From the Preface to the book

The Treaty of Medicine Lodge by Douglas C. Jones

University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1966.

Diplomatic Settlement of Southern Plains Conflict

After a long hot summer of unsuccessful negotiations with Northern Plains Indians, representatives of the United states in the fall of 1867 concluded the Treaty of Medicine Lodge with leaders of the Southern Plains tribes.  The treaty represented the last effort of the United States to reach a diplomatic settlement of disputes with all the hostile tribes south of the Platte River.  Clearly outlined was the beginning of a system that would eventually confine the Indians to specific reservations, by force if necessary, and included for the first time in an Indian treaty were provisions for civilizing the tribes.

The site of the great treaty meeting was near present Medicine Lodge, Kansas, in Barber County, seventy miles west-southwest of Wichita.  The agreements reached there were a departure from all previous negotiations, for set forth in clear and definite language was the decision of the white man to absorb the Plains Indian culture.  The intention was not simply to remove the Indian from the area whites would eventually desire to settle, but to change him, to make him fit the pattern of white civilization, to put a plow in his hands and a wooden roof over his head.

A New Period in the Plains Conflict

The Treaty of Medicine Lodge did not stop frontier war.  It did mark the beginning of a new period in the Plains conflict.  The treaty is like a highway roadsign-pointing out what is ahead without really influencing the course of the road.   From Medicine Lodge onward, little doubt existed in anyone's mind concerning the purpose of the United States.  The war would no longer be intended to clear red hostiles from along the routes of travel or from areas populated by white men.  There would no longer be attempts to place the tribes in far corners and allow them to live as they pleased  Instead of being pushed aside, the Indian was now to be swallowed.   On the one hand a people would be fighting to dominate the Great Plains and everything on it.  On the other, a people would be struggling, not for land alone but for survival.