Thursday, May 24, 2007
History enthusiast Marc Abrams writes of the Indian Wars
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Part of the romance of American West is that you can enjoy it in broad strokes, in movies and in cowboy stories, as well as in small details, finding and researching nuances, from participants’ diaries and documents. You can be your own historian, professional or amateur, the interest never ceases. One such enthusiastic local historian, whom you can meet at his daily tasks in the Brotherhood Synagogue office, is Marc H. Abrams, the editor and annotator of a thin book, “St. George Stanley on the Bozeman Trail,” (Abrams Publications, 2007, marcsdesign@yahoo.com, $25), a ten-article report of the author/illustrator’s experiences while covering General George Crook’s military command during the Sioux and Cheyenne Campaign, 1876/77, particularly the events leading up to Custer’s Last Stand. We can think of Charles St. George Stanley as the imbedded artist in the Indian Wars, who carried a rifle and occasionally halfheartedly exchanged fire with attacking Sioux.
The Indian Wars (1854-1890s) came about as the settlers began to flood the West, encroaching on the rights of the indigenous inhabitants. Washington had reached agreements with some tribes , resettling them in Oklahoma, but these treaties were not recognized by all tribes, and massacres ensued, particularly after 1864, when the borders of what became the Montana Territory were settled with the British, and gold-rush wagon trains bound for Oregon came through what the Indians of the Dakotas considered their legitimate hunting grounds. The Bozeman Trail, named for a miner/settler, was a shortcut from the main trail on the North Platte River, cutting through the Powder River basin, the best hunting grounds of the Northern Plains tribes. The first major clash on the trail was the Fetterman Massacre in 1866 (an army detachment was trapped in a canyon), leading to a military occupation of the region, discontinued after the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 but reopened eight years later.
Thus in May 1876 we find the artist Stanley and a friend in Fort Carline, near Cheyenne, Wyoming, joining General George Crook’s military contingent, one of three independently operating commands going north to reaffirm the army’s control of the western territories (General Custer led another).. They ride on horseback through rough territory, covering 14 miles a day, slowed down by their mule train of supplies. At nightfall they erect small tents, striking them at sunrise, since early morning travel was the best. Their trail lead through undefined farms in an already established cattle territory, Lodge Pole, Moore’s , at Horse Creek, in a beautiful valley, built as a loghouse fort, and Armijo’s, at Bear Spring, a Mexican adobe. Reaching Fort Laramie, Wyoming, they discovered the grave of Doe Eye, daughter of Chief Spotted Tail, who loved a pale face soldier, and on her deathbed exacted a promise from the great leader of the Sioux not to fight the overwhelmingly powerful palefaces (he kept it).
Continuing further north along the Platte, their thirsty mule train nearly drowned, and refilling water canteens every morning became a necessity. The command moved on, through the Badlands (Mauvaise Terres), and at Fort Fetterman crossed the Platte, to enter the barren north, country of the sagebrush, where the assembled masses of the Sioux, mostly Lakotas and their Cheyenne allies, estimated 800 to 1500 in strength, were known to be waiting for the arrival of the 1000 soldiers and their 250 Crow and Shoshone confederates. The Battle of Rosebud took place in a hilly canyon territory of Montana, over a period of six hours of June 18, 1876, with the Lakotas initiating the fighting against the cavalry of Hawaiian-born Frank Gruard, chief of the scouts, and Colonel William B, Royall. Then the infantry, led by Major George M. Randall, flanked by its Indian allies, made the first forward move. The Sioux forces, under chiefs Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse, made both forays and strategic retreats, hoping to lure the palefaces into a Fetterman-like trap, but the soldiers were cautious. The battle produced no gains for either party, with a light count of casualties, until the Sioux forces withdrew.
The Crook command also returned to Laramie, only to hear that eight days later and a few miles north from the Rosebud, the entire second command, led by General George Custer, was wiped out, in the Battle of Little Bighorn, by the same Sioux , under by Chief Crazy Horse. These were the days of communications by messenger only, and the Crook, Custer and a third command troops were operating fully independently, aware of their counterparts’ locations only when their scouts met and exchanged information. Custer’s Last Stand has been the subject of legend and controversy ever since.
Marc Abrams has been an enthusiast of the history of the West since childhood, contributing to the resources of history collections. He has lived in Montana in the 1990s, and his son’s middle name is Lakota. The ten Stanley articles he edited and annotated for this book were unearthed from the files of the weekly Colorado Miner between May and July 1878. Stanley’s pen sketches also appeared in Harper’s and Frank Leslie’s Weekly and Scribner’s Magazine issues of the period.
