Fort Robinson
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Fort Robinson and Red Cloud Agency
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Post headquarters at Fort Robinson
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| Location | Dawes and Sioux counties, Nebraska, U.S. |
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| Nearest city | Crawford, Nebraska |
| Coordinates | 42°40′08″N 103°28′02″W / 42.66889°N 103.46722°WCoordinates: 42°40′08″N 103°28′02″W / 42.66889°N 103.46722°W |
| Area | 22,000 acres (89.0 km2) |
| Built | 1873 |
| NRHP Reference # | 66000442 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
| Designated NHLD | December 19, 1960 |
Fort Robinson is a former U.S. Army fort and a present-day state park. Located in the Pine Ridge region of northwest Nebraska, it is 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Crawford on U.S. Route 20.
In August 1873, the Red Cloud Agency was moved from the North Platte River to the White River, near what is now Crawford, Nebraska, in the northwest corner of the state. The following March, the U. S. Government authorized the establishment of a military camp at the agency site. Some 13,000 Lakota had been resettled at the Agency, some of them hostile. There were continuing tensions between whites and Lakota on the Great Plains, who had been forced off much of their territory.
The camp was named Camp Robinson in honor of Lt. Levi H. Robinson, who had been killed by Indians while on a wood detail in February. In May, the military camp was moved 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of the agency to its present location; the camp was renamed Fort Robinson in January 1878.
Fort Robinson played a major role in the Sioux Wars from 1876 to 1890. The Battle of Warbonnet Creek took place nearby in July 1876. Crazy Horse surrendered here with his band on May 6, 1877. On September 5 that year, he was fatally wounded while resisting imprisonment. A historic plaque marks the site of his death.
In January 1879, Chief Morning Star (also known as Dull Knife) led the Northern Cheyenne in an outbreak from the Agency. Because the Cheyenne had refused to return to Indian Territory, where they believed conditions were too adverse for them to survive, the army had been holding them without adequate food, water or heat during the severe winter to try to force them into submission. Soldiers hunted down the escapees, killing men, women, and children in the Fort Robinson massacre. The U.S. Supreme Court called the “shocking story” “one of the most melancholy of Indian tragedies”. The event marked the end of the Sioux and Cheyenne Wars in Nebraska.
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