Volume 11 , Issue 1

The Red River War of 1874

It was during the summer of 1874, the US Army launched a campaign to remove the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian tribes from the Southern Plains and enforce their relocation to reservations in Indian Territory.

According to the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867, the government would provide the tribes with a variety of basic services and training, housing, food and supplies, including guns and ammunition for hunting. They would receive these allotments each year for 30 years and would be allowed to hunt on any lands south of the Arkansas River so long as the buffalo may range thereon. In exchange, the Indians agreed to stop their attacks and raids on the settlers. Ten chiefs endorsed the treaty and many tribal members moved voluntarily to reservations.

BUT... the treaty was destined for failure when commercial buffalo hunters ignored the terms of the treaty and the southern herd of American bison was exterminated in just four years -- from 1874 to 1878. The hunters slaughtered the bison and sent the hides back east and left the carcasses to rot on the plains. The US government did nothing to stop it.

Check out the Red River War at this web link.
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