Fort Wise (1861), Sand Creek (1864) and the Little Arkansas reparations (1865)

What happened

Under the Treaty of Fort Wise (February 1861), the chiefs who signed ceded "all lands now owned, possessed, or claimed by them" except a reserve on the Arkansas River. The United States promised to protect the Arapaho and Cheyenne on it "during good behavior" and to pay $30,000 a year for fifteen years. The National Park Service (NPS) says only a few chiefs were present at the negotiations, that a majority of Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs refused to sign, and that after ratification the treaty was applied to all the Cheyenne and Arapaho people.

Many would not move onto the reserve. On November 29, 1864, Colorado volunteer troops under Col. John Chivington attacked a Cheyenne and Arapaho village at Sand Creek. The NPS timeline says the soldiers massacred over 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho, including about 150 women, children, and elderly, and mutilated many of the bodies. Other accounts give different numbers. Congress ordered an investigation in January 1865, and the War Department set up a military commission on Chivington's conduct. The 1865 Treaty of the Little Arkansas, in Article 6, says the United States wished to "repudiate the gross and wanton out-rages" at Sand Creek. It promised land grants to named chiefs and to widows and orphans of the bands, plus payment for destroyed property.

The NPS timeline states that the promised reparations "are never paid." The NPS timeline says the 1865 treaty also removed Colorado from Cheyenne and Arapaho treaty lands, and that the Medicine Lodge Treaty replaced it in October 1867. Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site was dedicated April 28, 2007.

Good to know. Sand Creek death tolls vary widely by source; the figure here is the National Park Service's. Most chiefs refused to sign Fort Wise, but it was applied to all.

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error