Question

List three examples of how the Indian campaigns personally affected the lives of Bent and his family members.

Answer 1

1. Bent became a mediator and representative of the Native Americans with the US government after trade, his primal occupation, diminished after 1850. He was an Indian agent for the Upper Arkansas Indian Agency in 1859-60.

2. The Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, in which more than 150 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians were slaughtered by US troops, affected Bent deeply. He had a good relationship with the Cheyenne tribe, he had three wives of that tribe and all of his kids were half-Cheyenne. Four of his children, Robert, George, Charley, and Julia were in the Cheyenne camp at the time of the massacre, but luckily they all managed to survive.

3. As a result of the massacre, his sons Charley and George joined the Dog Soldiers and led war parties of Cheyenne against settlers in Colorado.