From When Kansas Was Young, pages 1 - 4. The Largest Indian Council
Medicine Lodge, which has earned a place in Kansas history, is located at the confluence of the Medicine River and Elm Creek in the county of Barber.
Few, if any, towns in the state have more sightly locations, and in the early days its natural beauty was accentuated by the fact that in order to reach it one had to travel across many miles of treeless prairie. My first sight of it was after a three day's tiresome ride in a freight wagon, when coming to the crest of a rise some three miles to the northeast, I saw the frontier village, at that distance, apparently almost surrounded by thick groves of cottonwood and elm trees, while here and there through rifts in the wooded fringe could be seen the swift flowing waters of the converging streams gleaming in the sunlight like ribbons of sliver flecked with gold.
The Medicine River derived its name from its supposed healing qualities and the thick grove at the junction of the two streams furnished a favorite camping place for the Indians who met there on stated occasions, and under the guidence of their medicine men, performed their savage rites and cleansed their systems with copious draughts of the sacred waters.
Medicine Lodge, long before the advent of the white man, was the center of the favorite hunting ground of the red men. No other part of Kansas is so plentifully suppplied with swift running streams, with sweeter native grasses, or such perfect natural shelter as Barber County. The Medicine River, flowing from the northwest corner to the southeast, furnishes fully fifty miles of living water, just sufficiently saline to make it as desirable stock water as there is in the world. In addition, there are the swift flowing streams, most of them tributary to the Medicine, Turkey Creek, Elm Creek, Spring Creek and Antelope, Cottonwood, Big Mule and Little Mule, Bear Creek, Elk Creek, Hackberry and Bitter Creek, with several others whose names just now escape my memory.
The names of these streams indicate the variety of game that lured the Indian Hunter and furnished meat for his wikiup. It is no wonder that he was loth to give up the hunting round which had been the favorite of his ancestors, as well as his own.
When after a long period of savage warfare the Government induced the head men of the leading prairie tribes to meet in a peace council and arrange terms of permanent peace between the white men and the red, by sort of common consent the location where Medicine Lodge now stands was chosen for the place of meeting. That was not only the greatest gathering of Indians and white men in the history of the United States in point of numbers, but the permanent results were the most important.
Never since then, 1868, has there been a war between the great tribes represented at that peace council and the white men. The Indians who gave their word there kept the faith and buried the war tomahawk, never to dig it up again. It would be well indeed for the world if so-called Christian white men had as high a sense of honor as these untutored savages.
Of course no accurate count was taken of the number of tribesmen who attended that conference, but conservative judges who were present estimated the number at not less than 15,000.
In command of the United States forces, who guarded the commissioners, was General Sherman, and with him were some of the most experienced Indian fighters in the old army. Governor Crawford left his comfortable seat at the new state capital to attend the conference, and it was to his keen observation and knowledge of Indian character that the peace commisioners and the small body of United States troops were probably indebted for their lives. There were restless spirits among the Indians who had little faith in the word of the white men. This was not remarkable, for the history of the dealings of the white men with the Indians had been marred by bad faith and outrageous swindles perpetrated upon the red men. The restless spirits among the tribesmen persuaded their fellow savages that this was simply another scheme of the pale faces to take away from them their favorite hunting grounds, to forece them on to cramped reservations and there to let them die. They said that by a surprise attack they could overcome the white men and the pale-faced soldiers and massacre the entire outfit.
It was a rather dark afternoon, with a drizzling rain. Conditions were favorable for a surprise attack. Crawford saw certain signs among the Indians which aroused his suspicions, which he communicated to General Sherman, who at once drew up his troops in hollow square with a number of cannon pointed toward the savages, who were camped on the hills overlooking the river and grove.
He also sent word that the chiefs who were suspected of causing the trouble must come into the white camp to be held as hostages. That ended all plans for a massacre. The council lasted several days. A general agreement was reached and the treaty was duly signed by the United States commissioners and the leading chiefs of the great Indian tribes, the Arapahoes, Comanches and Kiowas. the beautiful hunting grounds, the clear, swift flowing streams, the sheltering groves, all passed from the possesion of the red men to the white, and within four years afterward the little town of Medicine Lodge had its beginning.