Fort Robinson History Center

The U.S. military established Camp Robinson in 1874 to have a military presence near the Red Cloud Agency—the lands designated to the Oglala Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples and a precursor to the Pine Ridge Reservation. Located near Crawford, Nebraska, the camp became a permanent fort in 1878 and the primary military outpost in the Indian Wars of the late 19th century.

Visit the Fort Robinson History Center (open seasonally) to learn about the last battle led by Oglala Lakota Warrior Crazy Horse, and his surrender in 1877; the event known as the Fort Robinson Massacre, in which 64 Northern Cheyenne and 11 U.S. soldiers were killed after a forceful detainment of a group of Northern Cheyenne in the late 1870s; the African American Buffalo Soldiers of the Ninth Cavalry, who were stationed there in late 19th and early 20th centuries; and the fort’s time as a World War II prisoner of war camp for captured German soldiers.