TRIBES SIGN MEDICINE LODGE TREATIES
After the Civil War, migrants using the Santa Fe Trail led to inevitable conflict with Plains tribes. Signed at Medicine Lodge Creek near Medicine Lodge, Kansas, the 1st treaty was with the Kiowa & Comanche; the 2nd confederated the Plains Apache with the Kiowa & Comanche: and a 3rd was with the Arapaho & Cheyenne. The U.S. promised the tribes peace & protection from white intruders in return for amity & relocation to reservations in western Indian Territory. The Senate ratified the treaties in July 1868. A provision restricted off-reservation bison hunting to lands south of the Arkansas River. The tribes promised to end hostility and objection to railroad construction and military posts. Article 12, which required approval of ¾ of the adult male tribal population for future land cessions, would later become an issue before the U.S. Supreme Court. However, delays in appropriations for and delivery of annuities & rations produced starvation & sickness and forced tribes to raid in order to survive.
Source: Jacki Thompson Rand, “Medicine Lodge Treaty (1867), Oklahoma Historical Society. Retrieved 4/9/2022, Medicine Lodge Treaty | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture (okhistory.org) Sketch: John Dare Howling (1843-1914), Harpers Weekly, 11/16/1867. Public Domain. Source: United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under Digital ID:cph 3b38801, Call Number Illus. in AP2.H32 Case Y [P&P], hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b38801, Control Number 96503277.
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