His wards included the Plains Apaches (sometimes called the Kiowa Apaches), the Arapaho, and the Southern Cheyennes, who named him the вЂњTall ChiefвЂќ because of his height. Indian Agent of the Upper Arkansas agency, which eventually headquartered at Fort Larned, Kansas. For the rest of the decade his name would be linked with the Southern Cheyennes, first as a special agent on detached duty from the military and then as a U.S. He no longer viewed Native Americans as less than human. Wynkoop, in broad-brimmed hat, and Black Kettle, directly behind him, during talks in hopes of diverting war.

Although all his efforts to bring peace to the land would end in disaster two-and-a-half months later when a joint Cheyenne-Arapaho village was attacked and destroyed at Sand Creek, his metamorphosis was complete. The next day would be the first day of WynkoopвЂ™s new life. Instead, Cheyenne chieftain Black Kettle appeared and prevented violence. It looked as if he had made the blunder of a lifetime. On September 11, he and his detachment of 127 men were confronted by a battle line of six hundred painted warriors at the Bend of Timbers. When native messengers brought an offer to talk peace, Wynkoop decided to risk death and meet the warring chieftains. Although his orders were to kill all Indians on sight, he was holed up at Fort Lyon in southeast Colorado Territory. That fall, the Southern Cheyennes and their allies terrorized Colorado Territory. The third event did not happen until 1864. She gave him stability, while the responsibility of military leadership gave him maturity. The first two happened in quick succession: In July 1861, after the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted as an officer in the First Colorado Volunteers a month later he married Louise Wakely. Like many people who went a-westering at that time, Wynkoop harbored the typical prejudices of the frontier-mainly that Native Americans were little more than wild beasts fit only to kill.В His opinion would change in the not-too-distant future. One newspaper labeled him вЂњa bad man from Kansas, who wore buckskin breeches and carried a Bowie-knife and revolver in his belt.вЂќ On the wild side and good with guns, it did not take long before he gained notoriety in the booming town of Denver. Not a successful miner, Wynkoop made most of his money during these early years tending bar. When gold was discovered at the base of the Rocky Mountains two years later, he joined one of the first mining outfits to set out for what is now the state of Colorado.

Wynkoop-Ned to his friends-migrated to Kansas to find his fortune.

In 1856 a young Philadelphian named Edward W.

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