The discovery of gold in Colorado in 1858 and the subsequent rush of American prospectors and settlers into the claimed Cheyenne and Arapaho territory created pressures that the treaty framework was entirely inadequate to manage.

The Fort Wise Treaty of 1861 attempted to address this by dramatically reducing the territory recognized as Cheyenne and Arapaho.

The new treaty assigned a much smaller reservation in the southeastern corner of Colorado, on the Sandy Fork of the Arkansas River — land that was notably poor for the bison hunting that the Cheyenne depended on.

The 1861 treaty was controversial among the Cheyenne from the moment it was signed.

A significant number of chiefs refused to sign.