Council With The Sioux Indians At Fort Pierre. Message From The President Of The United States, Communicating Minutes Of A Council Held At Fort Pierre With The Sioux Indians, By General Harney, Etc.

GENERAL WILLIAM S. HARNEY

Publication: Government Printing Office, 1856, Washington

34th Congress, 1st Session. Ex. Doc. No. 130, House of Representative. 9" x 5 3/4" dis-bound report housed in a 9 3/4" x 6 1/4" maroon clam-shell with gilt title on spine. 39 pp. Report of the Proceedings of a five-day council held at Fort Pierre, N. T. (now South Dakota) March 1856 and presided over by brevet Brigadier General William S. Harney and representatives from nine bands of Sioux Indians. This follows the 1855 Battle of Ash Hollow. General Harney was ordered by the US government to lead a punitive expedition against the Western Sioux after they had killed a small US Army detachment in Nebraska Territory (the Grattan Massacre). On September 3, 1855, Harney’s 600-man command attacked 250 Sioux, slaughtering 86 people and capturing 70 women and children. In March 1856, at Fort Pierre, N.T., without jurisdiction to do so, commanding General William Harney negotiated a peace treaty to stop further bloodshed with the Sioux and created a centralized tribal government among the Lakota, by which he intended to hold leaders accountable for the actions of bands. These are the minutes of that council. In it General Harney enumerated several requirements which the Lakota agreed to accept. The chiefs, who became the acknowledged leaders of their respective bands during this council, became responsible for the conduct of their followers. Specific details included the return of property which the Indians illegally procured over the past year and bringing in specific criminals, namely two Lakota accused of killing a homesteader's cow, for punishment. The newly recognized Lakota headmen agreed to Harney's demands. The council of chiefs included Little Thunder of the Brules; One Horn, a Minniconjou; the Sans Arc chief, Crow Feather; Fire Heart of the Blackfeet Sioux; Bear Ribs, a Hunkpapa; Two Bears and Black Catfish of the Yanktonnias; and the leader of the Two Kettles Band, Long Mandan. This document includes many speeches by many chiefs after which all signed another short-lived treaty. Howes H-207 cites 40pp., in error.