The wars between the US Army and the Plains Indians lasted from the Grattan Massacre 1854 until the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. The relations between settlers and the native people were always tense. In 1851 the Dakotas (the Sioux) were forced to sign a treaty called Treaty of Traverse des Siuox & Mendota. This treaty gave control to the US government over todays state of Minnesota, and gave the Sioux a smaller area around the Minnesota River. In exchange the indians should receive gold and merchandise and help in building schools and farms on their reservation. As usual the Dakotas never received what they had been promised.

The Grattan Massacre on August 19 1854 on the Oregon trail near Fort Laramie,Wyoming. The real first fight between whites and plains indians, which led to several further confrontations. It began as 2nd Lt. John L. Grattan and 28 soldiers from Fort Laramie were going to arrest a Sioux indian, as he had killed a wounded cow which belonged to a Mormon wagontrain. A white man who disliked the indians and was under the influence of drinking, translated incorrect and with a condescending expression, the Brule chief Conquering Bears promise to compensate for the cow with a fresh pony. Grattan ordered his men to shoot and as the shooting was over, Grattan and his 28 men were dead and so was the chief. At that time Crazy Horse, then only 12 years old was in the village.

On the 3rd of September 1855 near Ash Hollow at Blue Water Creek, Wyoming, 700-800 soldiers under General Harneyīs command slaughtered in an ambush indians from the Brule, Oglala, Miniconjou and Cheyenne tribes led by chief Little Thunder. This was an act of reprisal for the Grattan Massacre. The indians were tracked to their camp where they were attacked. 75 indians were killed and 100 women and children were taken as prisoners.

In 1858 the US Army built 2 forts in Minnesota. Fort Ridgely in the south east part of the Dakota Indian Reservation and Fort Ripley up in north west. They were built to guard and protect the indian reservations, but the effect was the opposit. They came to be a protection to the settlers, and the number of settlers increased heavily in Minnesota. In 1861 the irritation between settlers and indians increased. A bad harvest in the summer gave the Dakotas a considerable less supply of food in the winter, and the tradesmen at the Indian agency didnīt allowed the indians to buy on credit anymore, which neraly led to starvation on the reservation. In the spring and early summer of 1862 many of the Dakotas, advocated war against the settlers, to be able to hunt to provide for their families. The food supplies from the government to the reservations were (as usual) late again, which made the situation more worse. The start of the first big indian war on the plains, the s.c. Minnesota Massacre was as it was told by Big Eagle, Dakota chief:

On Sunday the 17th of August 1862, 4 young Dakotas were out hunting. This is what these 4 men told me. They belonged to chief Shakopee's band. Their names were Sungigidan ("Brown Wing"), Ka-om-de-i-ye-ye-dan ("Breaking Up'), Nagi-we-cak-te ("Killing Ghost"), and Pa-zo-i-yo-pa ('Runs against something when Crawling'). They told me that their intention was not to go out and kill white people. They were out there hunting as they came to the fence of a settler, where they found some hensīeggs. One of them took the eggs as another one said: Donīt take them because they belong to a white man and we may get into trouble. The other one was mad because he was hungry and wanted to eat the eggs. He said: You are a coward and you are afraid of the white man. You donīt dare to take an egg from him although you are nearly starving to death. Yes you are a coward and I will tell everybody about it. The other one answered: I am not a coward and I am not afraid of the white man, and to prove that I will walk up to the white man and shoot him. Are you brave enough to follow me? The one that called him a coward answered: Yes Iīll walk with you and we will see which one of us is the bravest. The others also joined them. All of them walked to the white manīs house. (Mr. Robinson Jones), but as he saw them come he walked to the neighbours house (his son in law Howard Bakers) where also some other men and women were. (Jones, Baker, one Mr. Webster, Mrs. Jones and a girl of 14 years). The 4 indians went into the Bakers house and killed all white people, then they took a wagon and some horses and returned to their village, where they told what they had done. All the people in the village were over-excited. Shakopee the chief, took the men to Little Crow's house (2 miles from the village), and he sat up in his bed and listened to the story. He sad that now was war stated. Blood had been spilled and the food rations should not be given to the indians, and their should be a revenge taken, because women had been killed. Wabasha, Wacouta, my self and others still spoke for peace, but no one wanted to listen to us. Soon everybody screamed:"Kill the whites and everyone who is not on our side." A meeting was held and war was declared. The Dakotas with their small hunting areas were dependent of the tradesmen on the reservation, and many indians were in debt to them. As they got money their debts to the tradesmen were first repayed, and the tradesmen still refused to let them buy on credit. A representative of the tradesmen explained that if the Dakotas were hungry they could eat grass.

