1852 - U.S. Senate ratifies Horse Creek treaty

      The Senate balked at some of the same provisions it had approved before the council.  Lawmakers asked Fitzpatrick to revisit the headmen of the tribes to seek their approval for these changes.  Fitzpatrick tracked down each tribe and secured the marks of their headmen, and the Senate ratified the treaty, formally recognizing the great western tribes as being the owners of more than 1 million square miles of the American West, an area larger than the entire Louisiana Purchase. 

        Among its many provisions, the federal government promised to protect Indian resources and tribal hunting grounds from depredations by white settlers moving west along the Oregon Trail.  This is one of many promises made in this treaty by the federal government that was never kept.