Cheyenne War: Indian Raids On The Roads To Denver 1864-1869
Jeff Broome s account of Indian warfare on the Great Plains involving the Cheyenne and other tribes during the 1860s is enlivened by the most comprehensive research I have ever seen of the Indian depredation claims filed by white settlers. He has also demonstrated a personal touch through his use of quotations from testimonials given by these embattled civilians regarding their claims for property loss. These include insights into the often fatal attacks by those Indian warriors who felt that their ancestral buffalo hunting grounds must be saved at any cost. Because of its thorough utilization of government documents, this study will be invaluable for historians of the Indian wars. Robert W. Larson, author of Red Cloud: Warrior-Statesman of the Lakota Sioux and Gall: Lakota War Chief --author endorsementIn this volume, Jeff Broome has done a marvelous job of mining documents filed under the Indian depredation claims system a federal Indian policy intending to preserve peace on the frontiers by allowing white settlers and Indians, alike, to file claims for the wrongs done by each other. The policy, the federal government hoped, would prevent frontier retaliations and violence. It failed miserably, but the resulting claims reveal nearly a century s worth of previously unheard white voices describing the horrors of Indian-white conflict. Broome focuses on the roads to Denver, 1864 1869. His engaging reconstruction of this era and place, as seen through the lens of white frontiersmen and women, will inspire other researchers to don miner s helmets and descend into this mother lode of heretofore-neglected historical evidence. Larry C. Skogen author of Indian Depredation Claims, 1796 1920 --Author endorsementFor readers purchasing Cheyenne War, please include the following corrections to your copy of the book. I am grateful to Greg Michno for finding these. His geographical acumen far exceeds mine. Cheyenne War Errata Factual errors: p. 182, 2nd indented paragraph, change north/northwest to west/southwest p. 182, 3rd indented paragraph, change southwest Wyoming Territory to present-day south-central Wyoming p. 237, 2nd indented paragraph, delete after Cottonwood - the early name for Fort McPherson, from which Col. Dodge would leave with his command five days later, and replace with command reached a place called Cottonwood - not to be confused with the early name for Fort McPherson,... p. 296, 2nd indented paragraph, change ...east of Bunker Hill to west of Bunker Hill.... p. 301, 1st indented paragraph, change Fort Douglas to Fort Dodge P. 320, 1st indented paragraph, change today s Oklahoma panhandle. to today s Oklahoma. p. 333, 2nd indented paragraph, change near present-day Wichita to present-day Hutchinson. p. 336, 1st indented paragraph, delete which was about four feet tall. p. 354, 1st indented paragraph, change 50 miles northeast of Fort Wallace. to 50 miles southeast of Fort Wallace. p. 394, 1st indented paragraph, near end, change old Platte River route from Julesburg to Denver. to old Platte River route to Denver. p. 409, 1st indented paragraph, change - east to Julesburg Station. to - west to Julesburg Station. p. 417, 2nd indented paragraph, change 150 miles southeast to 150 miles southwest p. 456, carryover footnote, change The article in Journal of the Wild West History Association... to The article in Wild West.... In addition to the above factual errors, there were also, unfortunately, several spelling or grammar errors. Thus, here is additional erratum correcting those: p. 26, 1st indented paragraph, change generally despaired as to generally disparaged as.... p. 64, 1st indented paragraph, change stealing the lose stock to stealing the loose stock... p. 87, carry over paragraph, change portions of their cloths not burned to portions of the --author notesJeff Broome, a professor at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, Colorado, has mined a new vein in the history of Indian-white relations on the Great Plains in the 1860s. While most of us are aware of the conflicts between these two peoples in the accounts of western expansion, this one is different. Every step of this story is carefully and precisely documented. It is a grim tale of savage attacks on white settlers by formerly friendly Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Lakota tribes. Prior to the summer of 1864, relations between the native peoples and those who were moving across and into western Kansas, Nebraska, and the Great Plains area of Colorado were generally friendly. Peace treaties had been negotiated and agreed to by both sides, though many individuals of the tribes had not participated. Older members wanted a peaceful transition; younger warriors decided to take action counter to the treaties. In April 1864 some cattle were stolen in a raid. Soon multiple attacks and raids followed with cattle and horses stolen or killed, along with the first white victims. Soon this escalated into a wholesale slaughter, a virtual genocide, conducted against any and all white travelers and settlers on the routes to Denver. The locations included stage stations, ranches, wagon trains, and even some settlements. Over the next five years, hundreds of white children, women, and men were killed in the most brutal fashion: a four-and-a-half-year-old boy with five arrows in his back (but amazingly survived); a baby roasted alive; women raped by twenty or more warriors; women and children kidnapped and forced into slavery by their captors. Bodies were mutilated in the most horrible fashion. The response to these