After the gold rush in 1846, the whites advanced toward the west. They ignored Indians' territorial rights and searched everywhere in the west. On top of that, they purchased the land from Indians forcing them to move to reservations. The drive to move Indians into reservations accelerated with another gold rush in Northwestern region in 1855.
More whites rushed into Northwest and Indians protested. With the start of Medicine Lodge Creek treaty concluded between the US Government and the five tribes of Plains Indians - the Kiowa, Apache, and Comanche in 1867, treaties of similar nature led many tribes to move into reservations after selling their territory to the federal government. However, the treaties stipulated that Indians should engage in farming and have their children go to school within the reservations. In other words, Indians were asked to abandon their time-honored ways of living and fully accept the customs of the whites. It is hard to believe that the Indians, even the chiefs and heads who signed the treaties, had a full grasp of such stipulations. It was not long before Indians realized that whites intended to push them into reservations and confine them there on the pretext of the treaties.