Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

In the autumn of 1865, a government treaty commission, headed by the governor of the Dakota territory, Newton Edwards, traveled across the Great Plains. Edwards’ objective was simple: convince Sioux chiefs to sign treaties that would give the government control of Sioux land, which the government needed in order to build trains and allow citizens to migrate westward.

By the end of the season, the commission had obtained several treaties. However, Edwards knew that the treaties weren’t legally binding, since the warrior chiefs hadn’t signed them. His purpose was to present Congress with official-looking treaties that could be used to enact legislation.

Around the same time, Colonel Henry Maynadier was trying to contact a Sioux chief named Red Cloud and arrange negotiations. He sent out a group of “trader Indians”—Native Americans who arranged business deals between their tribes and the military—to offer Red Cloud a peace treaty. Months went by, and Red Cloud didn’t show up.

In March of 1866, Colonel Maynadier’s messengers informed him that Spotted Tail, the chief of the Brulé tribe, wanted to discuss a treaty. He explained that his daughter was dying, and needed U.S. medical expertise. Maynadier agreed to meet with Spotted Tail. During their meeting, Spotted Tail argued that his tribe deserved compensation for the roads that white men had built through his territory.

Within a week, Red Cloud arrived at Fort Laramie to negotiate with Colonel Maynadier. Red Cloud was angry when he realized that Maynadier had no guns or provisions for him, as was usually the case during a negotiation. He complained that treaties with the United States always hurt his tribe. Maynadier assured Red Cloud that he’d be compensated with provisions soon.

On June 5, Red Cloud began negotiations with Colonel Maynadier; however, Red Cloud asked to adjourn until June 13 so that other chiefs from his tribe could be present. But on June 13, General Henry B. Carrington arrived at Fort Laramie. Carrington’s arrival derailed peace talks by suggesting that the military was going to infringe on Sioux land rights. Furious, Red Cloud left the negotiations.

On June 28, Carrington’s men reached Fort Reno, secretly followed by hundreds of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. In the middle of July, a Cheyenne truce party approached Carrington’s army. Carrington agreed to negotiate. He gave them “pieces of paper saying that they had agreed to ‘a lasting peace with the whites.’” But the next day, Red Cloud attacked Carrington’s fort. When soldiers rushed outside to fight, the Native Americans ambushed them. For the next few months, Red Cloud led a guerilla war against Carrington.

In August, General Carrington made the bold decision to divide his army He sent 150 men north, and he sent scouts to negotiate with Red Cloud. Meanwhile, Red Cloud’s army became stronger as other tribes joined the guerilla war.

Red Cloud’s troops disrupted white supply routes, shutting down much of the white migration across Native American territory in the mid-1860s. In December, Red Cloud prepared for a daring attack on Carrington’s fort. His men staged a small battle with American troops outside the fort, and then ran away. Red Cloud’s warriors drew the white soldiers into an ambush. The Sioux and Arapaho armies joined in the attack. They succeeded in killing many white soldiers, but they sustained heavy casualties themselves.

The devastation of the ambush—which white Americans later called the Fetterman Massacre—made General Carrington wonder why Native Americans were so violent. He concluded that there must be some pagan belief that led them to kill—though of course, anyone who’d witnessed the Sand Creek Massacre could have said the same thing about the people of the United States. Imitation—in war, as in all things—is the sincerest form of flattery.

Following the Fetterman Massacre, the American government sent a new commission in the hopes of obtaining new treaties with the Plains Indians. The new commissioner, John Sanborn, was able to persuade representatives of the Brulé tribe to agree to peace. However, Sanborn was unable to meet with Red Cloud.

That summer, two important Oglala chiefs Little Wound and Pawnee Killer, began to negotiate with a general named George Armstrong Custer. The chiefs told Custer they objected to the “Iron Horse” (i.e., the new railroad) that ran across their territory.

Later on, the Oglalas and Cheyennes tried to tamper with the Iron Horse. They succeeded in bending the railroad tracks and, when the train derailed, plundering it for food and alcohol. In the coming months, the federal government began to rethink its plan to join the country together with railroads.

In August, a group of Cheyennes attacked a small group of U.S. soldiers. The soldiers were armed with machine guns, however, and easily overpowered their opponents. While these “victories” proved that the U.S. military could easily defend the railroads from Native American attack, the federal government continued to search for Red Cloud in the hopes of establishing peace.

In the summer of 1867, the new Native American commissioner, Nathaniel Taylor, reached out to a group of Native American chiefs, including Red Cloud. Red Cloud refused to negotiate with Taylor, but several important chiefs attended. Taylor opened negotiations by claiming that he’d come to understand “what has been the trouble.” The chiefs explained the truth: white Americans had broken their promises by passing through Native Americans. They’d massacred Native American women and children, and built railroads that disrespected Native American property.

In response, the government representatives claimed that they’d look into the damage caused by the railroad. If they found that there was damage, they promised to reimburse the Native Americans at a later time. They also claimed that they’d allow the Sioux nation to live by the Missouri River without any further interference from white men. The chiefs were offended by this “gift,” since they knew the Missouri River area to be dry and barren.

In mid-November, Red Cloud sent word that he wouldn’t negotiate with Taylor until the white men withdrew from the Powder River for good. Once again, peace negotiations between the U.S. and the Native Americans had failed. This was embarrassing for Taylor: he’d been tasked with getting agreements from the most powerful chiefs in the Great Plains, but he’d come back empty-handed. Finally, the government gave the order to withdraw troops from the Powder River. Red Cloud had won his war.

Red Cloud signed a peace treaty with the U.S. government, promising to keep the peace forever However, the treaty he signed was very different from the treaty later ratified in Congress. For the next twenty years, this treaty of 1868 was disputed by the Native Americans and the U.S. government.