Plains Wars
-
What were the Plains Wars?
The Plains Wars were a series of conflicts between Native Americans and the United States, along with its Indian allies, for control of the Great Plains between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains from the early 1850s to the late 1870s. Fueled by both U.S. encroachment on native lands and Native American aggression, surprise attacks on communities led to high casualties, especially among women and children.
The U.S. Army's logistical advantage ultimately proved decisive, as Native Americans lost control of vital resources. The Sand Creek Massacre and the Battle of Little Bighorn were some of the conflicts that occurred during the Plains Wars. By the early 1880s, most native bands had succumbed to reservation confinement as the Plains Wars drew to a close due to the destruction of their food supply.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Where did the Plains Wars take place?
The Plains Wars were a series of conflicts between Native Americans and the United States, along with its Indian allies, for control of the Great Plains between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains from the early 1850s through the late 1870s.
The flashpoint of the Plains Wars came along the Bozeman Trail, which ran from Fort Laramie to Virginia City, Montana Territory. Further conflict arose in Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado Territory. Further north, growing interest in the Yellowstone River country (now Wyoming and Montana) was upsetting the peace negotiated at Fort Laramie.
3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Who fought in the Plains Wars?
The Plains Wars, a series of conflicts spanning from the early 1850s to the late 1870s, involved Native Americans and the United States, along with its Native American allies, battling for control of the Great Plains between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
Key figures and groups involved:
* Native American: Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Comanche. Leaders such as Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull inspired Native American resistance.
* United States: The U.S. military, including figures like Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie, and Col. Nelson A. Miles, played a crucial role. The U.S. forces also relied on Native American auxiliaries, including Arapaho, Shoshone, Bannock, Pawnee, and some Sioux and Cheyenne.1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What caused the Plains Wars?
The Plains Wars were caused by multiple factors, primarily rooted in the clash between U.S. expansion and Indigenous sovereignty.
Increased settlement due to the Homestead Act of 1862 reignited tensions as settlers encroached on Indigenous lands. Treaties like the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 aimed to establish peace but were often ineffective because the U.S. failed to honor the agreed terms.
Retaliatory actions by both sides, such as the Sand Creek Massacre and the Fetterman Massacre, fueled the conflict. The U.S. military advantage and the destruction of Indigenous resources, especially the buffalo, further undermined Indigenous resistance, leading to their confinement on reservations.
3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What important battles happened during the Plains Wars?
The Plains Wars included numerous conflicts between Native American tribes and the U.S. government. Several battles mark key events in the war:
-
Sand Creek Massacre (1864) A controversial surprise attack by U.S. troops on a Cheyenne and Arapaho camp, resulting in the massacre of over 230 Native Americans, including women, children, and the elderly.
-
Fetterman Massacre (1866) Red Cloud, an Oglala chief, led warriors in an ambush of Captain William J. Fetterman and his men, resulting in the death of all 80 soldiers. This event reignited anti-Indigenous sentiment.
-
Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876) Also known as Custer's Last Stand, this battle saw a significant victory for the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne warriors, led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, against Lt. Col. George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry.
-
Wounded Knee Massacre (1890) The U.S. Army massacred approximately 150-300 Lakota individuals, marking the end of organized resistance to reservation life.
5 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
-
How did the Plains Wars affect Native American tribes and U.S. expansion?
The Plains Wars, fueled by U.S. expansion and Native American resistance, significantly impacted both sides. Native American tribes faced devastating psychological effects due to the loss of their military prestige and the restrictions of reservation life. The U.S. military, with its superior logistical support, ultimately gained control, leading to the loss of Native control over vital resources.
The wars resulted in high casualties, especially among non-combatants, creating lasting bitterness and cultural divides. Treaties were made and broken, and the U.S. government's policies led to the confinement of Native nations to reservations. The Battle of Little Bighorn, though a Native American victory, ignited a renewed commitment by the U.S. to exert hegemony over Native America.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Plains Wars, series of conflicts from the early 1850s through the late 1870s between Native Americans and the United States, along with its Indian allies, over control of the Great Plains between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
Early conflicts
The initial major confrontation, sometimes known as the First Sioux War, broke out in the Dakota Territory near Fort Laramie (in present-day Wyoming) following a dispute over a killed cow between white settlers traveling to the far west and the local Lakota (a Western Sioux group). On August 19, 1854, brevet Second Lieut. John L. Grattan set out from the post with 30 men and two cannons and, after rashly demanding that a far superior Indian force turn over the suspected culprit, he opened fire. In response, the Lakota killed Grattan and his entire assembly. Most Lakota denied the legitimacy of this war, however, effectively isolating those who had been directly involved in the Grattan affair. On September 3, 1855, brevet Brig. Gen. William S. Harney’s regulars routed the hostile Lakota at Blue Water Creek (in present-day Nebraska). Although the U.S. Senate failed to ratify the resulting treaty, Harney’s blow produced what amounted to a regional armistice.
