Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/275



THE DEPARTMENT OF THE PLATTE—THE BLACK HILLS DIFFICULTY—THE ALLISON COMMISSION—CRAZY HORSE AND SITTING BULL—THE FIRST WINTER CAMPAIGN—CLOTHING WORN BY THE TROOPS—THE START FOR THE BIG HORN—FRANK GRUARD, LOUIS RICHAUD, BIG BAT, LOUIS CHANGRAU, AND OTHER GUIDES.

The new command stretched from the Missouri River to the western shores of the Great Salt Lake, and included the growing State of Nebraska and the promising territories of Wyoming, Utah, and part of Idaho. The Indian tribes with which more or less trouble was to be expected were: the Bannocks and Shoshones, in Idaho and western Wyoming; the Utes, in Utah and western Wyoming; the Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes, in Dakota and Nebraska; the Otoes, Poncas, Omahas, Winnebagoes, and Pawnees, in various sections of Nebraska. The last five bands were perfectly peaceful, and the only trouble they would occasion would be on account of the raids made upon them by the hostiles and their counter-raids to steal ponies. The Pawnees had formerly been the active and daring foe of the white men, but were now disposed to go out, whenever needed, to attack the Sioux or Dakotas. The Utes, Bannocks, and Shoshones claimed to be friendly, as did the Arapahoes, but the hostile feelings of the Cheyennes and Sioux were scarcely concealed, and on several occasions manifested in no equivocal manner. The Utes, Bannocks, and Shoshones were "mountain" Indians, but were well supplied with stock; they often made incursions into the territory of the "plains" tribes, their enemies, of whom the most powerful were the Sioux and Cheyennes, whose numbers ran into the thousands.

There was much smouldering discontent among the Sioux and Cheyennes, based upon our failure to observe the stipulations of the treaty made in 1867, which guaranteed to them an immense