Fort Niobrara
| Fort Niobrara | |
|---|---|
| Near Valentine, Nebraska | |
| Coordinates | 42°53′35″N 100°28′38″W / 42.89306°N 100.47722°W |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1880 |
| In use | 1906 |
Fort Niobrara (1880–1906) was a military post located in north central Nebraska.
Constructed along the Niobrara River after the Great Sioux War of 1876, it was part of a military strategy to surround and thus contain the bands of Lakota people on their reservation lands located in the Dakota Territory. Fort Niobrara was intended to oversee Chief Spotted Tail's band of about 4,000 Upper Brulé Lakota at the Rosebud Agency, about 40 miles north of the fort. The arrival of the FE&MV Railroad in 1882-1883 transformed the role of the fort. The railroad made the fort an important distribution point for supplies being provided to the Lakota agencies. The railroad also transformed the post into one of a number of Army garrisons throughout the United States in the 1880s and 1890s interlinked by railroad. The presence of the Fort was a positive factor assisting economic development of the surrounding area of north central Nebraska from 1880 to 1906, including Valentine, Nebraska which was built in 1882, just a few miles west of the post. In the 1880s the Fort was garrisoned by units of the 9th Infantry, 5th Cavalry, and the 9th Cavalry. Although the garrison had both black and white segregated military units no serious incidents occurred, racial or otherwise. During the 1880s the soldiers escorted supply trains to the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota agencies in the Dakotas, assisted in maintaining law and order, attempted to prevent cattle rustling from Indian herds on the reservation, and attempted to keep white ranchers from unlawfully grazing herds on Indian lands. In November and December, 1890 the garrison responded to the Ghost Dance crises on the Sioux reservation, by securing the Rosebud agency. After 1890, in response to the Ghost Dance crises and the related Wounded Knee Massacre the fort was enlarged. During the 1890s the post was at its zenith. It was the headquarters for the 8th Infantry, 12th Infantry and 6th Cavalry with a garrison of about 500 soldiers. Detachments were dispatched from the fort by railroad to provide assistance during times of civil strife, including the Wyoming Johnson County War in 1892, and the national Pullman Strike in 1894. Starting in the 1880s and continuing into the 1890s and up to 1906 soldiers garrisoned at the fort engaged in field exercises in and around the post, including long marches, target practice, and field training to develop and maintain skills in field tactics. This field training ranged beyond the military reservation, and also involved units from other forts who came to Ft. Niobrara by rail. When the Spanish–American War broke out in 1898, the post was immediately stripped down to a skeletal garrison of less than 100 men. To the citizens of Valentine and Cherry County Nebraska, the absence of soldiers at the fort meant a drop in prosperity, and they lobbied for the fort to be re-garrisoned. In 1902 the black segregated 25th Infantry was stationed at the fort until July 1906 when the post was finally abandoned. The 25th had good relations with the Nebraskan community around the fort during 1902 to 1906, but in sharp contrast, they encountered immediate and extreme racial prejudice upon relocation to Texas. The post was used as a remount station from 1906 until 1911. All but about 7 the adobe and frame buildings at the fort were razed leaving a level plain. In 1912 about 16,000 acres were set aside to become the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge where today sizable herds of buffalo, elk and Texas longhorn cattle are kept. In 1913, about 35,000 acres of the military reservation were opened to settlement. Famous military figures stationed at the fort include John J. Pershing, Frederick W. Benteen, and James S. Brisbin. The site of the fort just east of Valentine Nebraska may be visited today, but little evidence remains of its historic past.
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