The Lone Tree Incident

The Lone Tree Incident. . During the first half of the 19th century the U.S. government, in response to public pressure for land and resources, began a program of concentrating Indian tribes on reservations. After the Civil War, an ever growing number of settlers made it difficult for Native Americans to survive on the Plains. There was resistance from many Plains Indians, eventually resulting in open warfare. , Several times during the summer of 1874, warriors left the confines of their reservations in present-day Oklahoma and moved north into western Kansas. Some 27 settlers were killed and many farms were destroyed. , On August 24, 1874, a band of 25 Cheyennes led by Chief Medicine Water ambushed six men of a surveying company 11 miles southwest of this marker. The men fled, trading shots with the Indians. After three miles the oxen pulling the surveyors' wagon were shot and all six men were killed. Two days later their bodies were found and buried near a solitary cottonwood five miles south of here. The lone tree gave its name to this incident and was for many years a famous prairie landmark.