As no arrangements had yet been made for the removal of the Indians to the south, most of them remained encamped on the Arkansas until June, 1868, when the Cheyenne became involved in difficulty with the military, resulting in their flight southward to the Canadian and Washita. On the return of the unsuccessful war party against the Ute, in which Setdayâ´ite had been killed, as narrated in the calendar for that year (see the calendar), the Kiowa also left the Arkansas and removed to the south, thus anticipating measures by General Sherman to drive all these tribes by military force upon the new reservations assigned them by the late treaty, notwithstanding the fact that neither agency buildings nor agents were yet established on either reservation. In pursuance of this policy, General Sherman, in September, asked to have all issues whatever to any of these tribes withheld until they had concentrated near Fort Cobb on the Washita, and announced that after waiting a sufficient time for them to reach that point he would solicit an order declaring all Indians outside these reservations to be outlaws, "and recommending all people, soldiers, and citizens to proceed against them as such." He also proposed to declare forfeited the hunting privileges outside these boundaries, guaranteed under the treaty. Despite the agent's protest that the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache had done nothing to deserve such treatment, and the statement of the acting commissioner that Fort Cobb was not on the Cheyenne and Arapaho reservation at all, military operations were begun in September, with this purpose in view, with the result that all five tribes were again involved in war (_Report, 25_).
However peaceable the Kiowa and Comanche may have been on the Kansas frontier at this time, they were insolent enough in the south, for, in addition to raids into Texas, the agent for the Wichita and associated tribes, which had recently been removed to the vicinity of Fort Cobb, reports that they had plundered the Wichita of nearly everything, burned the agency, and forced the employees to leave to save their lives (_Report, 26_).
BATTLE OF THE WASHITA--REMOVAL TO THE RESERVATION
The command of operations in Indian Territory was given to General George A. Custer, who left Fort Dodge, Kansas, with eleven troops of the Seventh cavalry and twelve troops of Kansas volunteers, and after establishing Camp Supply, started on a winter campaign, intending to strike the Indians when they would be least prepared for defense or flight. The result was the "Battle of the Washita," on November 27, 1868, in which the Cheyenne village under Black-kettle was surprised and totally destroyed, one hundred and three warriors, including Black-kettle himself, being killed, a number of prisoners taken, and nearly a thousand ponies captured and shot, thus practically rendering the survivors helpless. The engagement occurred on the south bank of the Washita, in Oklahoma, just above Sergeant-major creek. Most of the Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache were camped below along the river for a distance of several miles; the whole forming the winter camp of the allied tribes. The Kiowa, who were nearest, prepared to attack, but, being taken at a disadvantage, agreed to go with the troops to Fort Cobb, the proposed agency. Instead of doing this, however, the warriors sent their families with their movables in a contrary direction and attempted to slip away themselves in small parties until Custer seized Lone-wolf, the head chief, and Set-t'aiñte, next in authority, and threatened to hang them both unless the absentees delivered themselves at Fort Cobb within two days. This brought matters to a head, and the whole tribe, excepting a band which fled under Woman-heart (_Mäñyí-tén_) toward the Staked plain, came in and surrendered at Fort Cobb within the time specified, about the end of December, 1868. The two chiefs were thereupon set at liberty. Most of the Comanche and Apache had already come in immediately after the Washita fight. The Cheyenne and Arapaho fled to the head of Red river, where they were followed by Custer, and were brought in later to their own reservation (_Custer, 1_; _Record, 1_). As an effective means of holding these tribes in check for the future, Fort Sill was established in the spring of 1869, nearly in the center of the reservation, with the agency for the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache adjoining.