At once, after that Little Crow and then others had declared war they attacked the Redwood agency on the 18th of August, where the traders lived and the promised supplies, intended for the indians were. 44 white were killed in the attack.

August 19 - Col. Henry Sibley is commissioned by the Governor of Minnesota, Ramsey, to lead american volunteers against the indians. 16 settlers are killed around the town of New Ulm.

August 20 - Indians are attacking Fort Ridgely but are driven away by the soldiers.

August 22 - Fort Ridgely attacked again but without a notable result.

August 23 - About 650 Dakota indians are attacking the city of New Ulm. The town is burnt and 34 people are killed while 60 are missing.

August 25 - 2,000 inhabitants are fleeing from New Ulm to Mankato, 30 miles away.

At the end of August, Col. Henry Hastings Sibley from Fort Snelling, had organized 1500 soldiers in the west part of Minnesota to destroy the Dakota indians.

September 2 - The battle at Birch Coulee, where the Dakotas under Little Crow defeats Col. Henry Hastings Sibley's troops in an ambush. 80 - 90 soldiers are killed.

September 23 - American troops are defeating Dakotas at the battle of Wood Lake.

September 26 - Col. Sibley occupies the Dakota reservation and takes 1200 Dakota men, women and children as prisoners. Later on 800 other Dakotas also surrender. The rest of them are following Little Crow north to Canada.

September 28 - Sibley is charging the Dakotas for murder and other offences. Totally there are 393 indians charged and 323 are sent to prison, of whom 303 are ordered to be hanged.

December 6 - President Lincoln orders only 39 of these to be hanged. The execution of one of them is not approved.

December 26 - 38 are hanged in Mankato. It is the biggest mass execution in the history of USA.

Between 1863-1864 several expeditions to punish the indians are sent out as a result of the Minnesota revolt. These were led by the generals Sibley and Sulley.

The Sand Creek massacre on the 28th of November 1864. A troop of American cavalry and artillery had been marching for 5 days across the plains. The leader of the troop, Colonel John M Chivington (1821-94) heard from a half-blood scout in the troop, that an indian camp was right ahead. It was a camp of Cheyenne and Arapahoe indians at Sand Creek on the Arkansas river in the south east part of Colorado. The scout led the troop to Sand Creek and at dawn the troop rode in to the camp. The Cheyenne chief Black Kettle (dead 1868) raised an American and a white flag above his tepee to show his friendship, while a white salesman tried to stop the soldiers from using violence. In the disorder that came up, shooting started from both sides, but the indians bows were childīs play against the soldiers rifles. After the shooting more than 400 indians were dead and only 7 soldiers. A commissionn from the Army later on examined the incident, but no one could decide which one to blame and no sentences were delivered.

....The chiefs of the Oglala and Brule sioux tribes were still dissatisfied with the agreements done with the American government in October 1865, but the government didīnt took it seriously. The Oglala and Brule sioux tribes had refused to be present at the agreement in 1865 because of the discovery of gold in Idaho and Montana, and that the gold miners demanded better roads and connections to the deposits. The Congress had agreed to the building of a road on the 1st of March 1865. A road should be constructed from the California trail near Fort Laramie to Bozeman in Montana, near the Tongue, Powder, and Bighorn rivers, in other words straight through these tribes best buffalo hunting grounds.

Spotted Tail (Brule) and Red Cloud (Oglala) were at the time strong and dominated leaders, and understood at once what this new road should bring. In 1865 they argued with representatives from the government and tried to get them to change their minds. As nothing helped both Spotted Tail and Red Cloud refused to be present at the negotiations of October 1865, and also refused to have their tribes represented. A Commission led by E.B. Taylor arrived at Fort Laramie on the 1st of June 1866, and 2.000 Brule and Oglala siouxs came to that meeting. The main task for the Commission was to ensure the indians of peace and to "make way" for the building of the road. The indians who didīnt use these hunting grounds were willing to sign an agreement, but the other refused. As the negotiations went on, Colonel Henry B. Carrington arrived at Fort Laramie together with 700 men with the order to build the road and the belonging forts. At that time the chiefs Red Cloud and Man Afraid Of His Horses left the negotiations, convinced that their desires should be ignored. So did also Spotted Tail and Swift Bear with 1200 Brule and Oglalas heading for the south.

