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Fort Atkinson:
Foreign Visitors
In 1823, the soldiers at Fort Atkinson were fearful of a perceived threat from the Mexican army. An army had been raised to fight the Navajo west of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and there was fear that the army would move northeast to do battle with the Pawnee. The Pawnee had supposedly stolen horses from Mexicans who lived near Santa Fe. Instead of an army, the Mexican government sent a delegation of 26 civilians to Fort Atkinson to attempt a settlement with the Pawnee. They met with representatives of the tribe, Agent Benjamin O'Fallon of the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, and the U.S. Army. However, the U.S. government feared the Mexicans might force the Pawnee to sign a formal treaty with Mexico and then later use the agreement as a basis for land ownership by the Mexicans. Consequently, discussions were doomed from the beginning. The U.S. President issued strict orders to exclude the Mexicans from active participation. The American delegates also lacked "official authority" to sign a formal treaty. Lacking this authorization, the American delegates could only try to convince the Pawnee, through a series of veiled threats and as many gifts as the Indian office could afford, that peace with Mexico was beneficial. No official records were kept of the meeting, but some kind of agreement must have been reached, however temporary. The meeting had no long-lasting effect because the following summer a Pawnee raiding party corralled a group of Mexican buffalo hunters west of Santa Fe and stripped them of nearly everything they had. The Pawnee did, in a courteous gesture, allow one of the hunters to keep his gun. They recognized him as being one of the hunters present at the earlier meeting at Fort Atkinson.
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