Edmund Gasseau Choteau Le Guerrier (16 January 1840 – 1 January 1921), of American and

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...

parentage, was a survivor of the Sand Creek massacre in 1864. He was an interpreter for the U.S. government during the

Indian Wars The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settle ...

between the Cheyenne and the United States, and later became a successful rancher.

Early life

Guerrier was born January 16, 1840, in a Cheyenne camp on the

Smoky Hill River The Smoky Hill River is a river in the central Great Plains of North America, running through Colorado and Kansas.Smoky Hill River. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 22, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.br ...

in what is now the state of

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

. His father William Guerrier, an American of French descent born in 1812 in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, was then employed by the fur trader

William Bent William Wells Bent (May 23, 1809 – May 19, 1869) was a frontier trader and rancher in the American West, with forts in Colorado. He also acted as a mediator among the Cheyenne Nation, other Native American tribes and the expanding United St ...

Bent's Fort Bent's Old Fort is an 1833 fort located in Otero County in southeastern Colorado, United States. A company owned by Charles Bent and William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain built the fort to trade with Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Plains Indians and ...

; his mother was Tah-tah-tois-neh (Walks In Sight), a Cheyenne of

Little Rock ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

's Wutapai band. In 1848, his father left William Bent's employ and, in partnership with Seth Edmund Ward, became a licensed trader in the region of the Upper Platte and

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

rivers, eventually operating a trading post along the Platte with his partners.Hardorff 2006, p. 50. Guerrier's mother and an infant sibling died in an 1849

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

epidemic. In 1851 Guerrier was entered in a Catholic mission school near present-day St. Marys, Kansas, and later enrolled in St. Louis University. After his father's death in 1857, Guerrier withdrew from the university and eventually returned to live with his mother's people, who knew him as Red Tail Hawk. He narrowly escaped death in the Sand Creek massacre in 1864.

Indian Wars

Guerrier married

George Bent George Bent, also named ''Ho—my-ike'' in Cheyenne (1843 – May 19, 1918), was a Cheyenne-Anglo (in Cheyenne: ''Tsėhésevé'ho'e'' - ″Cheyenne-whiteman″) who became a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War and waged war against A ...

's sister Julia in about 1865. He worked as an interpreter for the Interior Department and was present in that capacity at the negotiations for the Treaty of the Little Arkansas of 1865. After a stint as a trader for licensed arms dealer David A. Butterfield, he was hired as an interpreter by the War Department, assigned to the Seventh U.S. Cavalry and played a crucial role during the spring 1867 Hancock expedition under Maj. Gen.

Winfield S. Hancock Winfield Scott Hancock (February 14, 1824 – February 9, 1886) was a United States Army officer and the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1880. He served with distinction in the Army for four decades, including service ...

.Hardorff 2006, p. 51. In August 1868 he was living with Little Rock's band on Buckner's Fork of the Pawnee River when he learned of the violent raids by a large war party on white settlements along the

Saline Saline may refer to: * Saline (medicine), a liquid with salt content to match the human body * Saline water, non-medicinal salt water * Saline, a historical term (especially US) for a salt works or saltern Places * Saline, Calvados, a commune in ...

and

Solomon Solomon (; , ),, ; ar, سُلَيْمَان, ', , ; el, Σολομών, ; la, Salomon also called Jedidiah (Hebrew language, Hebrew: , Modern Hebrew, Modern: , Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yăḏīḏăyāh'', "beloved of Yahweh, Yah"), ...

rivers in

; he later gave an affidavit to the U.S. military identifying the men responsible for the raids.Guerrier, Edmund. (1869-02-09). Affidavit. I
U.S. House of Representatives 1870
, pp. 167. Reproduced in Hardorff 2006, pp. 52-53. In October 1867 he was an interpreter during negotiations for the

Medicine Lodge Treaty The Medicine Lodge Treaty is the overall name for three treaties signed near Medicine Lodge, Kansas, between the Federal government of the United States and southern Plains Indian tribes in October 1867, intended to bring peace to the area by rel ...

. In 1869 he interpreted for the Fifth U.S. Cavalry under Maj. Gen. Eugene A. Carr, and afterward worked as a trader at

Camp Supply Fort Supply (originally Camp Supply) was a United States Army post established on November 18, 1868, in Indian Territory to protect the Southern Plains. It was located just east of present-day Fort Supply, Oklahoma, in what was then the Cherokee Ou ...

for the firm of Lee and Reynolds. He again worked for the Interior Department in 1871 and 1884, interpreting for Cheyenne delegations to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Geary

Edmund Guerrier died in 1921 at his ranch near the city of

Geary, Oklahoma Geary is a city in Blaine and Canadian counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 1,280 at the 2010 census. The town was named for Edmund Guerrier, a scout and an interpreter for the U.S. Army.

, which was named after him; as Guerrier was difficult for non-French-speakers to pronounce or spell, it became Geary.Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
Retrieved 2014-12-02.

Notes

References

* Grinnell, George Bird (1923)
Bent's Old Fort And Its Builders (Kansas State Historical Collections, vol. 15)
Kansas Historical Society. * Halaas, David Fridtjof and

Andrew E. Masich Andrew Edward Masich (born February 7, 1955) is the President and CEO of the Senator John Heinz History Center, an affiliate museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Masich was previously Chairman of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission ...

. (2004). ''Halfbreed: The Remarkable True Story of George Bent — Caught Between the Worlds of the Indian and the White Man.'' Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. . * Hardorff, Richard G., compiler & editor (2006). ''Washita Memories: Eyewitness Views of Custer's Attack on Black Kettle's Village''. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. . * Hyde, George E. (1968). ''Life of George Bent Written from His Letters''. Ed. by Savoie Lottinville. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. . *National Archives & Records Administration, SW Region Fort Worth, Record Group 5, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Concho (Cheyenne & Arapaho Agency), E12 Land Transactions, Report on Heirship {{DEFAULTSORT:Guerrier, Edmund Cheyenne people Comanche campaign 1840 births 1921 deaths Interpreters American people of French descent People from Kansas People from Geary, Oklahoma Saint Louis University alumni