Treaty of Fort Laramie

Although many emigrants to the west had previously passed through the Great Plains on the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails, the California gold rush greatly increased traffic. Desirous to maintain peace along the way, the United States undertook negotiations with the Native American tribes living between the Arkansas and Missouri rivers.^[1]

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 was signed on September 17 between United States treaty commissioners and representatives of the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, Shoshone, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara nations. The treaty sets forth traditional territorial claims of the tribes as between themselves.^[2] The Indians guaranteed safe passage for settlers on the Oregon Trail in return for promises of an annuity in the amount of fifty thousand dollars for fifty years. The Native American nations also allowed roads and forts to be built in their territories. The United States Senate ratified the treaty, adding Article 7, to adjust compensation from fifty to ten years, if the tribes accepted the changes. Acceptance from all tribes, with the exception of the Crows, was procured. Several tribes never received the commodities promised as payments. The treaty produced a brief period of peace but was broken by the mass emigration during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush into the territory set aside for the Indians.^[3]

References

• "Treaty of Fort Laramie with Sioux, Etc., 1851." 11 StatsAffairs: Laws and Treaties — Vol. II: Treaties. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1904, pp. 594-596 . Through Oklahoma State University Library, Electronic Publishing Center.
• Text of the 1851 Fort Laramie treaty with map