The years between 1866-1868 are called Red Clouds war. The indians had a goal to drive away the settlers and the Army from the s.c. Bozeman trail, reaching right through the hunting grounds of the sioux tribes. From the 1st of July until the 21st of December 1866, Red Cloud and his warriors killed 91 soldiers, 5 officers and 58 civilians. Most of them were killed in the s.c. FETTERMAN MASSACRE.
On the 21st of December 1866, a military troop led by William J Fetterman was attacked in an ambush. They were there to protect a wagon train, as more than 2000 indias, Sioux, Arapahoe and Cheyenne attacked them. All the 81 men in the Fetterman troop were killed within 30 minutes. Only the battle of Little Big Horn appears to be a greater defeat for the US Army, and a greater victory for the plains indians.

The Wagon Box Fight
The 2nd of August 1867, Captain Powell and his company of soldiers were at the d Big Horn mountains to protect civilian woodsmen. Some days earlier Powell had built a barricade for protection. He did this by taking off the wheels from the prarie wagons and arrange them to a circle in an open space, and then he piled sacks filled with grain on the wagons. Powell's men had new 50 caliber Springfield rifles. Early in the morning 1500-2000 Lakota indians under the lead of Red Cloud and Crazy Horse surrounded the camp. Every one who could, flead to the nearby Fort Phil Kearny, 8 kilometers away. 32 men including Captain Powell took protection in the wagon boxes. At eight a clock in the morning the first attack came, as 500 Lakotas were attacking. The indians were attacking over and over, a strategy built on that one had to reload the rifles after each shot. The indians didīnt have the modern Springfield rifles. Powell and his men bared the way, attack after attack. In the middle of the day help arrived from Fort Phil Kearny just as the indians were to make a last large attack. The Lakotas took their dead and left. They lost 50 - 60 warriors. Powell lost 3 men.

November 27 1868, CUSTER leads the massacre of the Cheyenne people at Washita River.
Without caring to identify the indian village, Custer leads an attack early in the morning against a friendly Cheyenne village, under the lead of chief Black Kettle. A court of law had this year judged Custer to be suspended for a year as a commanding chief for his troops, mostly beacause he ran his men to hard. He was not popular among the soldiers in the 7th cavalry. As ten months of Custerīs punishment time had passed, in September 1868, General Philip Sheridan took Custer back, to lead a campaign against the Cheyenne people, who had been raiding in Kansas and Oklahoma this summer. Sheridan was frustraited over his other officers failures to find and punish these indians, and even if Custer wasīnt popular, he was a real fighter.

On November 26 Custer found a large Cheyenne village near the Washita River, exactly outside todayīs city of Cheyenne, Oklahoma. Custer didīnt care to look after who the people in the camp were. If he had done so he should have discovered that there were peaceful Cheyenne people, who had there village inside their reservation, where they according to agreement were guaranteed security. There was even a white flag flying from one of the tepees to show that the village didīnt want any conflicts.

After having surronded the camp, Custer ordered the regimental orchestra to play "Garry Owen",whereupon the soldiers stormed into the sleeping village. In a couple of hours the camp was destroyed and 103 Cheyennes were killed including the peaceful chief Black Kettle and many women and children. The massacre at Wachita improved Custerīs reputation and a lot of the Cheyenne people gave up their freedom and moved into the reservations.

Between the years 1871-1873 the Sioux indians attacked the construction of the Northern Pacif railroad several times. Mostly because the Railroad company didīnt bother about the treaty signed in 1868 between the government and the Sioux indians.

In 1874 gold was found in Black Hills, South Dakota, which also was stated by the expedition this year led by George Armstrong Custer. Goldminers streamed up to the mountains during 1875. The mountains were sacred to the indians and they were also inside their reservations, which started additional wars.

