MOoNEv] HOSTILITIES OF 18U8 187 



have all issues wliatever to any of these tribes wituueld until tlaey bad 

 concentrated near FoitCobb on tbe Wasbita, and announced tbat alter 

 waiting a sufficient time for tliein to reach that point he would solicit 

 an order declaring' all Indians outside these reservations to be outlaws, 

 "and recoinniending all people, soldiers, and citizens to proceed against 

 them as such." He also proposed to declare forfeited the hunting ])rivi- 

 leges outside these boundaries, guaranteed under the treaty. Despite 

 the agent's protest that the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache had done 

 nothing to deserve sutili treatment, and the statement of the acting 

 commissioner that Fort Cobb was not ou the Cheyenne and Arai)aho 

 reservation at all, military operations were begun in September, with 

 this purpose in view, with the result that all five tribes were again 

 involved in war {Report., 25). 



However peaceable the Kiowa and Comanche may have been on the 

 Kansas frontier at this time, they were insolent enough in the south, 

 for, in addition to raids into Texas, the agent for the Wichita and asso- 

 ciated tribes, which had recently been removed to the vicinity of Fort 

 Cobb, reports that they had plundered the Wichita of nearly every- 

 thing, burned the agency, and forced the employees to leave to save 

 their lives {Report, 26). 



BATTLE OF THE WASHITA — REMOVAL TO THE RESERVATION 



The command of operations in Indian Territory was given to General 

 Oeorge A. Custer, who left Fort Dodge, Kansas, with eleven trooi)s of 

 the Seventh cavalry and twelve troops of Kansas volunteers, and after 

 establishing Camp Supply, started on a winter campaign, intending to 

 strike the Indians when they would be least prepared for deleiisc or 

 flight. The result was the "Battle of the Washita," on November 27, 

 1868, in which the Clieyenne village under Black kettle was surprised 

 and totally destroyed, one hundred and tliree warriors, including lilack- 

 kettle himself, being killed, a number of prisoners taken, and nearly a 

 thousand jjonies captured and shot, thus ])ractically rendering the 

 survivors helpless. The engagement occurred on the south bank of 

 the Washita, in Oklahoma, just above Sergeant-major creek. Must 

 of the Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache were camjied below 

 along the river for a distance of several miles; the whole forming the 

 winter camp of the allied tribes. The Kiowa, who were nearest, pre- 

 pared to attack, but, being taken at a disadvantage, agreed to go with 

 tiie troops to Fort Cobb, the proi)osed agency. Instead of doing this, 

 however, the warriors sent their families with tiieir movables in a con- 

 trary direction and attempted to slip away themselves in small parties 

 until Custer seized Lone-wolf, the head chief, and Sett'aiute, next in 

 authority, and threatened to hang them both unless the absentees 

 delivered themselves at Fort Cobb within two days. This brought 

 matters to a head, and the whole tribe, extiepting a band which fled 

 under Woman-heart (Manyi-tcn) toward the Staked ijlain, came in and 



