The Battle of Fetterman, also called the Fetterman Massacre or Fetterman Affair by Americans or Combat-Des-Cent-Dans-La-Main by Native Americans, was a clash of Red Cloud's War that took place on December 21, 1866 on the Bozeman Trail, 4 miles (6 km) north of Fort Phil Kearny, in what is now upstate Wyoming. It opposed 80 American soldiers led by Captain William Fetterman and 500 Lakota and Cheyenne warriors led by Red Cloud and Crazy Horse and ended in the death of all American soldiers.
Context
In 1851, the Sioux, along with many other tribes of Plains Indians, had signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. This provided for the payment of an annuity of fifty thousand dollars to the Indians, in exchange for Americans could build roads and Native Americans should stop their tribal wars. However, the tribal wars continued and the Americans did not keep their word. In 1864, following the Sand Creek Massacre, where 200 women, men and children were killed and severely maimed by 700 Colorado volunteers under Chivington's orders, the Sioux and Cheyenne went to war with the United States. Then, in 1866, the United States built a road, the Bozeman Trail, and three forts to protect it, in Powder River Country, a rich hunting ground for Native Americans. These, led by Red Cloud, relentlessly attacked the Bozeman Trail, raiding forts, settlers, stagecoaches, post and telegraph offices, relay stations and railroads, attempting ambushes in a guerrilla.
Battle
In December, the Sioux and Cheyenne decided to lead an ambush and lure the soldiers into a trap. A dozen warriors, led by Crazy Horse, therefore attacked loggers near a fort. Immediately, the soldiers replied and 80 of them led by Captain William J. Fetterman came out to pursue the few warriors, in fact responsible for leading the soldiers into an ambush. The warriors led by Crazy Horse therefore led the soldiers in pursuit, remaining within range to taunt them, stopping at times to allow the soldiers to catch up with them. At one point, Crazy Horse got off his horse to scrape the ice accumulated under his hooves, the others pretending to rest. The soldiers therefore pursued them for the eight kilometers that separated the fort from the site of the ambush.
Fetterman's soldiers fell directly into the ambush. The eighty infantry and cavalry were attacked by the 500 Lakota and Cheyenne warriors in ambush. The fight was fierce and the soldiers defended themselves until the end, causing many deaths and injuries among the Amerindians. But these, more numerous, had the upper hand and the soldiers were massacred to the last. The Sioux and the Cheyenne, inflamed by the depletion of bison due to the laying of roads by the whites and the increase in the number of hunters, by disease, and above all by the memory of the massacre of their relatives and friends at Sand Creek and the mutilations they had suffered, took revenge on the soldiers.
Consequences
Following this event, Crazy Horse's notoriety continued to increase. Moreover, the Amerindians agreed to negotiate a new treaty with the whites, completely to the advantage of the victors. The Whites evacuated the three forts they had built in the Podwer River country, abandoning the Bozeman Trail. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 ceded the Sioux a huge reservation, gave them hunting rights in Montana, and promised them the inviolability of their lands, including the Black Hills, their sacred ground. No white man, according to the terms of the treaty, could enter the Great Sioux Reservation without the authorization of the latter. The whites also promised the Sioux schools and goods. The Sioux had won the war against the United States, extracting from them a treaty to their advantage. However, neither Crazy Horse nor Sitting Bull signed the treaty, and they continued to live off the reservation according to their traditional way of life.
Eight years after the Treaty of Fort Laramie, ten years after the Battle of Fetterman, a new war broke out, this time for control of the Black Hills. The Sioux and Cheyenne won the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, killing Lt. Col. Custer and 268 men, but surrendered the following year.