202 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



New Mexico, Eastern Colorado, the western parts of Kansas, the Indian 

 Territory, and Texas, having little care or oversight from the govern- 

 ment. From time to time their limits were decreased, until, in 1867, 

 they had been given fixed reservations in the Indian Territory ; the 

 Cheyennes and Arapahoes west of the Cherokees and north of the 

 Washita River, with hunting privileges in Western Kansas, while the 

 Kiowas and Comanches were south of them and west of theOhickasaws, 

 with privileges to hunt in Northwestern Texas. The opposition to 

 abridgment of their ancient freedom required an active military force 

 to get them within these limits. At the end of 18G8, after several 

 engagements and continued unrest from pursuit of troops, they were 

 brought directly under care of their agents upon their reservations. The 

 period of quiet was short. They soon commenced raiding along the 

 frontier, more particularly on those parts they had thought their own. 

 Tbe few cases of punishment received in these forays from the troops 

 or outraged border settlers were only sufficient to give them a relish. 

 Buffalo hunters invaded their territory and angered them by a whole- 

 sale destruction of the best resource of their nomadic life. Individual 

 Indians were not held accountable for notorious offenses, and their 

 reservations grew to be places of refuge, from which they raided and 

 to which they fled in comparative protection. Moving in small parties 

 they enforced terror far into the settlements and wreaked vengeance 

 upon the weak and isolated, not sparing women and children, whom 

 they sometimes carried captives to their camps. This was their war, 

 and recitals of adventure on these incursions formed a staple interest 

 in their ceremonies and around their camp-fires. Stealing horses, mules, 

 and cattle from settlements near was largely indulged in. This stock, 

 if not desired for home use, found purchasers on another border or 

 within their own limits. Sometimes the thieves were traced out and 

 called upon to return the stock, but oftener it was clear gain. In this 

 business they had strong competitors and much encouragement by con- 

 tact and example from the bad white men who leech upon the sparsely 

 settled districts of the frontier. The worthy settler suffered many losses 

 from these men, who, often personating the red man, organized a system 

 of depredations of incredible magnitude, and succeeded in attaching 

 much additional blame on the Indians. Throughout 1870, '71, >72, and 

 '73, things went on from bad to worse. Texas furnished their richest 

 field, but all settlements bordering their reservations suffered; so that 

 in these years scarcely a neighborhood but could tell of some murders 

 or depredations. Surveying parties, emigrants, the lone settler, wagon- 

 trains with supplies for the military, their own cousumption, or traders' 

 use, all fell under their lawlessness and barbarous rapine. The counsels 

 and urgings of their agents and other authorities were Hung to the 

 winds. 



Early in 1874 it was determined to end by force what other measures 

 were clearly unable to stay. To this end, a day was fixed, about mid- 



