Volume 8 , Issue 24

Comanche History - Part III...

"While the army was making its own plans to deal with the hostiles by force, the federal government decided to make one final effort to resolve the conflict through treaty. The result was a milestone peace conference held at Medicine Lodge Creek in southern Kansas (October, 1867). In exchange for a wagon train of gifts brought by the commissioners and the payment of annual annuities, the Comanches and Kiowa signed the Medicine Lodge Treaty exchanging Comancheria for a three-million acre reservation in southwestern Oklahoma.

The White Man's History... The arrangement did not work as intended. Because of an outbreak of cholera in their camps, the Kwahada neither attended the conference nor signed. Afterwards, they did not consider themselves bound by the Medicine Lodge treaty and chose to stay on the Staked Plains. Most of the other Comanches moved to the vicinity of Fort Cobb and remained on the reservation for the winter, but since the treaty was not yet ratified, there was no money to pay for rations. After a hungry winter, most of the Comanches and Kiowa left Fort Cobb and returned to the plains during the summer of 1868. Once again raids were made into Texas and Kansas, and the new reservation was used as a sanctuary to prevent pursuit by the army. Even Fort Dodge, Kansas was attacked, and its horse herd stolen. The frustrated Indian agent at Fort Cobb just resigned and went east leaving the Comanche - Part III

See ALSO: The Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek
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