Devil's Canyon, in present-day Kiowa County, Oklahoma

Kiowa County, Oklahoma

Kiowa County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of 2000, the population was 10,227. Its county seat is Hobart.-Geography:According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of . is land and is water....

, was the site of the first formal contact between the United States government and the Plains Indians

Plains Indians

The Plains Indians are the Indigenous peoples who live on the plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America. Their colorful equestrian culture and resistance to White domination have made the Plains Indians an archetype in literature and art for American Indians everywhere.Plains...

. On July 21, 1834, US troops under the command of Col. Henry Dodge

Henry Dodge

Henry Dodge was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, Territorial Governor of Wisconsin and a veteran of the Black Hawk War. His son was Augustus C. Dodge with whom he served in the U.S. Senate, the first, and so far only, father-son pair to serve concurrently....

 escorted government officials to a peace conference at the Wichita

Wichita (tribe)

The Wichita people are indigenous inhabitants of North America, who traditionally spoke the Wichita language, a Caddoan language. They have lived in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas...

village on the prairie at the confluence of the canyon and the North Fork of the Red River.