The Battle of Sappa Creek, or Massacre at Cheyenne Hole, was fought on April 23, 1875, between Company H of the Sixth United States Cavalry under the command of Second Lieutenant Austin Henely and a group of Cheyenne Indians led by Little Bull. The conflict took place in modern-day Rawlins County, Kansas, and was both the final and the deadliest battle in the Red River War.
The Battle at the Sappa was the result of escalating tensions between Indians, US settlers, and the US Government over the issue of land rights and buffalo hunting. The battle occurred as Henely was chasing after Little Bull's group, which had been sent running in panic caused by a nearby prison break from Black Horse, who was accused of murder, rape, and abuse. When Henely's company caught up with the Indians, they killed all that they could, taking no prisoners. This battle has garnered controversy from several individuals – authors, local settlers, and participants in the fight – over allegations of atrocities committed by Henely and his troops, including ignoring an attempt to parley and burning of living Indians.
Background
US-Indian treaties In the 1850s the U.S. government started to try to confine the Indians to specific reservations. In 1867, the Indian Peace Commission was founded to resolve the many conflicts between the Indians and the U.S. government, including U.S. citizens, among the plains. The commission was to negotiate with the Indian tribes and form treaties to get them to move to reservations:11
Little Arkansas
In October 1865, the Treaty of Little Arkansas was signed between the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, and Kiowa Indians as the U.S. Government. The U.S. gave them a reservation covering parts of Kansas, Colorado, and almost all of the Texas panhandle. However, since the Texas panhandle was private land, the U.S. government had no authority to give that land to the Indians.:8-9 Out of the Council of Forty-Four, only 4 chiefs showed up to sign the treaty. One chief, Black Kettle of the Wautapi band, said he spoke for all of the tribes of Cheyenne although he did not.:xvi The Indians were promised firearms for hunting as part of this treaty, however, General Winfield Scott Hancock quickly outlawed the selling of firearms to any Indians. In response, the chiefs sent threats to the U.S. military for breaking the agreements of the treaty. Hancock responded by marching 1400 men from Col. Custer 7th Cavalry to the chiefs' villages. He first encountered a large Cheyenne and Sioux village where only two chiefs, Tall Bull and White Horse, came out to meet him. Outraged by this, Hancock threatened to send his army into the village to pull out the chiefs by force. With bad memories of the Sand Creek Massacre in their minds, the Indians started to run and abandon their homes. Hancock, although warned against doing it, burned 250 houses to the ground. President Andrew Johnson removed Hancock from his post and created the Indian Peace Commission in part to repair his actions. His violence against the Cheyenne and Sioux Indians will come to be known as "Hancock's War.":9-10
Medicine Lodge The Indian Peace Commission arranged another treaty at Medicine Lodge Creek on October 21–28, 1867.:12 Only 13 chiefs showed up for this treaty and the Arrow Keeper, the one who binds treaties for the whole tribe, was not in attendance either.:xvii In order to remove the Indians from western Kansas, southwest Nebraska, and eastern Colorado, the treaty put the reservation in modern-day western Oklahoma.:27:12 The Comanches and Kiowas were put in the southwest and the Cheyenne and Arapahos were put to the north. The tribes were promised weapons and ammunition for hunting as well as seeds and farming lessons. It also stated that they would be taught how to build homes and given annuity for 30 years. An important part of the treaty read that the Indians "yet reserve the right to hunt on any lands south of the Arkansas River so long as the buffalo range thereon in such numbers as to justify chase.":12 The Indians understood this to mean that they could hunt in Kansas and Texas, however like the treaty of Little Arkansas, the US Government did not have the authority to let them hunt on the Texas panhandle. At the meeting, the Buffalo Chief said he would let the white settlers build the railroad through his land, but he refused to leave western Kansas and eastern Colorado. Senator John B. Henderson of Missouri took the chiefs aside and told them they could stay on their land until the buffalo were gone if they stood at least 10 miles away from any white settlements or roads. However, this promise was never added to the treaty.:28 In the end, the Indians were not interested in learning from the whites and did not stay on any reservation.:13
President Grant and the Quakers In July 1869, President Grant made an executive order to change the Cheyenne and Arapahoe reservation to the north by the Cherokee Outlet, east by the Cimarron River, south by the Comanche-Kiowa reservation, and west on the 100th meridian. Their agency was moved by Agent Briton Darlington to 125 miles south of Camp Supply, a military outpost, on May 3, 1870.:31 President Grant also established the Peace Policy which established a Board of Indian Commissioners. President Grant wanted to change the responsibility of interacting with the Indians from the military to religious leaders, especially the Quakers. Their goal was to teach them to live like American civilization and convert them to Christianity, but this attempt found little success, although some Indians were converted.:12
Red River War (The Buffalo War)
Buffalo hunters A series of disagreements between Indians and settlers surrounding the Buffalo trade led to the retaliation of the Indians to save the buffalo on the western plains. In 1871, Josiah Wright Mooar started the buffalo hide trade in the west. Within a few months the buffalo hide trade became a booming business. Dodge City became the center for the buffalo trade, carrying 750,000 hides in 1873 alone. From 1872 to 1874, 4,373,750 buffalo were killed and shipped along the railroad, with possibly a million more not shipped on the railroad.:13 At first, the hunters respected the hunting rights of the Indians south of the Arkansas River, as outlined in the Medicine Lodge Treaty. However, due to the dwindling numbers of buffalo from the hunters excessive killing, they slowly started hunt into the Indian's territory. By 1873, the hunters constantly entered the Indians territory. It was the U.S. military's job to patrol and guard the border of the territory, but they usually ignored the crossings of the buffalo hunters.
