Edmund Guerrier
Encyclopedia
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
and Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
parentage, was a survivor of the Sand Creek massacre
Sand Creek Massacre
As conflict between Indians and white settlers and soldiers in Colorado continued, many of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, including bands under Cheyenne chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope, were resigned to negotiate peace. The chiefs had sought to maintain peace in spite of pressures from whites...
in 1864. He was an interpreter for the U.S. government during the Indian Wars
Indian Wars
American Indian Wars is the name used in the United States to describe a series of conflicts between American settlers or the federal government and the native peoples of North America before and after the American Revolutionary War. The wars resulted from the arrival of European colonizers who...
between the Cheyenne and the United States, and later became a successful rancher.
Early life
Guerrier was born January 16, 1840 in a Cheyenne camp on the Smoky Hill RiverSmoky Hill River
The Smoky Hill River is a river in the central Great Plains of North America, running through the U.S. states of Colorado and Kansas.-Names:The Smoky Hill gets its name from the Smoky Hills region of north-central Kansas through which it flows...
in what is now the state of Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
. His father William Guerrier
William Guerrier
William Guerrier was a businessman and Cheyenne interpretor on the Santa Fe Trail and Oregon Trail and is believed to be the first rancher in Wyoming....
, a Frenchman born in 1812 in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, was then employed by the fur trader William Bent
William Bent
William Wells Bent was a frontier trapper, trader, and rancher in the American West who mediated among the Cheyenne Nation, other Native American tribes and the expanding United States. With his brothers, Bent established a trade business along the Santa Fe Trail. In the early 1830s Bent built an...
of Bent's Fort; his mother was Tah-tah-tois-neh (Walks In Sight), a Cheyenne of Little Rock
Little Rock (Cheyenne chief)
Little Rock was a council chief of the Wutapiu band of Southern Cheyennes. He was the only council chief who remained with Black Kettle following the Sand Creek massacre of 1864....
's Wutapai band. In 1848, his father left William Bent's employ and, in partnership with Seth Edmund Ward, became a licensed trader in the region of the Upper Platte
Platte River
The Platte River is a major river in the state of Nebraska and is about long. Measured to its farthest source via its tributary the North Platte River, it flows for over . The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, which in turn is a tributary of the Mississippi River which flows to...
and Arkansas
Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's initial basin starts in the Western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas...
rivers, eventually operating a trading post along the Platte with his partners.
Guerrier's mother and an infant sibling died in an 1849 cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
epidemic. In 1851 Guerrier was entered in a Catholic mission school near present-day St. Marys, Kansas
St. Marys, Kansas
St. Marys is a city in Pottawatomie and Wabaunsee counties in the U.S. state of Kansas, approximately 20 miles west of Topeka on U.S. Route 24. The population was 2,198 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Manhattan, Kansas Metropolitan Statistical Area....
, and later enrolled in St. Louis University. After his father's death in 1857, Guerrier withdrew from the university and eventually returned to live with his mother's people, who knew him as Red Tail Hawk. He narrowly escaped death in the Sand Creek massacre
Sand Creek Massacre
As conflict between Indians and white settlers and soldiers in Colorado continued, many of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, including bands under Cheyenne chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope, were resigned to negotiate peace. The chiefs had sought to maintain peace in spite of pressures from whites...
in 1864.
Indian Wars
Guerrier married George BentGeorge Bent
George Bent was the mixed-race son of the fur trader William Bent, the founder of the trading post named Bent's Fort; and Owl Woman, a Cheyenne. Born near present-day La Junta, Colorado, Bent served as a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War and a Cheyenne warrior...
's sister Julia in about 1865. He worked as an interpreter for the Interior Department and was present in that capacity at the negotiations for the Treaty of the Little Arkansas of 1865. After a stint as a trader for licensed arms dealer David A. Butterfield, he was hired as an interpreter by the War Department, assigned to the Seventh U.S. Cavalry and played a crucial role during the spring 1867 Hancock expedition under Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock. In August 1868 he was living with Little Rock's band on Buckner's Fork of the Pawnee River when he learned of the violent raids by a large war party on white settlements along the Saline
Saline River (Kansas)
The Saline River is a tributary of the Smoky Hill River in the central Great Plains of North America. The entire length of the river lies in the U.S. state of Kansas. The river takes its name from the French translation of its Native name Ne Miskua, referring to its salty content.-Geography:The...
and Solomon rivers in Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
; he later gave an affidavit to the U.S. military identifying the men responsible for the raids.
In October 1867 he was an interpreter during negotiations for the Medicine Lodge Treaty
Medicine Lodge Treaty
The Medicine Lodge Treaty is the overall name for three treaties signed between the United States government and southern Plains Indian tribes in October 1867, intended to bring peace to the area by relocating the Native Americans to reservations in Indian Territory and away from European-American...
. In 1869 he interpreted for the Fifth U.S. Cavalry under Maj. Gen. Eugene A. Carr, and afterward worked as a trader at Camp Supply
Fort Supply
Fort Supply was a United States Army post established on November 18, 1868, in Indian Territory to protect the Southern Plains...
for the firm of Lee and Reynolds. He again worked for the Interior Department in 1871 and 1884, interpreting for Cheyenne delegations to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....