The Horse Creek Treaty: Broken Promises
Prior to the Horse Creek Treaty, formally titled the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, the Indigenous tribes on the Great Plains were free, as they had been for thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. The tribal members roamed and hunted within wide-ranging territories.
How did the Horse Creek Treaty change the lives of the tribes that agreed to the treaty?
$50,000 in 1851 is equal to about $2 million dollars today. This is the amount the U.S. government promised to pay the 8 tribes each year for ten years, in exchange for the tribes’ keeping the terms of the treaty. The $2 million was to be divided among the tribes. The U.S. government made the payment only one time.
After the treaty was signed, Whites continued invading Indigenous lands. The U.S. government failed to keep U.S. citizens from settling in the tribes’ designated areas or to pay the money promised in the treaty. This set a pattern for future treaties. The U.S. government typically did not keep the promises it made to tribes.
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