The following year, open conflict spread southward. Leading about 300 cavalrymen on July 29, 1856, Col. Edwin V. Sumner encountered an equal force of mounted Cheyenne near the south fork of the Solomon River, Kansas Territory. The Cheyenne were eager to engage in battle, assured that magical waters would keep them safe from their white opponents’ bullets. As both sides thundered forward, Sumner gave the unusual order for his men to draw their sabres; the stunned Cheyenne, whose medicine did not cover the steel blades, fled in disarray, leading to a period of relative peace in the central Plains.
The atmosphere was not so quiet, however, in Comanche territory along the northern borders of Texas. On May 12, 1858, Capt. John S. (“Rip”) Ford, leading a collection of Texas Rangers and allied Indians, surprised and destroyed chief Iron Jacket’s camp near the Antelope Hills, Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). In October brevet Maj. Earl Van Dorn and a regular force hit chief Buffalo Hump’s encampment at Rush Spring (now Rush Springs, Oklahoma). Unfortunately, Van Dorn struck the wrong village, for these people represented the vanguard of the Comanche peace faction. The violence thus continued, with Van Dorn, having recovered from arrow wounds received at Rush Spring, trapping or killing about a hundred Comanche the following May at Crooked Creek, Kansas Territory.
The Civil War on the Plains
Secession of Texas and 10 other Southern states from the Union in 1860–61 brought no end to the military contest in the southern Plains. The Comanche launched particularly devastating raids into north Texas (December 1863) and against a settlement at Elm Creek (October 13, 1864). On January 8, 1865, a group of Kickapoo that was migrating south to Mexico defeated more than 300 Texas volunteers at Dove Creek.
In Minnesota, meanwhile, Dakota (a Sioux group) tribes had during the 1850s given up claims to most of their lands in return for yearly annuities and life on reserved lands, overseen by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. The continuing onslaught of westward-moving white populations and the mismanagement of the reservations by government officials, however, spawned great bitterness among the Dakota, and in August 1862 their most influential leader, Little Crow (Taoyateduta), led attacks that brought the demise of hundreds of white settlers in a single week. The bloodshed sparked a massive backlash, and on September 23 Col. Henry Hastings Sibley handed the Dakota a stinging defeat at the Battle of Wood Lake. Peace factions then regained the ascendancy in many circles, and, as a result, hundreds of those who had been involved in the early attacks were surrendered to the white authorities. The government subsequently hanged 38 Indian prisoners at Mankato.
Little Crow and others who were determined to fight had in the meantime fled west, only to be pursued by the army in mid-1863. In present-day North Dakota, Sibley, now a brigadier general, fought pitched battles at Big Mound (July 24), Dead Buffalo Lake (July 26), and Stony Lake (July 28) and claimed to have inflicted over 150 casualties and destroyed huge quantities of winter stores in the process. Farther south, Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully descended on roughly 1,000 Dakota at Whitestone Hill on September 3, killing a few hundred warriors and capturing about as many women and children. The army continued the blows into 1864, with Sully and 2,200 men driving off Indian attacks at Killdeer Mountain (July 28) and torching another massive stockpile of supplies and equipment.
The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.
SUBSCRIBE
In response to the turmoil in the northern Plains, nervous officials in the Colorado Territory convinced themselves that the bloodbath would spread to the southwest. During the first half of 1864, regulars and volunteers thus engaged in a series of skirmishes with Kiowa, Apache, Cheyenne, and Arapaho mounted parties. Col. John M. Chivington then determined to take matters into his own hands, reportedly hoping that a victory over the Indians would jump-start his political career. Camped near Sand Creek, Colorado Territory, were about 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho followers of Black Kettle, who was known to be attempting to make peace. Swearing, according to a fellow officer, to “damn any man that was in sympathy with Indians,” Chivington and his Colorado volunteers swept into the village just after sunup on November 29. They slaughtered between 150 and 200 Indians, mutilating most of the corpses in the process.
News of the Sand Creek Massacre ignited a full-scale war. “We have raised the battle-axe until death,” one Cheyenne leader reportedly vowed. Attacks against non-Indian travelers increased in early 1865, and for a month that spring all contact between the city of Denver and points east was severed. Tribal economies could not long support such a conflict, however, and most native peoples of the central Plains soon returned to their normal patterns of life, the raids having satisfied their need for revenge. Midyear offensives by the army, in turn, failed to locate significant numbers of Indians. The prohibitive costs of the U.S. military campaigns (amounting to more than $20 million that year alone), the scathing humanitarian criticism of the butchery at Sand Creek, and the general weariness after four long years of civil war led federal officials to sign peace agreements later in 1865 with a variety of Native American emissaries.