PRESSURE ON THE PLAINS

The dramatic change in lifestyle for the Cheyenne and other Plains Tribes was not merely the result of U.S. government policy and its military that enforced it. A combination of factors--trade, items of trade, corridors of trade, disease, the discovery of gold, Indian Removal Act, growing numbers of white settlers and the extermination of the buffalo--put pressure on the Plains tribes and eventually ended their nomadic way of life.

TRADE

In the 18th century European trade with the Plains tribes was very important for both parties. For example, the Plains tribes could not have begun their pattern of warfare without European guns. Without a market for their buffalo robes and horses they would not have been able to trade for guns, kettles and knives and other goods they came to depend on. The lack of inexpensive wool blankets for carriage robes and beds in Europe resulted in a huge increase in demand for buffalo robes. Additionally the Mexicans were not free to trade with Louisiana because the Comanches controlled this corridor of trade and prevented Mexican influence. This resulted in a shortage of horses in the region of the Lower Mississippi. Since California and Oregon had been opened to migration there was a horse market in St. Louis. It was the tremendous demand for draft horses and mounts to carry the settlers and their goods across the plains that brought wealth to the Plains tribes. But the benefits of trade also brought unexpected pressure and eventually changed their way of life forever.

The increasing demand for buffalo robes led to a mutually beneficial relationship between Bent's Fort proprietors and the Cheyennes. Bent's Fort on the Arkansas River was the most important trading post for the Cheyennes. Though Charles Bent, a resident of Taos, New Mexico, was appointed Governor of New Mexico in 1846 after the US claimed the land, his brother, William Bent, continued to manage the fort. This relationship allowed Mexican goods such as wool blankets, food and the remains of the beaver trade from the Pueblo Indians to be exchanged with the Plains Indians or sent east to St. Louis. The plains Indians traded buffalo robes and horses which were also sent to St. Louis. This was the eastward movement of goods. Manufactured goods such as guns and kettles flowed westward out of St. Louis. Thus there developed a northeast-southwest trade pattern between St. Louis and New Mexico.

ITEMS OF TRADE [Top]

The most important items traded on the plains were guns and horses. Horses were more numerous in the south-western part of the plains while guns were only available from the French and British and later from Americans on the northern and eastern fringes of the plains.

Horses came from three main sources: (1) raids on private herds in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico (2) wild horse herds in Colorado and western Nebraska and (3) the natural increase through breeding. In the beginning the Cheyennes had to rely on raiding the Kiowas and Comanches for horses. But when they moved further south into eastern Colorado they caught the wild horses of the area and traded them to other tribes and Bent's Fort. In 1840 when the Cheyenne allied with the Apaches, Kiowas and Comanches they moved further south raiding ranches in Texas and Mexico.

Guns were used mostly for warfare, not hunting. Until the introduction of the multishot revolver after the Civil War, plains tribes could hunt better with the traditional bow and arrow. Guns came from the French in the north and east and were traded onto the plains toward the west and south. Buffalo hides and robes from the plains were traded in all directions. The Pueblo Indians and their Spanish and Mexican neighbors traded blankets, saddles and food in a north-eastern direction. All the European sources traded metal goods such as knives and kettles, beads and other smaller trinkets. However, in dollar terms the most valuable trade items were buffalo robes, guns and horses. Toward the end of the 18th century in the area of Middle Missouri a gun traded equally for a good horse and either of those two items was worth between 6-10 buffalo robes. On the southern plains, a gun might be traded for 6-10 horses. In the 1830s, buffalo robes were sold for $2-5 at Bent's Fort and $10-20 in St. Louis.

CORRIDORS OF TRADE AND WARFARE [Top]

The typical basis for warfare on the North American Plains was an effort to control the corridors of trade. After all this is where wealth originated. We must correct the myth that each of the plains tribes had traditional enemies and traditional allies. In most cases tribes would fight against each other then form an alliance to fight against another tribe. The Cheyennes were heavily intermarried with three of their most quarrelsome neighbors, the Blackfeet, Pawnees and the Crows. So the patterns of warfare on the plains should be looked upon as temporary and serving an immediate purpose rather than long termed. There were no permanent roadways on the plains until the opening of the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails. The opening of the Oregon Trail divided the massive buffalo herd at the Platte River. This created the northern herd and the southern herd.

THE IMPACT OF DISEASE [Top]

The intensity of trade in buffalo robes led to changes in alliances due to the amount of wealth to be had. The Lakotas no longer supported the Cheyennes but went after a bigger piece of the pie. Epidemics of infectious diseases were devastating the people living along the rivers that grew much of the foods. In 1837 there was a smallpox epidemic that killed at least half of the people living along the rivers. How much of an impact did this have? In 1780 the Mandans had a population of approximately 5,000. After the 1837 smallpox epidemic there were only a few hundred of them left. Because they could no longer produce food for the Lakotas they were marked for extinction or expulsion as they no longer served a purpose. Then the Lakotas could control the lucrative river trade from St. Louis. By 1840 disease had reduced the Pawnees by half to only 4500 people. They were another sedentary agricultural tribe. The food supply was dwindling. Then the Osages suffered a similar fate and were no longer a formidable military force on the Plains. As the tribes became weaker the influence of Europeans and American traders, politicians, agents and soldiers increased dramatically.

DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA AND COLORADO [Top]

In the late 1840s gold was discovered in California. This brought a rush of emigrants through Cheyenne country. The increasing numbers of emigrants caused several problems for the Cheyennes and other Plains tribes. The ongoing trek of California or bust gold-seekers disturbed the buffalo herds so much that it caused them to shift their range. Also, hand in hand with the growing presence of the emigrants came disease. In the early 1850s word began spreading about evidence of gold in Colorado. With this came another onslaught of gold-seekers right into the heart of Cheyenne territory. It is estimated that over one hundred thousand prospectors soon flooded the Colorado region.

INDIAN REMOVAL ACT[Top]

The Indian Removal Act of 1828 forced the well-armed Delawares, Shawnees and other eastern tribes to move into Cheyenne territory. They hunted the plains for food and hides to sell. Further south the Republic of Texas had been founded. During the 1840s these Texans vowed a war of extermination against the Comanches, Cherokees, Shawnees and any other displaced tribes who had entered the eastern part of their territory. As if all this wasn't bad enough when the Mexican War ended in 1848 with the signing of the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo, all of Texas and New Mexico was now part of the United States. This meant that all the Plains Tribes from Minnesota to Texas and over to Montana were now surrounded by a single unified entity- the United States of America. No longer could the tribes pit the Canadians, British, French, Spanish and Americans against each other to their advantage.

INCREASING NUMBERS OF EMIGRANTS AND SETTLEMENTS[Top]

Farms and ranches were moving north up the Red and Brazos Rivers on the Cheyenne's southern boundary, while settlements were moving westward along the Kansas, Republican and Smoky Hill rivers. This encroached on their most valuable hunting grounds! There was another threat as well, that of the thousands of emigrants crossing the plains through Cheyenne territory along the Platte and Arkansas Rivers.

LOSS OF THE BUFFALO[Top]

Traders and trappers were among the earliest arrivals of European immigrants. Their living was made from the selling of hides and meats. It is estimated that they killed up to 250 buffalo a day. For the Plains tribes, the buffalo was not only a source of food but a source for many other necessary tools and items as well. Aware of this military commanders employed a new strategy to deny the Plains Indians their primary source of food-orders to their troops to shoot and kill any buffalo on sight. By 1900, buffalo populations once ranked in the millions were reported to be less than 300.

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