Military Posts

To control the Plains tribes after the Civil War, the government established a chain of forts from the Dakotas to Texas. In the Indian Territory the new western outposts were Fort Sill, Fort Reno, and Camp Supply. From these bases of operation, troops tacked and battled elusive Indians, chased and arrested horse thieves, and found and drove out the persistent armies of boomers led by David L. Payne and William Couch. In 1889 troops from Fort Reno supervised the land run.