Across the Fence: Prelude to Battle

Not many miles east of the Nebraska-Wyoming border, where the North Platte River crosses that boundary, a tiny Wyoming-born tributary takes a sharp turn north in the final leg of its eastward journey. The water that flows through this draw, named Horse Creek, empties into the Platte and joins with the waters of that wide and shallow river until it reaches the waters of the Missouri.

It was in this area on September 17, 1851 that the Fort Laramie Treaty was signed. The gathering of more than 12,000 Native Americans from the plains tribes of Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, Assiniboine, Mandan, G...