In 1865, hundreds of Cheyennes, Arapahos, Kiowas, Apaches, and Comanches camped not far from here to negotiate peace with the U.S. government at the Little Arkansas council, where both sides hoped new treaties would end the hostilities. Less than a year earlier, a Colorado volunteer militia had attacked a peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho village near Sand Creek, Colorado, slaughtering about 400 men, women, and children. As Ten Bears, a Comanche, said, "My people have never first drawn a bow or fired a gun against whites. There has been trouble on the line between us, and my young men have danced the war dance. But it was not begun by us." The U.S. Senate failed to ratify the agreements, but peace held for about 18 months until Gen. Winfield Hancock led 1,400 soldiers from Fort Larned on a campaign against the Cheyennes and Arapahos. Two years after the Little Arkansas council, the same parties signed new treaties at Medicine Lodge Creek, 76 miles southwest of here, but those agreements also failed to stop the wars on the plains.
