For Plains Indians, including Cheyenne, Apache, Kiowa-Apaches, and Arapahoe, this arid land was home, where tribes defined their territories through both war and cooperation. As increasing numbers of Santa Fe Trail travelers crossed these homelands, uneasy tension grew alongside trade, intermarriage, suspicion, plunder, and bloodshed. Soldiers and temporary fortifications began protecting trading caravans as early as 1847, but isolation and lack of supplies led to their abandonment by 1854. Fort Dodge, established in 1865 as the area's first permanent fort, brought more traders and settlers, and together with a new railroad and strong military presence pushed Plains Indians into other tribes' territories. As bison and other migrating wildlife declined, their survival was jeopardized, and confinement to reservations eventually made their traditional way of life impossible.