When considering the sad history of Native Americans’ interactions with white newcomers to North America, “peace” isn’t a word that springs to mind. The record is fraught with violence, from the 17th-century King Philip’s War, which nearly wiped out the Native Americans of New England, to the Trail of Tears, Little Big Horn and other tragedies in subsequent years.
Violent conflicts with Plains Indians increased sharply around the middle of the 19th century, as white settlers traveled deep into Indian Country, threatening the territories and natural resources of Native Americans. In response, Congress in 1867 organized a federal Peace Commission. Its mandate was to “remove the causes of war,” secure the frontier settlements and the emerging railroad lines, and devise a plan for “civilizing” the Native Americans—which is to say, push them onto reservations in the expectation that they would eventually be assimilated into mainstream American society. The Peace Commission met with tribal leaders at Fort Laramie, a remote military outpost in what was then the Dakota Territory and is now Wyoming.