Chiefs Knoll
a.k.a. Post Cemetery
Macomb and Burrill Rds., Fort Sill, OKThe Chiefs Knoll at Fort Sill is known to the Indians of the South Plains as the "Indian Arlington." Here lie buried in a single location many of their war chiefs and peace chiefs of a hundred years ago.
The earliest Indian burial here, by order of the Post Commander, was Satank or Sitting Bear, the fierce leader of the Kiowa Indians, who was killed by 4th Cavalry troopers in 1871. He was followed by Ten Bears, noted peace chief of the Yapparika Comanches, who was buried with full military honors on his death in 1872. Others include Chiefs Kicking Bird, Stumbling Bear, and Big Bow of the Kiowas, Horseback and Iron Mountain of the Comanches, and Little Raven, Yellow Bear, and Spotted Wolf of the Arapahoes. Many were signers of the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty of 1867. Some represent reburials from unmarked isolated locations in recent years, performed by Fort Sill authorities at the request of the Indian descendants.
This knol1 is the oldest section of the Post Cemetery, established in 1869 and includes the graves of the earliest Cavalry troopers and white scouts who died here in that period. The Fort holds Veterans Day ceremonies at this location annually, and Indian descendants continue to decorate the graves of their chiefs, in tribute to their past.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
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.