The Little Arkansas Treaty was a set of treaties signed between the United States of America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and the Kiowa

Kiowa

The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...

, Comanche

Comanche

The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...

, Plains Apache

Plains Apache

The Plains Apache are a Southern Athabaskan group that traditionally live on the Southern Plains of North America and today are centered in Southwestern Oklahoma...

, Southern Cheyenne, and Southern Arapaho

Arapaho

The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Sioux. Arapaho is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre, whose people are seen as an early...

 at Little Arkansas River

Little Arkansas River

The Little Arkansas River is a river located in south-central Kansas. It rises in northern Rice County just north of Lyons and flows southeast past Buhler and Halstead to meet the Arkansas River in Wichita....

, Kansas in October 1865. On October 17, 1865 the United States and all of the major Plains Indians Tribes signed a treaty on the Little Arkansas River, which became known as the Little Arkansas Treaty. It is notable in that it lasted less than two years, and the reservations it created for the Plains Indians were never created at all, and were reduced by 90% eighteen months later in 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...

.

The full treaty can be found online at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/ntreaty/apchar65.htm

The Civil War

The Civil War was ending, and the Union did not want to have to keep hundreds of thousands of men under arms to defend immigrants against Indian attacks. Therefore the government sent highly respected Commissioners to the Plains Tribes, and asked them to meet and talk peace.

Chiefs and Commissioners in attendance

Among the Native American Leaders in attendance were Chiefs Black Kettle and Seven Bulls (Cheyenne), Little Raven and Big Mouth (Comanche), Poor Bear, Old Fool Man, and Crow (Apache), Little Raven, and Storm, (Arapaho), Satanta and Satank (Kiowa). Federal commissioners with great prestige and standing among the Indians were General Harney, Colonel Leavenworth, Kit Carson and William. Bent.

For the United States, the signatories of the treaty were:

• John B. Sanborn,
• William. S. Harney,
• James Steele,
• William. W. Bent,
• Kit Carson,
• Thomas. Murphy,
• Col. J. H. Leavenworth,

Commissioners on the part of the United States.

For the Native Americans, the signatories of the treaty were:

• Kou-zhon-ta-co, or Poor Bear, head chief, his x mark.
• Ba-zhe-ech, or Iron Shirt, his x mark.
• Az-che-om-a-te-ne, or the Old Fool Man, chief, his x mark.
• Karn-tin-ta, or the Crow, chief, his x mark.
• Mah-vip-pah, or The Wolf Sleeve, chief, his x mark.
• Nahn-tan, or The Chief, his x mark.

On the part of the Kiowa-Apaches (Or Plains-Apaches)

• Moke-ta-ve-to, or Black Kettle, head chief, his x mark.
• Oh-to-ah-ne-so-to-wheo, or Seven Bulls, chief, his x mark.
• Hark-kah-o-me, or Little Robe, chief, his x mark.
• Moke-tah-vo-ve-ho, or Black White Man, chief, his x mark.
• Mun-a-men-ek, or Eagle's Head, headman, his x mark.
• O-to-ah-nis-to, or Bull that Hears, headman, his x mark.

On the part of the Cheyennes

• Oh-has-tee, or Little Raven, head chief, his x mark.
• Oh-hah-mah-hah, or Storm, chief, his x mark.
• Pah-uf-pah-top, or Big Mouth, chief, his x mark.
• Ah-cra-ka-tau-nah, or Spotted Wolf, chief, his x mark.

On the part of the Comanches

• Ah-nah-wat-tan, or Black Man, headman, his x mark.
• Nah-a-nah-cha, Chief in Everything, headman, his x mark.
• Chi-e-nuk, or Haversack, headman, his x mark.

On the part of the Arrapahoes

• Satanta, White Bear, chief, his x mark.
• Satank, or Big Bear, chief, his x mark.
• Wa-toh-konk, or Black Eagle, chief, his x mark.
• Sa-tim-gear, or Stumbling Bear, chief, his x mark.
• Sit-par-ga, or One Bear, chief, his x mark.

On the part of the Kiowa

What both sides wanted

The white representatives wanted peace, unmolested traffic on the Santa Fe trail and limitation of Indian territory. The Indians demanded unrestricted hunting grounds and reparation for the Chivington massacre of Black Kettle's band. Treaties made here gave the Indians reservations south of the Arkansas, excluded them north to the Platte and proclaimed peace. Several white captives were released, among them a woman and four children from Texas, the Box family, taken by a war party under Satanta.

The aftermath

This is one of the shortest treaties in history. None of its major provisions were ever implemented. Both sides charged violations and warfare continued until the Medicine Lodge treaties of 1867. http://www.dickshovel.com/conclu.html There is a monument one mile west of the Little Arkansas River, on the Council Grounds, in Kansas, commemorating the Treaty.

External links

• http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/ntreaty/apchar65.htm
• http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Treaties/TreatyWithTheApacheCheyenneAndArapaho1865.html
• http://www.greatdreams.com/apache/apache-treaty-1866.htm