Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851

My new work-in-progress takes place in 1851. It is another story of emigrants traveling from the East to the Pacific Northwest on the Oregon Trail. My earlier series started in 1847 (Lead Me Home and Forever Mine), and as I do the research for my new book, I am surprised by how much changed along the trail in the four years between 1847 and 1851.

Of course, the passage of thousands of emigrants during the California Gold Rush, starting in 1849, caused tensions between whites and Native Americans during these years. The earlier travelers of 1847 faced few problems with the Indians, but by 1851, that was no longer the case. Too many whites traveled through tribal hunting grounds and competed with the native population for water, grass, and game.

In early 1851, the land around Fort Laramie became the meeting place for one of the largest gatherings of Native Americans and U.S. officials in history. The U.S. government hoped negotiations would result in a treaty to keep emigrants safe and open the way for roads and military posts through the region.

More than 10,000 Native Americans (men, women, and children) came to the council, representing many Plains tribes. Indian agents Thomas Fitzpatrick and David D. Mitchell represented the government during the talks. Two notable Western characters served as translators—the Jesuit priest Pierre-Jean De Smet, called “Black Robe” by the Lakota, and mountain man Jim Bridger who had long worked with the Crow.

The crowd was so large that the meeting could not be held at Fort Laramie itself, but was moved 30 miles east to the mouth of Horse Creek, where there was more grass for the horses. Even there, the strain on resources was heavy, and leaders knew they had to finish the meeting before winter when the forage would run out. In addition to worries about feed for the animals, old rivalries between the tribes ran deep, and at times it looked as though inter-tribal battles might break out. Supplies for the meeting were late, disease struck the riverboats, and the military escort was smaller than planned.

Yet in spite of all these challenges, the parties reached agreement—the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, also called the Horse Creek Treaty.

The agreement promised many things. Article 1 called for “lasting peace” not only between the tribes and the U.S. but also among the tribes themselves. Article 2 granted the United States the right to build roads and forts through native lands. Article 5 attempted, for the first time, to draw boundaries around the vast territories of each tribe. Most enticing to the tribes was Article 7, which promised annuity payments of $50,000 in goods each year for fifty years.

Both the U.S. representatives and the tribal leaders signed the treaty on September 17, 1851.

Then the treaty was sent to the U.S. Senate for ratification. The Senate ratified the treaty on May 24, 1852, but first changed the terms, limiting the $50,000 payments to ten years, with an option to extend them five more years.

However, this treaty, as amended by the Senate, was never returned to the tribes for re-approval. As a result, the tribal leaders considered the U.S. to have broken the treaty. They thought the negotiators at Horse Creek had the final authority to bind the U.S., even though the U.S. Constitution holds that treaties must be approved by the Senate.

As any first-year law student knows, a change in contract terms must be approved by both parties. If the tribes did not approve the new terms, they were not bound. Under the law, therefore, there was no treaty, because the Senate did not ratify the original version, and the tribes did not approve the amended version.

Still, both parties began acting as if some agreement were in place. But to make matters worse from the tribes’ perspective, the government only made one annuity payment, so even the amended terms were not upheld.

And even more damaging than the failure to pay was the government’s failure to keep other promises about territory. White settlers continued to trespass on tribal lands, and the federal government had too few soldiers to stop them. As more emigrants poured west, fueled by more discoveries of gold in the West, violence between whites and tribes increased.

Within little more than a decade, the hopes of the 1851 council were in ruins, replaced by warfare and massacres. The promise and hopes of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 did not last and the failure of the treaty led to tragedy. For many decades, broken promises and violence defined relations between the United States and the Plains tribes. Another treaty was negotiated at Fort Laramie in 1868, but that, too, did not resolve the conflicts.

My characters in 1851 could not have known the outcome of the gathering as they passed by Fort Laramie that summer, and they may not even have known of the negotiations at Horse Creek. My story will, however, describe several encounters they had with Native American tribes as they traveled. Some of these encounters were mutually advantageous, but a few were frightening. For more, you’ll have to wait until I finish the book.

What do you know of the history between whites and indigenous people in the United States?