Fort Sill's Old Post Guard House was established in 1872 with completed erection in the summer of 1873. The limestone structure initially served as Cavalry barracks subsequently provisioned for a military stockade. The American frontier lodging quarters, refined by native sedimentary rock, is illustrative of the late 19th century confinement and relief formalities for recalcitrant tribal leaders and Indian prisoners of war pending the common soldiery of the Army on the Frontier and Federal Indian Policy. The domestic stone framework serves with historical significance considering the calendar span of the American Indian assimilation commencing in the late nineteenth century.
The Fort Sill Museum ― United States Army Field Artillery Center Museum ― was formally established in the Fort Sill's Old Post Guard House on December 11, 1934.
Henry Warren Wagon Train of 1871 Kiowa tribal chiefs Satank, Satanta, and Big Tree were incarcerated at the Fort Sill's Old Post Guard House for pernicious offenses in Young County, Texas known as the Warren Wagon Train raid.
Fort Sill and American Indian prisoners of war
By Acts of Congress and Department of War appropriations in 1894, the Fort Sill military reservation was pledged as a resettlement dominion for the American Indian prisoners of war confined at Fort Pickens and Mount Vernon Barracks within South Alabama.
Date of EnactmentPublic LawU.S. StatutePage No.U.S. PresidentAugust 6, 1894P.L. 53-228238Grover ClevelandFebruary 12, 1895P.L. 53-83658Grover ClevelandJune 28, 1902P.L. 57-182467-468Theodore RooseveltFebruary 18, 1904P.L. 58-2226Theodore RooseveltAugust 24, 1912P.L. 62-335534William H. Taft
Footnotes
See also Blockhouse on Signal Mountain Cultural assimilation of Native Americans Ketch Ranch House Medicine Park, Oklahoma Museum of the Great Plains Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge
Bibliography
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External links