Wintering Saints had left their homes in Nauvoo, Illinois on relatively short notice and brought limited useful supplies. An influential non-Mormon Thomas L. Kane, seeking to convince the LDS leadership to establish a volunteer military group (later know as the Mormon Battalion), received permission from the U.S. federal government for the group to encamp in Omaha Tribe lands, including the site of Cutler's Park. Conditions at the settlement remained primitive the first month, with pioneers living in tents while the men put up hay, found water and managed the cattle.