Wayside: Fort Lyon Reservation

An interpretive sign describing the Fort Lyon reservation of 1861

NPS Photo - Teri Jobe

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

The Fort Lyon Reservation

Created in 1861 by the Treaty of Fort Wise, the Upper Arkansas Agency Reservation, known later as the Fort Lyon Reservation, was established for those Cheyenne and Arapaho living below the South Platte River. Sand Creek
formed its northern boundary. The reservation was never fully developed. The Agency headquarters at Point of Rocks was never completed, forcing the Indian Agent to work at Fort Lyon. For months there was confusion over who was in charge; Albert Boone, who oversaw the treaty and set up the agency, or Samuel Colley, a presidential appointee that no one in Colorado knew about until he showed up. Even after Colley took control of the agency, conditions on the reservation continued to decline.
 

Worsening Conditions

The Treaty of Fort Wise promised government assistance with teaching the Cheyenne and Arapaho how to farm; however, instructors were never sent. Those Cheyenne and Arapaho that did move to the reservation were dependent on government annuities to survive, which were delivered once yearly. Buffalo rarely ventured close, leaving tribal members with little to eat. Diseases like cholera, pneumonia, and influenza infected reservation villages. Most Cheyenne and Arapaho who resettled on the reservation eventually abandoned it, joining those bands that refused to have anything to do with the reservation.