Virtually every wagon train that went west on the emigrant trails suffered some form of tragedy. It might have come at the very beginning when they waved goodbye to family members, knowing they would never meet again. It may have happened when a child slipped under the wagon wheels and was crushed. The tragedy may have been a wagon overturning while fording a river and all the family's worldly possessions being swept downstream. Tragedy may have come when an unfamiliar hunter slipped under the hooves of a stampeding buffalo or a mother died giving birth on the plains. Tragedy came in many forms and left behind its own bereavement. The most dramatic tragedies, involving large numbers of lost lives, usually happened because the team leaders planned poorly or failed to follow the advice of those who knew better. One of the best known of these tragedies happened in October 1856 when the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies were caught in early winter blizzards along the Sweetwater River. Having started west in late August, these companies challenged the change of seasons to grant them safe passage. It was a challenge they lost and when the blizzard struck, they found themselves without adequate food, shelter, or clothing to hold off the elements. About half the companies members would die on the plains. The memory of that tragic crossing would have lasting consequences as the Mormon handcart experiment came to an end. Of all the potential tragedies they might confront, the emigrants most feared an Indian attack. Yet most emigrants had only favorable encounters with the native peoples. But as the years passed and the number of emigrants increased, the impact on Indian lands and game mounted. The emigrants' stock consumed the grass needed to feed the Indian horses. The great buffalo herds, so essential to all aspects of Indian life, were split apart by the trails and then killed in large numbers with large portions of the animals left to rot. In 1851, with the impact of the emigration increasingly clear, the government convened a treaty council with the Plains tribes to negotiate rights of passage. The treaty was successfully brokered but, within three years, both sides had breached its terms. Military personnel headed west to confront the natives and a series of running battles escalated the tension. By the 1860s, the emigrants could no longer expect peaceful relations with the Indians who watched in horror as their way of life vanished. While the Indians were becoming increasingly impoverished, the emigrants were becoming more affluent. Wagons loaded with consumer goods offered tempting targets, especially when the train was small. The five wagons comprising the Kelly-Larimer train learned this truth on LaPrele Creek in 1864. Emigrants could not avoid tragedy on the trails. Yet many of the worst episodes became real tragedies only when the leaders of a wagon train failed to heed the collective wisdom of those who had passed that way before them.