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[[File:medicine lodge peace council.jpg|thumbnail|300px|left|Depiction of the Medicine Lodge Peace Council, Medicine Lodge, Kansas, 1867.]]

The Kiowa-Comanche treaty was signed on October 21, 1867 and the Cheyenne-Arapaho chiefs signed their treaty one week later. The treaties mandated that the native tribes were to reside on reservation land within Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) and were to receive provisions, including food stuffs and ammunition, at the expense of the federal government. Further, excepting government agents, whites were forbidden from trespassing on reservation land and that the territory designated was for the “absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians herein named.” Further, a clause was incorporated allowing the Native tribes “the right to hunt on any lands south of the Arkansas River so long as the buffalo may range thereon.”<ref>Charles J. Kappler, compiler and editor, ''Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties — Vol. II: Treaties'', (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1904), 977-989.</ref>

The tribal chiefs were resigned to the terms of the treaty; however, became angry when they were not given their allotment of weapons and supplies. Viewing the slight as an act of betrayal, young warrior bands from the Cheyenne tribe lit out on raiding expeditions to obtain what was necessary for their families. The federal government became enraged with the actions of the individual warrior bands and bolstered its complement of troops in the region. As the reinforcements arrived, General Sherman stated, "I will say nothing and do nothing to restrain our troops,’” as Sherman viewed native Americans as “‘the enemies of our [white] race and civilization."<ref>Quoted in Robert M. Utley, ''Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indians, 1866-1891'' (New York: Macmillan, 1973),150-52.</ref>Sherman’s barrage of attacks on the South Plains Indians were stifled the following year when his former commanding general became his Commander-in-Chief.