The United States sponsors a ‘Big Talk’…

The United States sponsors a ‘Big Talk’ in 1851 at Fort Laramie.

To reduce intertribal warfare on the Plains, the government officials "assign" territories to each tribe and have them pledge mutual peace.

Representatives of the most powerful plains nations—the Crows, Lakotas, Cheyennes and Arapaho, as well as the Assiniboins, Gros Ventres, Arikaras and Shoshones—define their respective territories and agree to stay clear of the Oregon Trail, which begins at Independence, Missouri and follows the North Platte-Sweetwater complex through Nebraska and into Wyoming, both unorganized territories.

The Fort Laramie treaty is meant to ensure peace forever between all nine partakers.

In addition, the government secured permission to build and maintain roads for European-American travelers and traders through Indian country on the Plains, such as the Emigrant Trail and the Santa Fe Trail, and to maintain forts to guard them.

The tribes are compensated with annuities of cash and supplies for such encroachment on their territories.

A weak point in the treaty is the absence of rules to uphold the tribal borders.