How did an alternate route out west end with a war between Native Americans and settlers? Here's how a trail that cut through Native American territory ended in catastrophe.
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00:00How did an alternate route out West end with a war between Native Americans and settlers?
00:05Here's how a trail that cut through Native American territory ended in catastrophe.
00:09Tales of the Oregon Trail have captured the imagination for generations and taught people
00:13exactly what dysentery is. Maybe it's the myth-making appeal of self-made, rugged individuals
00:18charting their way westward across a vast grassland in search of a better life. Of course,
00:23there was nothing idyllic or even remotely appealing about walking — yes, walking — about
00:272,200 miles along with half a million strangers.
00:30The traditional Oregon Trail, the one we think of today, ended fairly north, either Oregon
00:35or Washington, depending on how much you want to fight about it on the internet. There were
00:39other paths off the main trail that went further south, like the Bozeman Trail.
00:43The Bozeman Trail broke off from the Oregon Trail around modern-day Glen Rock, Wyoming,
00:47and terminated around Virginia City near Nevada's southwestern corner. If you're not watching
00:51this with a map in front of you, that's basically the middle of Wyoming, closer to the Nebraska
00:56side all the way to Nevada, where it starts to angle in. Well, over a thousand miles
01:01of walking.
01:02There was one problem with the Bozeman Trail — it cut through Native American territory
01:05not open to travelers. In 1864, less than one year after pioneer John Bozeman first
01:11carved the trail, 2,000 settlers followed behind him largely in the hopes of discovering
01:15gold. The other problem is that it's nowhere near Bozeman, Montana — or Montana, for
01:20that matter, but that's more of a modern problem for us. More on this later.
01:24The tribes along the Oregon Trail generally left settlers alone or engaged in friendly
01:28trade.
01:29All in all, records indicate that 362 pioneers, give or take, died from tribal attacks from
01:361840 to 1860, largely along one certain stretch of the route, starting west of Wyoming. Again,
01:42these were the friendly tribes, too.
01:44The Bozeman Trail, on the other hand, crossed through land belonging to the Lakota Sioux.
01:48And we say belonging because the land didn't only consist of traditional hunting grounds.
01:53The U.S. government agreed to legally grant it to the Sioux as part of the 1851 Horse
01:57Creek Treaty. A bunch of tribes were involved in these proceedings, including the Cheyenne
02:01and Arapaho. Each group got a different parcel of land, as well as $50,000 in damages per
02:06year — a whopping $2 million modernly, for 50 years.
02:11Naturally, the treaty lasted about two minutes before settlers kept plowing through the territory
02:15regardless of who owned what. This type of treaty violation was well underway by the
02:19time John Bozeman and his friend John Jacobs forged out onto what we now call the Bozeman
02:24Trail. In response, the Sioux joined with the Arapaho and Northern Cheyenne and took
02:28up arms.
02:29By 1866, the U.S. Army had intervened. Things went about as well as you'd expect when they
02:34started building forts along the Bozeman Trail to protect settlers, set aside the fact that
02:39they were in violation of a treaty against Native American tribes. So, the settlers weren't
02:43supposed to be there, and the Army built forts where they weren't supposed to. Want to guess
02:48what that meant? Yep. It effectively transformed the Bozeman Trail into a military road.
02:53Amongst endless smaller skirmishes, three conflicts in particular soured the Army on
02:57protecting the Bozeman Trail. The Fetterman Fight, the Hayfield Fight, and the Wagon Box
03:02Fight. The U.S. Army got worked in the Fetterman Fight, and most of the tribes didn't even
03:05have guns. The Hayfield Fight wasn't any better for the U.S. because the Cheyenne and Sioux
03:09had guns for that one.
03:11The last battle, that Wagon Box Fight in 1867, stands out because it featured 19 soldiers
03:17and six civilians holding off against 500 Native warriors for about eight hours straight.
03:22You fight like Comanche.
03:25Calling them fights is really a kind rewording of the results. The U.S. Army really got it
03:30handed to them in what is commonly known today as Red Cloud's War. To make a long story short,
03:35the Bozeman Trail simply wasn't worth it. Soldiers who stayed at the fort started losing
03:39their minds from the constant tension and threat of attack, especially at Fort C.F.
03:44Ultimately, the U.S. signed yet another treaty, the Treaty of Fort Laramie, that saw the Army
03:48abandon their forts along the Bozeman Trail and once again vow to keep their hands off
03:52the various tribal hunting grounds. And that was it. The Bozeman Trail tribes and the U.S.
03:57government carried on peacefully after that. For about 12 years, when the U.S. just annexed
04:01the territory. And about 12 years after that, we got ourselves the state of Wyoming. But
04:06that will be for another video.
04:08As for John Bozeman, he gave things up early in 1864, settled near his own self-named pass.
04:13So yes, John Bozeman, who named the trail after himself, barely used the trail. As you
04:18probably realized, yes, Bozeman, Montana is named for him. He founded the city. He died
04:23three years later while traveling along the Yellowstone River. He was either killed by
04:27members of the Blackfeet tribe, which would be ironic, or by one of his business partners
04:31for flirting with their wife. Either way, Bozeman's name should be associated a lot
04:35more with violence than you ever imagined.