The American Indian Wars of the late 1800's presented the Army with a relatively new challenge. This challenge, the employment of forces in what today we would largely classify as a Peacetime Military Engagement activity, was complicated by the U.S. Army's post-Civil War drawdown (FM3.0, 4). The Army's solution was a return to the regional defense or fort framework system used prior to the Civil War and also introduced a doctrinal shift of then present day combat strategies in which cavalry forces bore the blunt of the mission tasking in the western United States (Matloff, 305). This solution, enacted during a pivotal time period of American military history, also had the by-product effect of serving as the primary catalyst for enlarging the scope and duties of the Army's Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) Corps. This body of work briefly examines the resultant outcome of this solution and its strategies and their far-reaching and profound impact on the evolution of the NCO Corps.

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