General Philip Sheridan wanted to exterminate the buffalo to terminate the Indians hunting rights. In response to the government wanting to protect the buffalo herds in 1881 he said, "If I could learn that every buffalo in the northern herd were killed I would be glad...The destruction of this herd would do more to keep the Indians quiet than anything else that could happen. Since the destruction of the southern herd, which formerly roamed from Texas to the Platte, the Indians in that section have given us no trouble.":13-14The hunters finally decided to go to the south in number and with force in the hopes that the Indians would be too scared to attack them. With them went A. C. Myers, who created a trading post for the hunters called Adobe Wall, built along the Canadian River. The Indians attacked the camps of various hunters, killing Dave Dudley, Tommy Wallace, John Jones, and Blue Billy. Joe Plummer and Anderson Moore avoided these attacks and went to Adobe Wall to tell the others about what happened.:15
Second Battle of Adobe Walls Isatai'i was a Comanche Medicine man and came to be known as a prophet among some of the Indian tribes. Isatai lost his uncle in a raid to Mexico against White men, which led to him swearing revenge against the White man. As a prophet for the Indians, there are reports of his divine powers and accomplishments. He predicted the appearance of a comet, predicted a drought in 1874, claimed to have gone to heaven and back, claimed he could raise the dead, and claimed he could cause bullets to pass through his allies without harm. His most well-known feat was eating a wagonload of bullets, regurgitating them back out, and then eating them again. Isatai gain many followers fast, including some Cheyenne, but mostly to observe him to see if he was worth following.:37
Isatai and a Comanche War chief named Kwahidi formed a war band of 200-250 men, consisting of Indians from the Comanches, Kiowas, and Cheyennes. On the morning of June 27, 1874, Isatai's war party attacked Adobe Wall, while Isatai oversaw the attack from a distance. Only three white men died while between 13 and 35 Indians died in that attack. From then on, many more attacks were made on U.S. military camps and roads.:37-39When word of the attack on Adobe Wall got to U.S. military, they started making plans for a war immediately. These plans were part of the Indian Campaign of 1874, whose goal was to remove Indians from the southern plains to make way for more American settlements.:16 Although, the Indians did have a sympathizer inside the military, Major General John Pope, who said that the hunters were ruffians who deserved whatever happened to them due to their violence upon the Indians and their illegal acts. He even said if he were to send out military troops it would be to break up these settlements and camps, not to protect them. However, Lieutenant General Philip Sheridan disagreed and saw this as a problem with all of the tribes in the area.:39
On July 3 of that year, 1/4 of the Kiowa warriors accepted to join the Cheyenne and Comanche headmen who planned to lead war against the Whites. However, not all Indians participated and instead some sought refuge in the Indian agencies. The Comanche and Kiowa Indians made attacks in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, and Colorado. The most notable of these attacks was on July 12 in Lost Valley when Lone Wolf's band attacked Texas rangers led by Major John B. Jones resulting in two rangers dead and two wounded, along with the loss of all of their horses. These attacks led to General Sherman and General Sheridan getting permission to plan a counterattack against the Indians from Secretary of War William W. Belknap on July 20, 1874.:40
The Battle at Sappa Creek
Directly Prior to Sappa Creek
German Massacre and incarceration
Beginning in summer 1874, at least two bands of Cheyenne warriors moved from the south into Kansas to seek revenge on the horse thieves and buffalo hunters they blamed for the Red River War. However, as they rampaged through the area, most of their victims were unsuspecting settlers. One of the warrior bands attacked the German family, a family of nine originally from Georgia.:28 Five of the family members were killed brutally, including both parents, and four of the daughters, ages 5–17, were taken captive by the warriors.:50 During their captivity, the daughters were abused and neglected by their captors. The event became known as the German Massacre (sometimes spelled Germaine in early documents). In the fall, a column of US soldiers led by First Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin attacked the Cheyenne band who had possession of three of the German sisters. Addie and Julia, the youngest of the sisters, were rescued in this pursuit.:29-31 The harsh winter of 1874-75 combined with relentless army pursuit of the Cheyenne led to Chief Stone Calf's surrender,:50 whereupon he revealed the location of the remaining two living German sisters, who were swiftly rescued.:32