The Dull Knife Battle

In the months following Custer's defeat at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, a group of Native American members of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe left their allies along the Little Big Horn River and traveled south to encamp for the winter. Led by Dull Knife and Lone Wolf, nearly 1400 people erected a 175-lodge village approximately 30 miles west of this point. Seeking to end Native American resistance after Custer's defeat, the United States Army dispatched Colonel Ranald Mackenzie with 750 cavalrymen and an assortment of 400 Indian scouts to pursue Dull Knife and his people. Although many Northern Cheyenne, aware that the U.S. Army was in pursuit, urged moving the camp, it remained in place at the behest of a soldier chief named Last Bull. The night before the battle, the Cheyenne erected a large fire to celebrate the success of a recent raid against a group of Shoshone Indians. By the bitterly cold morning of November 26, 1876, Mackenzie and his men reached the village after a night march and began their attack. Awakened by gunfire, Cheyenne warriors put up fierce and determined resistance, allowing their families to flee to a series of hills overlooking the battle site. During the battle, Mackenzie's forces captured nearly 500 Cheyenne horses and destroyed the village. Left without their basic provisions and horses, the Cheyenne faced death from exposure during the harsh winter and in the following months sought shelter among friendly tribes. By 1877, after their defeat at Dull Knife and the loss of their territory due to settlement, the Cheyenne surrendered to the U.S. Government, and in 1884 they were placed on a reservation in southeast Montana.

Kaycee, Wyoming · United States