This Day…

1903-Great Britain and the United States sign an agreement establishing a joint commission to decide boundaries between Canada and the Alaska Panhandle.

1785-The Ottawa and Wyandot Indians cede their land in the present-day state of Ohio to the new government in the Treaty of Fort McIntosh.

1887-The Hawaiian Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, which had been renewed in 1884, is finally ratified by the Senate when it is amended to give the United States the exclusive right to build a navel base at Pearl Harbor.

1860-Arizona mining at Tubac, and in the Santa Rita, Cuerro Colorado, and Santa Cruz Mountains is halted when US Army troops pull out of the area to prepare for the Civil War. The Apache in the area take back control. Gold is in the Orofina Creek in Nez Pearce country. The miners, largely from the West, arrive from gold fields in British Columbia, prospects in Idaho, then move farther east to Montana.

1836-William A. Slacum, official agent of President Jackson, helps settlers in Oregon to organize the Willamette Cattle Company, which raises money and sends Ewing Young to California to buy several hundred head of cattle. The object is to give the American missions economic independence from the Hudson’s Bay Company.

1892 – The Pecos Forest Reserve in New Mexico is created by Presidential order.

1832-A Rocky Mountain trapping and hunting expedition is led by Captain Bonneville. The expedition discovers oil east of the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming and becomes the subject of Washington Irving’s The Adventure of Captain Bonneville.

Outraged Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux warriors launched a series of attacks all along the valley of the South Platte River in Colorado. The Indians strike at wagon trains, stage stations, and military outposts. The town of Julesburg, in northeast Colorado, is burned, and its white residents scalped in retaliation for the massacre at Sand Creek. Denver is threatened. Communications and supplies throughout the area are halted.

France and Spain declare war in Europe, with the immediate result that hostilities break out all along the border between French and Spanish spheres of interest in the New World.

1890-Sitting Bull has been arrested and killed by army troops at his lodge just south of the border between North and South Dakota. Alarmed federal officals had ordered the arrest of the Sioux cheif for encouraging what they call the ‘Ghost Dance Craze.’ Many Indians across the West, particular the Sioux, have been obsessed with this religious dance, which they believe will rid them of the white man, bring back the buffalo, and restore their old way of life. In response to the killing of Sitting Bull, and fearing for their own lives, hundreds of Sioux flee their reservations and Indian agencies in South Dakota.