Pacific Coast. There was little thought of permanent homes and their existence in Wyoming was only temporary. Cheyenne had but one house on July 5, 1867; all living places were confined to tents and shanties. It was the terminus of the Union Pacific Railway for the winter and a large floating population moved west with the railroad. In 1868 Laramie had its first building. From here this mixed population, consisting of a very undesirable class of people, moved further west with the progressing railroad and finally out of the State. The Indian question was a constant hindrance and drawback to the settlement of the territory. The "redman" waged continual war against the settlers and yielded to advanced civilization very stubbornly. Fort Phil Kearney was established on July 15, 1866, in Johnson county, just south of the boundary of Sheridan county. The Indians did not want an encroachment in that part of the country and in December of that year killed eighty-one people connected with this locality. The fort was abandoned in 1868. Wyoming was a center for hunting buffalo and animals valuable for their furs. A treaty made at Fort Bridger with the Government in 1868 contained terms by which the Shoshone and Bannock Indians were given a tract of land called the Wind River Reservation situated in Fremont county covering an area of 1,520,000 acres and occupying one of the most fertile spots in the State. The Bannocks did not stay long on the territory and in 1872 the Arapahoes were transferred from the Red Cloud Sioux Reservation to the Reservation in this State and the two tribes though originally not friendly have lived on this same tract since that time. This tract was for a long time the great annual hunting ground for the Sioux, Cheyennes, Arapahoes and the Crows. This land was closed against the actual settler. The Indians, while keeping the prospectors and settlers from their special locality came down to the southern part of the State steal ing cattle and killing the white men. Governor Thayer as late as 1875 in his message to the Fourth Territorial Assembly urged that the Indians be compelled to stay on their reservation and that the tribal relations be dissolved. The treaty signed at Fort Bridger in 1868 was contracted by a Commissioner on the part of the United States on the one hand and Washakie and other chiefs for the Eastern band of the Shoshone Indians and Tag-gee for the Bannock tribe on the other. The treaty contained a pledge of peace, an agreement by the Government to keep white man from the reservation and if he destroyed the peace he was to be punished; if the Indians committed the depredation the chiefs pledged to have them arrested and tried before the law. The Government agreed to erect a series of buildings on the reservation and to give the Indians a physician, carpenter, miller, engineer, farmer, blacksmith and teacher. The Government appointed an agent who lived on the reservation and directed and supervised the affairs and heard all cases brought against the Indians for depredations. The Indians agreed to make the reservation their permanent homes but reserved the right to hunt on unoccupied lands of the United States. Each head of a family was granted the privilege of selecting land not to exceed 320 acres to be held in his name for the exclusive possession of his family as long as he continued to cultivate the tract. The Government required the Indians to compel their children between the ages of six and sixteen years to attend school and for every thirty children a Government teacher was provided. They were to be clothed by the Government and seed and agricultural implements were provided and in addition to this money was granted to each one of the tribe for a period of thirty years. Every roaming Indian was to receive $10.00; $20.00 were granted to the agricultural Indian. The Government did not give them the money knowing their ignorance of its value, and the impositions practiced on them through this ignorance. In lieu of the money this amount was spent by the Secretary of the Interior for articles for the Indians as necessity demanded. The Shoshones claimed to have occupied their present territory of the Wind River Reservation on the land in the region between the Snake and Big Horn rivers since 1781, when they finally conquered the Crow Indians. This was a decade before we made any claim to the land within the State. Our earliest title dates with the discovery of the mouth of the Columbia river in 1792 by Gray. The Shoshone chiefs ruling Wyoming were contemporaneous with Washington of the United States, Charles III of Spain, Louis XVI of France and George III of England. These Shoshone Indians were governed by the same chief, Washakie, for over seventy years. He was the chief before the Treaty of 1868 and remained continuously in the position to his death on February 22, 1900. He was considered the most intelligent Indian chief in North America. The long continued peace which this tribe maintained can be attributed to Washakie's skill, firmness and integrity. He never broke a treaty and General Crook spoke in highest terms of his work in the expedition against the Sioux when he lost a favorite son in the contest. He was the last chief of his tribe. The Arapahoes also have no chief for the reason that the Government now requires each tribe to elect a council of six to represent them in all matters. The Indian is amenable to the white man's laws for acts committed when off the reservation. For certain misdemeanors and crimes against themselves they are tried before a court composed of their own people. The United States courts have jurisdiction of all felonies committed by them against the laws of the United States and their cases are tried in the United States District Court, where they are sentenced and punished in accordance with the United States laws. The reservation is not a legal part of this State. Formerly the Indians used to trade land with whomsoever they pleased. Since 1789 no one except the United States has a legal right to deal with them. Their lands do not belong to the Indian individual but to the entire tribe. The tribe and the Federal Government make the land transfers. These acts were commonly called treaties, now they are known as contracts. President Johnson instituted this reservation idea as a protection of the Indians. Previous to 1830 there was a north and south line drawn, east of which the Indian could not locate, west of which the white man could not settle, until gradually the Indians were pushed further and further west. This forced some action on the part of the government which was to allot to them certain definite localities. The Sioux surrendered to General Crook in 1877 and 1878 which stopped the depredations and brought peace to Wyoming. Property and life being more secure, wealth and population increased and there was a commencement of prosperity. The first Governor of Wyoming was John A. Campbell who was appointed by President Grant. He also filled the office of Superintendent of Indian Affairs. As Governor he organized the Territory, which was put in operation May 10, 1869, and called the first election for Delegate to Congress and for members of the Territorial Legislature. This election was held September 2, 1869, and the Legislature met in Cheyenne, October 12, of that year. He held the office as Governor until January, 1875, having been appointed for a second term. At the first Legislative Assembly on December 10, 1869, Woman Suffrage was inaugurated and the women of Wyoming were granted this right by the following section: Section 1.-Every woman of the age of twenty-one years residing in this territory, may, at any election to * Hon. Stephen F. Nuckolls. be holden under the laws thereof, cast her vote. And The section in the State Constitution on this subject reads: (Section 1, Article VI.) The rights of citizens of the State of Wyoming to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex. Both male and female citizens of this State shall enjoy equally all civil, political and religious rights and privileges. Mrs. Esther Morris was the pioneer worker for Woman Suffrage in this State. She herself held the position of Justice of the Peace. Women in the State at the present time hold that office. During the first years of Territorial government women served on the jury. Five women served on the Grand Jury in Laramie in March, 1870, and seven on the Petit Jury. This is the first common law jury where woman ever acted in the capacity as juror. This was under the administration of Chief Judge Howe and this Grand Jury had brought before it bills for consideration of murder cases, cattle stealing and illegal branding. Women served for three consecutive terms of court under Judge Howe when it was decided under the law that women had no right to serve as jurors. Most of the County Superintendents of Public Schools in the State are women. One woman has been State Superintendent of Public Instruction since Statehood and a number of women have served as trustees of the State University. No attempt after the second territorial legislature has ever been made to repeal the law granting woman this right of franchise. When the subject came up for discussion at the time of the adoption of the State Constitution, the Constitu * Miss Estelle Reel, now Superintendent of Indian School Service. |