.^■^^^yix ■■^fti-rf 



^^^"-^^^^-'«^^-^ 





Figure 8. — Fort Keogh, MunUuia. {L'SAM jS^iSg; Smithsonian plwtu j/g2^.) 



reservation with constant civilian antl military super- 

 vision. For the Indians it was the beginning of 

 the end. 



Upon its arrival at Fort Marker following the actioir 

 of September 23, Company K had been assigned as 

 escort for the commissioners, thus StiefTeFs presence 

 at Council Grove. It was a colorful gathering, with 

 some 5,000 Indians on hand. First came a series of 

 speeches. Then the treaty was drawn up and ex- 

 plained to the Indians. They were to retire to 

 assigned reservations, cease attacking the whites, and 

 permit railroads to be built across the plains. In 

 return the reservations were to be closed to the white 

 buffalo hunters and the tribes were to be issued 

 certain annuities and provided with farming imple- 

 ments, seeds, churches, and schools. In short, the 

 Indians were to be forced to "walk the white man's 

 road." 



When the turn came for the Indians to reply, sev- 

 eral chiefs responded, the most notable being the 

 Kiowa chief, Satanta, or "White Bear" (fig. 11), one 



of the most remarkable individuals in his tribe's 

 historv. Speaking for all, Satanta made an unusually 

 strong impression on most of those present, Stieffel 

 among them, for this is the incident which he chose 

 to depict '' (fig. 3). 



Satanta is pictured in the act of speaking to the 

 commissioners, three of whom can lie identified as 

 the military members. Generals Terry, Augiu-, and 

 Harney from left to right, ^- plus one of the civilian 

 commissioners, possibly N. G. Taylor, Commissioner 

 of Indian Affairs. A daring and successful warrior, 

 Satanta's eloquence and vigor of expression had 

 already won for him the title "Orator of the Plains." 

 Every feature on his strong face, every line, showed 



'■ There arc several accounts of this. The best, in the 

 opinion of the writer, is in James Mooney's "Calendar History 

 of the Kiowa Indians," 17th Annual Report of the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology, Washington, Government Printing Office, 

 1898, pp 181-186, 206-210. 



'- Sec photo taken at later date by Alexander Gardner, .Still 

 Picture Branch, National Archives. 



12 



BULLETIN 225: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