March 17 1876, the battle at Powder River. Colonel Joseph Reynolds with 350 men, attacks 700 Cheyenne in their camp. He thinkīs that it is the camp of Crazy Horse. The soldiers are hungry, tired and almost frost-bitten after a long march. The camp is burned down and 800 indian horses are driven away. However the counter attack from the Cheyenne is so powerful that the soldiers have to return back.

June 9 1876, skirmish at Tongue River. General George Crook on expedition to recruit indians from the Crow and Shoshone people, to help fighting the Cheyenne and Sioux. As he is camping at the Tongue River he is attacked by a smaller band of Cheyenne. It lasts less than an hour and nobody gets killed.

June 17 1876, the battle of Rosebud Creek. Sioux indians under the lead of Crazy Horse together with Cheyennes, are attacking General Crook on his way north hunting for the Siouxs. The fights are lasting for several hours and are waving back and ahead. It ends with Crook returning to his camp waiting for reinforcement. About 20 soldiers and 10 indians are killed.

June 25 1876, the battle of Little Big Horn. In southern Montana on the banks of the Little Big Horn River, was where the most written about indian battle took place during the 1800s. General Alfred Terry did split the 650 men of the 7:th cavalry into 3 batallions, under the commandment of : Major Reno, Captain Benteen and Lieutenant Colonel Custer.

Custer ignored the reports from his indian scouts regarding the size of the Sioux and Cheyenne camp they told him they had seen. On the banks of the Little Big Horn River was the largest concentration of indians in the history. Approximately between 10-15000 people and with more than 2500 warriors. Present were the Cheyenne, Sans Arcs, Miniconjoux Sioux, Oglala Sioux, Blackfeet and Hunkpapa Sioux.

Captain Benteen and his cavalry was sent westwards to cut off the indians retreat to the south, and Major Reno was to cross the river and attack the south part of the camp, while Custer should support Reno, but Custer later decided to attack in the middle of the camp with his cavalry. Major Reno never managed to attack the village as he realized that the indians had set a trap. He ordered his cavalry to dismount and then he took a defensive position instead of making an offensive attack as Custer had ordered him. Renoīs cavalry was attacked very hard, but managed to group and keep a temporary resistance. Benteen who realized that he was on "a fools mission" returned and found Major Reno's men in desperate fighting. Nor Benteen or Reno understood why Custer's cavalry didīnt came to support them as planned. Reno and Benteen managed to keep resistance for 3 hours until the evening.

6,5 kilometers upstream from Reno, Custer took his men down to the Little Big Horn River. The indians were swarming from all directions and came riding across the river. Custer never reached the river, but was forced to retreat up to a higher position down streams from the indians. The Sioux chief Gall attacked Custer from behind while Crazy Horse attacked him from the front. All Custers 197 men on the ridge were killed that day in less than 20 minutes.

The day after Benteenīs and Renoīs men were attacked again by the indians. It was at first in the middle of the day that everything calmed down and the indians left. On June 27, General Terry and his cavalry found Custer and his men on the ridge. The only survivor was Captain Keogh's horse Comanche who was badly injured. Killed and hurt were: Custer's cavalry 197 men killed. From Major Reno's 134 men were 36 killed and 26 injured. From Captain Benteen's 125 men were 11 killed and 29 injured. How many indians that were killed is never known, as they took their dead people with them before they moved the camp.

Though it was the greatest loss for the US Army against the indians, this battle came to be the beginning of the end for the plains indians. In Washington the hate against indians rose as one could hear what has happened and great efforts were made to disarm and conquer all of the remaining "free" indians and put them on the reservation.

July 6 1876, the attack on Sibley. Lieutenant Sibley gets the orders from General Crook to track the Sioux indians with the help of 30 soldiers. They are attacked by about 50 Siouxs and hunted up to the Big Horn mountains, where they are besieged and in the night they managed to return to their camp walking over the hills. They had to leave the horses.

July 17 1876, skirmish at War Bonnet Creek. The Cheyennes in ambush waiting for a wagon train. Buffalo Bill Cody who worked as a scout discovered them and attacked with a smaller unit the Cheyennes first. The indians escapes but Buffalo Bill kills chief Yellow Hair in a duel and takes his scalp. "The first scalp for Custer" he exclaims.

