlement along its southern bor- der. Before long Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, the warrior society conspicuously absent from the Little Arkansas meetings, were suspected of hostilities. In spite of the efforts of Agent Edward W. Wynkoop to bring them into the treaty fold, the Dog Soldiers remained at large, harassing wagon trains and live stock herds. Those Cheyennes committed by the treaty became restless and farther south the Kiowas, led by Satanta and ^Charles J. Kappler (ed.), Indian Affairs; Laws and Treaties (Washington, 1903), II, 887, 890, 892; William H. Leckie, The Military Conquest of the Southern Plains (Norman, 1963), 25; Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Af fairs for the Year 1865, 528-533. 3 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Year 1868, 35. Lone Wolf, raided through a defense-poor Texas undergoing Fed eral Reconstruction.^ The fires of Indian raids once again swept the Southern Plains charring frontier settlements. Governor Samuel J. Crawford of Kansas journeyed to Washington and urged greater Federal protection. A peace commission was sent to counsel with the hostiles and this meeting resulted in the Medicine Lodge Treaty. The Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches of the Plains pledged themselves to a reservation of 3,000,000 acres between the Washita and Red rivers, and the ninety-eighth and 100th m e r i d i a n s . 5 A week later, on October 28, 1867, the Cheyennes and Arapahoes came to terms. More than 2,000 Cheyennes received presents, a fresh supply of clothing, blankets and ammunition, plus the government's promise to provide $20,000 annually for their benefit over a period of twenty-five years. The Indians also retained the privilege of hunting buffalo south of the Arkan- '^Leckie, Military Conquest, 31-34; Marvin Garfield, "Defense of the Kansas Frontier, 1866-1867," Kansas Historical Quarterly, I (August, 1932), 326. ^Kappler, Indian Affairs, II, 984-989; Leckie, Military Conquest, 62. The Kiowa-Comanche Reservatigp began at a point where the Washita River crosses the ninety-eighth meridian; thence up the Washita River to a point thirty miles, by river, west of Fort Cobb; thence due west to the North Fork of Red River; thence down said North Fork to the main Red River; thence down said river to its intersection with the ninety- eighth meridian; thence north, on said meridian line to the place of beginning. sas. In return the Cheyennes agreed not to impede railroad construction or restrain overland transportation,, never to molest the whites, and to move to a new 4,300,000 acre reser vation bounded by the thirty-seventh parallel and the Cimarron and Arkansas rivers.& Unfortunately the Medicine Lodge Treaty was no more successful than the Treaty of the Little Arkansas River. With scarcely an interruption for the winter months, the Texas frontier was overrun by war parties early in 1868. Kiowas under Lone Wolf ravaged Texas in January and February, and Comanche warriors were equally active.? By late May, 1868 the Cheyennes entered the new hostil ities. Warriors from this tribe burned Council Grove, Kansas. In mid August rampaging war parties streaked through the Sal ine and Solomon valleys and onto the eastern Colorado frontier.