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== The Medicine Lodge Treaty ==

Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas was the site of a meeting between the Department of Indian Affairs and several thousand Native Americans. The week of meetings that took place from October 21-28, 1867 was an attempt at appeasement on the part of the government. Treaties made that week between the Kiowa-Comanche association and the Cheyenne-Arapaho alliance were designed to afford some land to the Indians while assuring the safety of white hunters and migrants.

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>