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fighting for the Powder River country. Now it was his turn to help the Cheyennes." But, Little Wolf, another elder, strongly disagreed. He believed that safety lay farther north, perhaps in land near the Powder or Yellowstone rivers. So, after traveling thousands of miles together in harsh conditions, Morning Star and Little Wolf's bands split and parted company. About half the Cheyenne fled into the Sandhills, where they spent the winter, while Morning Star's group turned northwest toward the Red Cloud Agency at Fort Robinson.
They did not know that while they were in Indian Territory, Red Cloud's Oglala Sioux had moved to the new Pine Ridge Agency in Dakota Territory northeast of Fort Robinson.
Return to Fort Robinson
On October 23, 1878, a snowstorm caught the exhausted fugitives by surprise as a cavalry company approached. With a blizzard building, Morning Star agreed that soldiers should accompany his group to Fort Robinson. In his book, Brown states that the night before the Northern Cheyenne left for Fort Robinson they dismantled "their best guns and pistols, leaving the broken ones to be turned in if the soldier[s] ... ordered them to give up their arms. All through the hours of darkness they took the guns apart, giving the barrels to women to conceal beneath their clothing, tying springs, locks, pins, cartridges and other small pieces to beads and moccasins as though they were ornaments."
When they arrived at Fort Robinson, the 149 Northern Cheyenne with Morning Star were housed in an unused cavalry barrack at the southeastern corner of the main parade grounds, adjacent to the adjutant's office. In the beginning of their time at Fort Robinson, life for the Northern Cheyenne was relatively uneventful - even peaceful. Under the supervision of Major Caleb Carlton, Morning Star's followers were given blankets, medicine and clothing. The Army assigned cooks to prepare food for them, and provided ponies and hunting rifles to men for hunting. The Cheyenne were free to come and go as they pleased, so long as they were in the barrack by nightfall for roll call.
During this time at Fort Robinson, Morning Star's only request was that the Northern Cheyenne be allowed to travel to Red Cloud's new Pine Ridge Indian Agency in Dakota Territory. While awaiting direction from Washington, Carlton was transferred and replaced by Captain Henry W. Wessells. As a newcomer to Fort Robinson, Wessells had neither the relationships nor the understanding of the situation that Carlton did. The Cheyenne chafed under his surprise inspections and abrasive manner.
Red Cloud promised that the Northern Cheyenne would be welcomed at the Pine Ridge Agency should the government permit the transfer. Nevertheless, word came on January 3, 1879, that Morning Star and his people would be returned to Indian Territory immediately - by force, if necessary. The Bureau of Indian Affairs feared that special consideration for the Northern Cheyenne would endanger the entire reservation system.
To further complicate matters, the governor of Kansas also insisted that those warriors involved in the raids on white civilians in the south be returned for trial. Morning Star said the men responsible for the raids were hiding with Little Wolf in the Sandhills. However, U.S. officials identified some items from the raids in possession of Indians in the Fort Robinson group and insisted they be tried. The Northern Cheyenne believed the accused warriors would not survive a white man's trial. Fear of returning to Indian Territory quickly turned to panic for the safety of the band's young men.
Escape under a Full Moon
Because the Indians refused to return, Wessells tried to force them to submit by restricting access to food, water and heating fuel. Conditions in the freezing, locked barrack quickly became unbearable.
Only two options remained in the minds of the Cheyenne prisoners - accept the misery of Indian Territory and death sentences for many of their young men in Kansas, or escape Fort Robinson and run toward the promise of safety offered by Red Cloud at the Pine Ridge Agency. While elders considered these ideas, younger men and Dog Soldier warriors, under the command of Wild Hog, acted. They quietly began reassembling the rifles they had hidden when captured weeks before. Without telling many of the other prisoners, they planned a breakout.
Under a full moon at 9:45 p.m. on January 9, 1879, the group's best marksmen fired shots and jumped through windows on the west side of the locked barrack. The Cheyenne shot two guards and seized their weapons. As another guard ran to the nearest cavalry barracks for help, young men pushed infirm adults, women, and children through windows on the east and south sides of the building. Urging them to run
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