Part of the romance of American West is that you can enjoy it in broad strokes, in movies and in cowboy stories, as well as in small details, finding and researching nuances, from participants’ diaries and documents. You can be your own historian, professional or amateur, the interest never ceases. One such enthusiastic local historian, whom you can meet at his daily tasks in the Brotherhood Synagogue office, is Marc H. Abrams, the editor and annotator of a thin book, “St. George Stanley on the Bozeman Trail,” (Abrams Publications, 2007, marcsdesign@yahoo.com, $25), a ten-article report of the author/illustrator’s experiences while covering General George Crook’s military command during the Sioux and Cheyenne Campaign, 1876/77, particularly the events leading up to Custer’s Last Stand. We can think of Charles St. George Stanley as the imbedded artist in the Indian Wars, who carried a rifle and occasionally halfheartedly exchanged fire with attacking Sioux.
The Indian Wars (1854-1890s) came about as the settlers began to flood the West, encroaching on the rights of the indigenous inhabitants. Washington had reached agreements with some tribes , resettling them in Oklahoma, but these treaties were not recognized by all tribes, and massacres ensued, particularly after 1864, when the borders of what became the Montana Territory were settled with the British, and gold-rush wagon trains bound for Oregon came through what the Indians of the Dakotas considered their legitimate hunting grounds. The Bozeman Trail, named for a miner/settler, was a shortcut from the main trail on the North Platte River, cutting through the Powder River basin, the best hunting grounds of the Northern Plains tribes. The first major clash on the trail was the Fetterman Massacre in 1866 (an army detachment was trapped in a canyon), leading to a military occupation of the region, discontinued after the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 but reopened eight years later.
Thus in May 1876 we find the artist Stanley and a friend in Fort Carline, near Cheyenne, Wyoming, joining General George Crook’s military contingent, one of three independently operating commands going north to reaffirm the army’s control of the western territories (General Custer led another).. They ride on horseback through rough territory, covering 14 miles a day, slowed down by their mule train of supplies. At nightfall they erect small tents, striking them at sunrise, since early morning travel was the best. Their trail lead through undefined farms in an already established cattle territory, Lodge Pole, Moore’s , at Horse Creek, in a beautiful valley, built as a loghouse fort, and Armijo’s, at Bear Spring, a Mexican adobe. Reaching Fort Laramie, Wyoming, they discovered the grave of Doe Eye, daughter of Chief Spotted Tail, who loved a pale face soldier, and on her deathbed exacted a promise from the great leader of the Sioux not to fight the overwhelmingly powerful palefaces (he kept it).
Continuing further north along the Platte, their thirsty mule train nearly drowned, and refilling water canteens every morning became a necessity. The command moved on, through the Badlands (Mauvaise Terres), and at Fort Fetterman crossed the Platte, to enter the barren north, country of the sagebrush, where the assembled masses of the Sioux, mostly Lakotas and their Cheyenne allies, estimated 800 to 1500 in strength, were known to be waiting for the arrival of the 1000 soldiers and their 250 Crow and Shoshone confederates. The Battle of Rosebud took place in a hilly canyon territory of Montana, over a period of six hours of June 18, 1876, with the Lakotas initiating the fighting against the cavalry of Hawaiian-born Frank Gruard, chief of the scouts, and Colonel William B, Royall. Then the infantry, led by Major George M. Randall, flanked by its Indian allies, made the first forward move. The Sioux forces, under chiefs Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse, made both forays and strategic retreats, hoping to lure the palefaces into a Fetterman-like trap, but the soldiers were cautious. The battle produced no gains for either party, with a light count of casualties, until the Sioux forces withdrew.
The Crook command also returned to Laramie, only to hear that eight days later and a few miles north from the Rosebud, the entire second command, led by General George Custer, was wiped out, in the Battle of Little Bighorn, by the same Sioux , under by Chief Crazy Horse. These were the days of communications by messenger only, and the Crook, Custer and a third command troops were operating fully independently, aware of their counterparts’ locations only when their scouts met and exchanged information. Custer’s Last Stand has been the subject of legend and controversy ever since.
Marc Abrams has been an enthusiast of the history of the West since childhood, contributing to the resources of history collections. He has lived in Montana in the 1990s, and his son’s middle name is Lakota. The ten Stanley articles he edited and annotated for this book were unearthed from the files of the weekly Colorado Miner between May and July 1878. Stanley’s pen sketches also appeared in Harper’s and Frank Leslie’s Weekly and Scribner’s Magazine issues of the period.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 5:08 AM 
