Cantonment
a.k.a. Cantonment on the North Fork of the Canadian
N of Canton, Canton, OKCantonment -- or, as referred to in official records, Cantonment on the Canadian River, Indian Territory" -- was established by Colonel Richard I. Dodge on March 6, 1879. The summer before homesick Northern Cheyennes under Dull Knife had fled Fort Reno, leaving a trail of death and destruction across Kansas and Nebraska as they sought to return to their homeland. Settlers from Kansas appealed to Washington for additional protection, prompting location of this new post midway between Fort Reno to the southeast and Fort Supply to the northwest. Troops remained until June 1882.
At least three permanent buildings replaced the original "picket-house" structures, but the post never received a permanent name. When the last garrison marched away, the rather simple installation was turned over to missionaries of the Mennonite church who operated an Indian school there for many years. After they had moved to a nearby location, the Department of the Interior opened the Cantonment Indian School, which was operated until 1918. In 1903, when the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency at Darlington was subdivided, Cantonment became a sub-agency for those Indians living in the northwestern part of the reservation. All government use of the fort ceased in the 1920s.
Despite its unpretentious physical plant and brief official life, however, Cantonment played an important role in westem Oklahoma history. As a military post, it helped maintain calm during a period of special unrest. Afterwards, as a school and agency, it furthered as best it could the immensely difficult task of reconciling two virile, freedom-loving, nomadic Indian tribes to life on an allotted 160 acres and adaptation to an alien culture and economic system.
Additionally, Cantonment made two contributions to the world of letters, a not inconsequential accomplishment for a relatively primitive facility on the raw frontier. While in command at Cantonment, Colonel Dodge produced his book, Our wild Indians, published in 1882. Here, too, Mennonite Missionary Rudolphe Petter wrote his landmark Cheyenne Dictionary, beginning his life-long work and study -- later extended to the Northern Cheyennes in Montana -- that made him the recognized authority on the Cheyenne language.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.