Finding History at Fort Laramie

Beads were a very popular trade item for Native American peoples. Starting in the 1850s, small, machine-made glass seed beads were the most common type of bead found at Fort Laramie.

FOLA Archives

Missing History

How do you learn about the past? Historians use journals, letters, and other documents. But not everyone’s story is found in these sources. Women and Native Americans are likely missing from historical records. Why? Not everybody knew how to read or write. For example, an Army officer’s wife may have had an education, but a military laundress likely did not. Descendants may have lost letters or tossed journals in the trash, too. 19th and 20th century historians neglected to record women’s and Indigenous perspectives about important events. This includes the 1851 and 1868 treaty negotiations that happened at Fort Laramie. The main focus of historic discussion at Fort Laramie has been the military. This is partly because the Army produced large numbers of documents.

Fort Laramie has been an important place for many people. Plains Indian nations, like the Arapaho and Cheyenne, used trading networks that spanned North America before Europeans arrived. Because of these networks, Europeans and Americans wanted to create relationships with tribes for beaver and buffalo. In 1834, traders built a trading post where the North Platte and Laramie rivers converged. Named Fort William at first, this trading post became known as Fort Laramie. Hundreds and thousands of emigrants traveled the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails between 1840 and 1860. It was during this period, in 1849, that the U.S. military purchased the post from the American Fur Company. After 1860, this military fort became crucial for U.S.–Tribal relations. Even if their accounts are missing from the historical record, women exist at the center of Fort Laramie's history.

Archaeology at Fort Laramie has uncovered many objects left by previous occupants. During a 1951 excavation, an archaeologist found this ring near the Captain's Quarters at the south end of the parade ground. This was also the location of the Fort John trading post the military bought in 1849.

FOLA Archives

Finding History

Although home to many people, not everyone left a record of their time at Fort Laramie. So how do historians learn about the people who did not leave a written record? To learn about Indigenous and Métis women, historians rely on pictorial histories and oral traditions. Pictorial histories like winter counts, which are records of annual events, may need interpretation for nonnative historians. Objects from archaeological excavations at places like Fort Laramie can show how people lived and what they valued. Recovered objects can also show how people adapted to change. New insights might arise from researchers re-reading records with different questions in mind. Military documents, for example, contain information about military dependents and laundresses. A trader's business papers show what goods were important to Native Americans. If analyzed with new perspectives and questions, old documents can hold new answers. Finding a missing story may require asking new questions and looking in places that seem unlikely at first. What questions would you want to ask? What stories would you want to learn about?