All the Indians agreed that "the great Road" along the Platte, and across the mountains should be free and open for white people, and the United States agreed to pay the Indians fifty thousand dollars a year in goods, for the use of the road through their country. The Indians agreed not to rob or attack the white people on this road, and the United States agreed to keep the white people from going elsewhere into the Indian country.

When the treaty was sent to Washington the United States senate changed the period

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

of the contract from fifty years to ten years. The Indians never agreed to this change, but one can always expect the dear old conservative United States senate to "ball things up."

Neither Red Cloud nor Spotted Tail were then chiefs of importance and their names are not upon this treaty. The United States continued to use the great road, and to send annually the fifty thosuand dollars in goods to the Indians. And it was for the first annual distribution that they were assembled near Fort Laramie at the time of the Grattan Massacre.

The event that led to it was a trifling affair, but dull life about the fort and idleness of the men there and perhaps ambitions that could not find outlet in the common routine of military duty each contributed a part to the frightful carnage of succeeding years.

The grave of Rebecca Winters, on the Burlington right-of-way in the east part of Scottsbluff City, is one of the land marks on the Old Overland Trails. The original mark was only a wagon tire set half in the ground with her name, and a few important facts chiseled thereon. The buffalo and then the range cattle found it a convenient rubbing place, and it was always kept bright and shining by their constant wear.