Medicine Lodge Peace Treaties

At Medicine Lodge Creek in 1867, as many as 15,000 Apaches, Kiowas, Comanches, Arapahos, and Cheyennes gathered with a seven-member peace commission escorted by U.S. soldiers for one of the nation’s largest peace councils. The American Indian nations chose this traditional ceremonial site for the nearly two-week council, where Chiefs Satanta, Little Raven, and Black Kettle gave speeches, held ceremonies, and entered negotiations. The three treaties produced there reduced the size of each nation’s lands and allowed the construction of railroads and eventual settlement. Some chiefs signed without popular support, others misunderstood the agreements and later renounced them, and when the agreements failed, the government responded with force. Thirteen months later, Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle died in an attack by the Seventh Cavalry at Washita Creek, Oklahoma.

Kansas · United States