ABSTRACT
John Bourke's vantage point for the event of the climax of the Indian wars on the Northern Plains was as aide-de-camp to General George Crook. Crook was the most commonsensical of the western generals detailed after the Civil War to fighting the Indian tribes in this last region of their stubborn recalcitrance. In 1868 the US government, with great ceremony, summoned the tribes of the Northwest, principally the Sioux, to a gathering to make a final settlement. A Peace Commission, authorized the year before by Congress and President Andrew Johnson, met Sioux and Arapahoe at Fort Laramie. In 1876 Bourke's general was to be the first of the commanders in the field to move against the Sioux and Cheyennes. The lodges and their poles were added to the fires, and exploding poles came down dangerously among the soldiers. The gunfire from the bluff continued and became more dangerous. The Indians threatened to cut off those who had gained the village.
