Buffalo Soldiers in the 1870s

As America expanded westward after the Civil War, Buffalo Soldiers were sent to restore and maintain order in territorial conflicts on the Plains and in the Southwest. These conflicts arose with increasing presence of European-American settlers in Tribal Nations’ homelands and the development of the railroads, telegraphs lines, stagecoach lines and stations, US mail routes and frontier towns.

Many Native Americans were also frustrated by the promises and treaties that had been broken by the Federal government, and they wanted to return to their traditional homelands and did not want to stay on reservations. During this time many of the interactions between Buffalo Soldiers and Tribal Nations served to protect European-Americans.