OLD WEST LEGENDS

The Indian Fighters

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Red Cloud, Chief of the Sioux, waged a fierce

 war against the white invaders on the northern

 plains, plaguing settlers and cutting off mail routes

 during the hostilities.

"All Indians who are not on reservations are hostile and will remain so until killed off."

-- General William Sherman

Buffalo Bill Cody - Trapper, Trader and American Frontiersman

General George Crook

George Armstrong Custer

My Friend, Kit Carson by a Santa Fe Trail Driver

Lieutenant General Nelson Appleton Miles

William Tecumseh Sherman

General Philip Sheridan

General Alfred Terry

As commander of the Department of the Platte, Crook led the Powder River and Yellowstone expeditions against the Sioux. Defeated by Crazy Horse at the Rosebud, he failed to link up with General Terry, a circumstance that may have played a part in the massacre at the Little Bighorn.

Crook was returned to Arizona in 1881 when the Apache rose again.  After eight months of hard campaigning, Crook had the Apache back on reservations. The Apache went on the warpath two years later, and Crook's last campaign ended in the surrender of Geronimo.  After leaving the army, he worked for better treatment of the Indians. At Crook's death, his old adversary, Red Cloud, said "He never lied to us. His words gave my people hope."

William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) - Born Tecumseh Sherman in Lancaster, Ohio on February 8, 1820 to Judge Charles Robert Sherman and Mary Hoyt Sherman, William was one of 11 children. When his father died when he was nine, he was taken in and raised by a family friend. He joined the Military Academy at West Point at the age of 16. Upon graduation in 1840, he entered the Army as a second lieutenant and saw action in the Second Seminole War. Later he served at several posts in the West, as well as in the Civil War.

The general who marched through Georgia during the Civil War, was not the sort who would go easy on the Indians.  Sherman believed Indians should be punished for their atrocities, put on reservations, and forced to stay there. 

At the conclusion of the Civil War, Sherman was appointed commander of the Missouri district, which stretched from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi. Here he deployed troops to protect transcontinental railroad workers from Indians who feared that the railroad would mean further encroachment on their territory. He also established military outposts across the region, expanding the network of federal authority.

When he was made commander-in-chief of the army in 1869 he continued with his philosophy directing a series of campaigns that finally crushed Indian resistance. He perceived clearly the devastating effectiveness of striking at the economic basis of the Plains Indians' lives. By aggressively killing the buffalo and attacking Indian encampments during the winter, when their supplies and mobility were limited, he weakened his enemy. By the late 1870's the once free-roaming warrior tribes of the plains had been forced on reservations.

Sherman retired from the army on February 8, 1884 and lived most of the rest of his life in New York City. He died there on February 19, 1891 and his body was transported to St. Louis, Missouri, where he buried in Calvary Cemetery.

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From the Rocky Mountain General Store

Native American Photo Prints  - Vintage photographs of famous chiefs, heroes, and Indian life in the 19th century.

"I never want to leave this country; all my relatives are lying here in the ground, and when I fall to pieces I am going to fall to pieces here." 

--  Sioux leader Wolf Necklace expressing his opposition to moving to a reservation