atrocities was seen in such things as the Sand Creek Massacre, the Powder River campaign, Custer s campaign along the Washita, General Carr s campaign, and ultimately the Summit Springs battle. Soldiers were attached to wagon trains and provided some protections to stage-stop locations, but it took five years to end the attacks. What is surprising is that settlers continued to come and settle on their homesteads even after others had been recently killed on the same property in relatively isolated locations. The U.S. government continued to honor the treaties by providing the Indians with guns and ammunition, which were then used on the settlers and attacks on soldiers. Owners of supply ranches and stage stops returned after having survived an attack where their buildings and property had been totally destroyed, only to be attacked again. Broome has documented every incident, of which there are a great many, by referring to original accounts by survivors, often cross-referenced. Many of these accounts are found in the National Archives and Records Administration relating to claims put in by survivors who lost horses, cattle, buildings, and personal property. One Englishman lost twenty thousand pounds, money that quickly showed up at trading posts. Though those who lost everything could file a claim, it might take years to be paid, and there was no compensation for lives lost. This is a superbly written book, a seminal work on the subject, which provides a true and accurate account of the price of westward expansion and settlement in the West. It makes for hard, painful reading, filled with tales of bravery in the face of horror, tragedy, and occasional bright moments. --Alan CulpinTo know only of the soldiers' killing and mutilation of Indian women and children at Sand Creek is to know only part of the sad story of the five years of raiding, fighting, scalping and killing author Jeff Broome calls the Cheyenne War. He mostly covers ground in Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado territories more specifically on the Denver Road along the South Platte, the Smoky Hill Trail, and the Santa Fe Trail, which actually passed south of Denver on the way to Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory from the spring of 1864 until the significant if little known Battle of Summit Springs (Co.) on July 11, 1869. The Northern and Southern Cheyennes were usually not acting alone in the raiding; other Plains Indians such as the Arapahos, Kiowas and Lakotas played a role. Broome acknowledges that "a small number of soldiers committed unspeakable atrocities to several of the innocent women and children caught at Sand Creek" on November 29, 1864. But he also points out that only six of 1,450 Western fights between whites and Indians from 1850 to 1890 had more white casualties than happened at what is often called the Sand Creek Massacre. Broome only touches on the actual soldier-Indian battles of the period, for it is neither the military nor Indian perspectives that interest him most rather he concentrates on what he calls "the civilian perspective." The focus of Broome's research was the National Archives'largely neglected files (more than 13,000) that contain depredation claims by settlers and freighters. He found several hundred files with affidavits detailing the specifics of Indian raids during the Cheyenne War (called other things by other historians and not usually considered one five-year war). In his introduction Broome explains the nature and requirements of these claims, pointing out that the monetary value of claims were frequently reduced (some were outright fraudulent), but that the facts of the attacks were not challenged. "One quirk in the law was that there was no compensation for injury or death," writes Broome. The author, however, details all the injury and death associated with the destroyed property (homesteads and wagons) and stolen livestock. The raiders were rarely shy about killing men, women and children, mutilating the dead and abusing captives. Many emigrant wagons and freighter wagons did get through to Denver or beyond without casualties, but after reading about one Indian depredation after another here, one might wonder how that was even possible or else attribute the successful trips to good fortune or dumb luck. Deeper analysis of this would have been nice. Treaties never really ended the attacks. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1866 lessened the problems along the Denver trails for a while, but it led to greater warring activities to the north along the Bozeman Trail. Broome seems to have sympathy for most of the citizens who lost property if not their lives. His chapter covering the Spillman Creek Raid of May 30, 1869, is called "Bury My Heart at Spillman Creek." The Indians show little mercy on these pages, although the Sioux Spotted Tail comes to see the light (and no longer wants to kill whites). Even the motives of Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle, often seen as the ultimate good Indian and victim (at Sand Creek and the Battle of the Washita) are challenged. "To freighters who knew him and who survived attack by raiding Indians, the feeling was that Black Kettle acted as a spy for the militant warriors," writes Broome. Any reader even those who disagree with Broome's approach or observations will admire the labor and time that went into producing this follow-up to his fine book Dog Soldier Justice. The detailed depredations might be hard for some readers to stomach, but the payoff is ample drama, displays of citizen courage and a wealth of new information. --HistoryNet Staff