MOONET] DRAGOON EXPEDITION OF 1833-34 169 



indirectly to tbe expeditiou of the First dragoons in 183-1, by which 

 the Kiowa, Comanche, Wichita, and associated tribes were first 

 brought into ofticial relations with the United States. The massacre 

 and the expedition will be found treated at length in the i^roper place. 

 When the troops returned to Fort Gibson, in the eastern part of 

 Indian Territory, in August, they were accompanied by a party of one 

 Waco, one Comanche, three Wichita, and fifteen Kiowa chiefs or head- 

 men, of whom the artist Catlin says they were undoubtedly one of the 

 most interesting groups that had ever visited the frontier. Invitations 

 were sent out to the chiefs of all the neighboring tribes to come in 

 to Fort Gibson and meet their visitors from the west. A number 

 responded, and a council lasting several days was held under the aus- 

 pices of Colonel Dodge of the Dragoons, Indian Agent Major Arm- 

 strong, and Indian Commissioner General Stokes, which paved the 

 way for a friendly understanding between the eastern and western 

 tribes, and for both with regard to the United States (Catlin, 1). 



A year later, in August, 1S35, as a result of the friendly relations 

 thus established, the chiefs of the Comanche and Wichita met the 

 United States commissioners at Camp Holmes, about 5 miles northeast 

 of the present site of Pnrcell, Indian Territory, and made their first 

 treaty with the government. The principal stipulation was that there 

 should be peace and friendship between the Comanche and Wichita 

 on the one hand, and the United States, Creek, Cherokee, and other 

 immigrant tribes, and the Osage on the other (Treaties). 



THE TREATY OF 1837 



Owing to a delay in the negotiations, the Kiowa who had attended 

 the meeting became impatient and returned home and consequently 

 were not parties to this treaty, but two years later a full delegation of 

 Kiowa, Apache, and Tawakoni went down to Fort Gibson, where the 

 first treaty between the United States and these tribes was made on 

 May 2G, 1837, and was formally ratified the following year. In the 

 document the three tribes are called " the Kioway, Ka-ta ka, and 

 Ta-wa-karo nations of Indians." The general terms of the treaty are 

 the same as in that previously made with the Comanche and Wichita, 

 namely, peace and friendship, with forgiveness of past injuries, and 

 satisfactory settlement of future disputes that might arise between 

 these western tribes and the Osage, Muscogee (Creek), and citizens of 

 the United States. All the tribes concerned were to have equal hunt- 

 ing rights on the southern prairies as far west as the jurisdiction of the 

 government extended, and citizens of the United States were to have 

 free right of travel to and from Mexico and Texas through the Indian 

 hunting grounds. 



There was also a stipulation that if "any of the red people belonging 

 to the nations or tribes of Indians residing south of the Missouri river 

 and west of the states of Missouri and Arkansas, not parties to this 

 17 ETH 25 