August 2 1876, trouble at Powder River. Soldiers on a steamboat fights back an attack from indians.

September 9 1876, the battle of Slim Buttes. The Army is searching for more than a month after indians, and to avoid starvation they have to eat their own horses. Captain Anson Mills gets the comission from Crook to go and get supply with a smaller troop. By accident they ride straight into a Sioux camp and attacks immediately. They manage to take the indians supply, and at the same time they can see a lot of "souvenires" taken from the dead white soldiers at the battle of Little Big Horn. Chief American Horse is killed.

October 11 1876, the first attack at Spring Creek. The Sioux indians are attacking a wagon train with 100 wagons filled with food and supply for the soldiers. Several mules are killed and so the wagon train has to return.

October 15 1876, the second attack at Spring Creek. The wagon train returns but is attacked again, but then manage to travel on during fights.

October 21 1876, the battle of Cedar Creek. General Nelson Miles sat off to look for the delayed wagon train. They meet 2 indians proposing a meeting with Sitting Bull. He accepts and suddenly 300 indians are showing up. Sitting Bull suggests that all the soldiers shall withdraw and no wagons on the indians land. Some minor chiefs want to give up and go to the reservation, but Sitting Bull then threatens to kill them. For some reason shooting breaks out which starts a fight. This course of events is the beginning of that smaller groups of indians surrender, and moves to the agencys. The Sioux indians realizes that otherwise they will be hunted after in the winter.

November 25 1876, the battle at Red Fork.

December 7 1876, trouble at Bark Creek.

December 18 1876, the battle at Ash Creek.

Januari 8 1877, the battle at Wolf Mountain.

May 7 1877, the Lame Deer attack. A group of Minniconjou Sioux under the lead of Lame Deer refuses to surrender and keep on hunting in the Powder River area. General Miles had the order to solve the problem. He came to Lame Deers camp to negotiate and Lame Deer laid down his rifle on the ground as a sign of surrender. But nearby a problem came up and a shot was heard. Lame Deer threw himself on his rifle and fired it against Miles, but the shot missed and hit a soldier instead. At once Lame Deer had a barrage of bullits in his body. An epoch had ended.

December 28 1890, the Massacre at Wounded Knee. In the last tragical chapter of the United States long wars against the plains indians, american cavalry killed 146 Sioux indians at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. The tension had increased on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota for months because of the increased popularity of a new spiritual indian movement called the Ghost Dance. Many of the Sioux indians on the Pine Ridge reservation came only recently from freedom to the reservation after several years of resistance, and they were deeply disappointed with the life on the reservation. The Ghost Dance movement said that the indians were put on the reservations by the gods, because they gave up their old way of living. If they danced the Ghost Dance and refused to live like the white man, they thought that the gods should create the old world again, and recreate dead indians and gigantic bison heards.

At the end of 1890 the Pine Ridge indian agent James McLaughlin was afraid of what the movement was able to do and telegraphed a warning to Washington D.C.: "Indians are dancing in the snow and they are totally wild and crazy. We need help now." While they were waiting for help McLaughlin decided to arrest Sitting Bull, the famous indian leader who he suspected was a follower of the Ghost Dance. Sitting Bull was killed while arrested which sooner helped to increase the tension on the Pine Ridge rather than reduce it.

On the 29 of December the 7:th cavalry under the lead of Colonel James Forsyth surronded a group of Ghost dancers under the lead of the Sioux chief Big Foot near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded them to lay their weapons down. Big Foot and his group had no plans of attacking someone, but they didīnt trust the army and didīnt want to lay down their weapons as they thought that they could be attacked.In any case the Sioux agreed to drop their weapons. As this was going on a quarrel came up between a soldier and an indian and a shot was fired. No one knows who fired this shot, but the indians were shot down in a barrage of bullits. Everything happened very fast. 146 indians were killed including 44 women and 18 children. 51 were wounded. In the 7:th cavalry 25 died and 39 were wounded. This was not a battle but rather a massacre. Some historians think that Custerīs old 7:th cavalry took their revenge for what happened at the Little Big Horn. Regardless of the motives, this ended the Ghost Dance movement and it became the last confrontation between the US Army and the plains indians in the old times.