(Legend under map) Beyond the tree line about 2 3/4 miles in front of this marker, Horse Creek flows into the North Platte River. There the treaty was signed September 17, 1851. Officially known as The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, it is commonly called The Horse Creek Treaty.
]]>From all directions they came in late summer 1851--Plains Indian tribes, summoned by government officials so their chiefs could smoke the peace pipe and sign a treaty with representatives of "The Great Father." Never before had so many American Indians assembled to parley with the white man. (Estimates range from 8,000 to 12,000.) It was perhaps history's most dramatic demonstration of the Plains tribes' desire to live at peace with the whites.
The tribes had been invited to assemble at Fort Laramie, but a shortage of forage for their thousands of horses caused the parley to be moved downstream. Because some tribes had been at war for generations, most Indian camps were widely spaced to minimize contact. About 270 soldiers were present to help keep the peace. However, a spirit of friendliness prevailed.
Among those helping bring the tribes together were mountain man and trailblazer Jim Bridger and Jesuit Father Peter De Smet, the beloved "Blackrobe" who worked 50 years among the Indians.
]]>Mitchell Pass and the city of Mitchell, Nebraska, derive their names from a military post built near here during the Indian Wars. No trace of the sod structure remains at the site on the North Platte River bend northwest of Scott’s Bluff. It was named in honor of General Robert B. Mitchell, who ordered the establishment of several sub-stations along the Great Platte River Road between Julesburg and South Pass. Fort Mitchell was constructed and manned in autumn 1864 by Company “H” of the Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry under Captain J. S. Shuman. In February 1865 they helped defend Mud Springs Station against an attack by Cheyenne. In June the post provided relief for Fort Laramie troops ambushed by Sioux near Horse Creek, and that summer chased Indians who tore down telegraph lines and attacked wagon trains and stagecoaches. Army records are meager, but there are eyewitness descriptions of the fort by Eugene Ware, John Bratt, and Margaret Carrington. An official ground plan and a sketch of 1866 by William H. Jackson reveal a stockade with sally-port, firing loop-holes, and a sentinel tower. A nearby “road ranch” served as the Scott’s Bluff stage station. Fort Mitchell was abandoned after the Fort Laramie peace conference of 1867.
]]>Rebecca Winters, daughter of Gideon Burdick, a drummer boy in Washington's army, was born in New York State in 1802. She was a pioneer in the Church of the Latter Day Saints, being baptized with her husband Hiram in June 1833. Membership in the Church brought persecution in Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa. In June 1852 the family joined others of their faith in the great journey to Utah. It was a pleasant trip across Iowa through June, but in the Platte Valley the dread cholera struck. Rebecca saw many of her friends taken by the illness, and on August 15 she was another of its victims. She was buried on the prairie near here with a simple ceremony. A close friend of the family, William Reynolds, chiseled the words, "Rebecca Winters, Age 50" on an iron wagon tire to mark the grave. The family continued on with the wagon train and settled in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Burlington Railroad surveyors found the crude marker and changed the right-of-way to save and protect the grave. In 1902 a monument was erected by Rebecca's descendants. Rebecca Winters is a symbol of the pioneer mother who endured great hardships in the westward movement.
]]>