Fort Laramie – Center of War

Fort Laramie National Historic Site and the Sand Creek Massacre Trail, both in Wyoming, highlight the failure of the 1851 treaty, which by the late 1850s had turned Fort Laramie into a base for military operations against the northern Plains Indians. The treaty’s failure was inevitable given the irreconcilable world views in play: Indians saw the land as something to be used but not owned, sharing its bounty with all; U.S. capitalism saw the land as something to possess and completely control. The opening up of the Bozeman trail to facilitate Americans seeking gold and silver in Montana was a direct violation of the treaty, as was the building of 3 new forts along the trail.    The Sand Creek Massacre was another act of war against the Indians. This was a particularly horrendous and unprovoked act against a band of peaceful Indians that even Congress subsequently condemned. After the discovery of gold in Colorado in 1858 tensions grew there between the Arapaho and Cheyenne nations and white settlers. Negotiations ensued and the tribes agreed to move to the eastern side of the state near Fort Lyon, where they were promised peace and protection. Instead at dawn of November 29, 1864 a group of enlisted Colorado volunteers led by a Methodist minister, Colonel Chivington, viciously attacked and killed at least 165 Indians, many of them women and children. The Cheyenne and the Oglala Sioux responded with their own attacks across the plains in what became known as Red Cloud’s war (1864-68). This forced the U.S. back to the negotiating table in 1868. The Sand Creek Massacre Trail symbolizes the path of the Arapaho who survived the attack and fled to Wyoming settling on the Wind River reservation. The Trail, established in 2006 goes from the Colorado-Wyoming border to the Wind River Reservation. Traversing the Trail and visiting the Fort Laramie site helped us understand the inexorable path to war.