Fort Riley and American Indians,

Transcription

1 Fort Riley and American Indians, BUFFALO HUNT, CHASE George Catlin Linda Hall Library, Kansas City, Missouri The lure of the Army s newest post for Indian peoples was irresistible as the following three stories illustrate. In the first instance, a party of well-armed Indians spied a rural farmstead located not far from Fort Riley, and they advanced toward the cabin alarming the occupants. On another day a larger party made its breaks formulaic depictions. COMANCHE FEATS OF HORSEMANSHIP George Catlin Smithsonian American Art Museum,Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr. way to the fort itself. They rode with an air of confidence, armed and painted for battle. Lastly, while on their way to western bison hunting grounds, a party of Kansa (Kaw) Indians made its way straight for the town of Junction City where they hoped to fleece unsuspecting Euro-Americans. On the surface these three encounters conjure up stereotypical images of Indians raiding farms, attacking soldiers, and stealing livestock. But what actually happened in each case Consider the way in which the three previous episodes concluded. On their way to the post, the first group of Indians suddenly veered toward the farm, guns high in the air. The Indians intent, however, was hardly to lay waste to the farm, kill the mother, and kidnap the children. Rather they dismounted, leaned their guns along the side of the cabin, and in sign language asked Charlotte Harvey, a pioneer woman, for some of the brightly colored cloth out of which she was sewing doll 63

2 Camp Center: The Big Red One The enduring ties between Kansas and the US Army on the Great Plains began well before Kansas was admitted to the Union on January 29, The frontier outpost we know as Fort Riley was originally called Camp Center due to its central geographical location in the United States. Camp Center had been in place since BIG RED ONE Casing the Colors Courtesy of Fort Riley The seeds of two Flint Hills communities were planted by March 1855: Junction City located at the junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers and Manhattan. In 1857 Manhattan s incorporation was complete, with Junction City following in 1859 by virtue of a special act by the Kansas Territorial Legislature. As Fort Riley grew, so did these communities around the prairie post - a trend repeated several times over the next 160 years. The end of the Civil War in 1865 witnessed Fort Riley regaining importance in providing protection to railroad lines being built across Kansas. Brevet Major General George A. Custer arrived at Fort Riley in December 1866 to take charge of the new 7th Cavalry Regiment; at the same time, the Union Pacific Railroad reached the post. The Flint Hills community experienced some short-term growth. As the line of settlement extended westward 131

3 Pure Headwaters in the Flint Hills The most inviting and pleasant place on the prairie landscape is the stream. In the biting winter winds, the bison hunker down for shelter and if it is too hot, the cattle seek its coolness. Water is lifeblood. GREAT BLUE HERON Courtesy Audubon Royal Octavo Edition, 1839 No plant or animal can live without it. Streams, the ribbons of life, tie together the prairie landscape and all the plants and animals that are found there. The network of streams connects the landscape to all those below. Perhaps you have seen a great blue heron flying across grassland and wondered what a wading bird could be doing here. Yet the spring-fed pools of the Flint Hills are home to the small fish that nourish those stately predators. The springs have supported the ranches and their livestock as they supported the bison in the dry times of the past. The springs collect into streams, small rivers, and eventually the Kansas, Osage, or Arkansas rivers. Humans have depended on these rivers as long as they have been here. Native American settlements and most of today s major cities are on these permanent waters. People often ignore the streams of the prairies, and when they think of prairie they think of grass. However, the streams and rivers of the Great Plains and the tallgrass prairies have always been a key part of the ecosystem. Grasslands cover roughly one third of the ground on our planet, and a fourth of the water flowing from land to sea originates from these ubiquitous biomes. 145

4 Folio Iv Heraldry of the Plains Bonnie Lynn-Sherow There are some striking connections between Army insignia or heraldry and the way in which Cheyenne, Lakota, and other Plains warriors decorated themselves, their horses, and their weapons before going into battle. The originators of ledger art were imprisoned Indian warriors at Fort Marion in Florida at the end of the 19 th century. According to historian Colin Calloway, ledger art serve[d] to prompt memories of heroic exploits in battle and horse raids. While native warriors fought together for protection, they also fought for CHEYENNE DOG SOLDIER themselves. The Dog Soldier society, the most feared warrior society on the Plains, consisted of volunteers. Although Tall Bull was a respected and renowned leader of the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, he could not compel any other member to do his bidding but had to inspire his followers by example. Native warriors often adopted a particular color or pattern for their war regalia related to their name so Red Lance would wind his hair in red cloth, paint his lance red, hang red ribbon from the same lance, as well as use a red-beaded saddle blanket even tie a red polka-dotted hanky to his horse s bit! These elaborate preparations served an important purpose: to be easily identified so that an individual s exploits, his coups, would be counted. A warrior needed witnesses to verify his actions in the heat of battle. KIT FOX Contemporary Indian Ledger Art by George Levi 127

5 Tenting on the Plains 1883 by Libbie Custer Exc e r p t It was delightful ground to ride over his satin-like neck, to the safer ground. It about Fort Riley. Ah! What happy days was a long time before I realized that all they were, for at that time I had not the Plains were safe. We chose no path, the slightest realization of what Indian and stopped at no suspicion of a slough. warfare was, and consequently no dread. Without a check on the rein, we flew over We knew that the country they infested divide after divide, and it is beyond my pen was many miles away, and we could ride to describe the wild sense of freedom that in any direction we chose... takes possession of one in the first buoyant Coming from Michigan, where there L IE U TENANT C O L ONE L GEORGE A. C U STER AND HIS W I F E, L I B B IE Courtesy West Point Museum Art Collection, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York knowledge that no impediment, seemingly, is a liberal dispensation of swamp and lies between you and the setting sun. quagmire, having been taught by dear After one has ridden over conventional experience that Virginia had quicksands highways, the beaten path marked out by and sloughs into which one could fences, hedges, bridges, etc., it is simply an disappear with great rapidity, and finally, impossibility to describe how the blood having experienced Texas with its bayous, bounds in the veins at the freedom of baked with a deceiving crust of mud, an illimitable sea. No spongy, uncertain and its rivers with quicksand beds, very ground checks the course over the Plains; naturally I guided my horse around any it is seldom even damp, and the air is so lands that had even a depression. Indeed, exhilarating one feels as if he had never he spoke volumes with his sensitive ears, breathed a full breath before. Almost the as the turf darkened in hollows, and was first words General Sherman said to me out ready enough to be guided by the rein on there were, Child, you ll find the air of the 59