Читать книгу Lost Worlds of 1863. Relocation and Removal of American Indians in the Central Rockies and the Greater Southwest онлайн

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Having served in the military for the Union cause during the Civil War, Pratt, when the war was over, retired from the army to manage a hardware store in Logansport, Indiana. Pratt, finding himself temperamentally ill-suited for the hardware business, joined the regular army in 1867 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Tenth Cavalry, an all-“Negro” unit that had Cherokee scouts attached to it.¹¹ For eight years, from 1867 to 1875, Pratt spent much of his time in what would become Fort Sill in the heart of Comanche and Kiowa country fighting plains Indians. When the Red River War of 1874 was concluded, he was ordered to escort 73 prisoners of war—Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche, and Arapahoe—to Fort Leavenworth. On May 11, 1875 he was further ordered to transport the prisoners to the old Spanish fortress of Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida.¹²

It was at Fort Marion that Pratt became more of a teacher than a jailer. He decided that he would rehabilitate his prisoners and received permission to teach his captives vocational skills that would hopefully lead them to become useful citizens. He cleaned them up and gave them military uniforms to wear. The Indians were instructed on pressing their trousers and shining their boots. He instituted daily inspections in which every Indian would stand at attention at their freshly made beds. They received haircuts. For exercise they would drill in army maneuvers and participate in parade marches.¹³