Daily Vignette for 25 November -- Powder River Cheyenne village raid
On November 25th 1876, in retaliation for the American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, United States Army 4th Cavalry troopers under the command of Colonel Ranald S. MacKenzie sacked Chief Dull Knife's sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River.
Dull Knife's northern Cheyenne people had allied themselves with Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull to defeat the 7th Cavalry at Little Big Horn the previous summer. In doing so, they had broken the terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which they'd agreed to and had lived by. They felt justified in this because the US government had repeatedly failed to provide food, clothing, and blankets that had been promised as part of the treaty settlement. But from a US perspective the Cheyenne were the oath-breakers, never mind all the broken American promises.
Dull Knife (from his Lakota Sioux name Tamílapéšni -- Dull Knife) was known among his own Cheyenne people as Vóóhéhéve, or Morning Star. One of the earliest northern plains chiefs to seek peace with the advancing US Army, he had been repeatedly frustrated by the failure of the US government to make good on its treaty obligations. (Ironically, Ranald S. MacKenzie was also upset by those failures, and wrote bitterly to his Commanding General, Phil Sheridan, about the inevitable consequences of the government ignoring its obligations.)
At daybreak on the morning of November 25th, the 4th Cavalry attacked the sleeping Cheyenne village. Using the same tactics he had used against the Quahadi Comanches at Palo Duro Canyon in 1874, MacKenzie concentrated his efforts on destroying the lodges and capturing the horses rather than encouraging his troops to wholesale slaughter. All who chose to flee were allowed to do so without pursuit. The surviving northern Cheyenne then walked through the wintry cold country to Crazy Horse's camp, losing 11 children to exposure and starvation along the way. As a result of the losses sustained in the Powder River raid, Dull Knife and his northern Cheyenne eventually surrendered in the spring of 1877. They were transported to a reservation in southern Oklahoma Indian Territory.
Dull Knife's northern Cheyenne people had allied themselves with Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull to defeat the 7th Cavalry at Little Big Horn the previous summer. In doing so, they had broken the terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which they'd agreed to and had lived by. They felt justified in this because the US government had repeatedly failed to provide food, clothing, and blankets that had been promised as part of the treaty settlement. But from a US perspective the Cheyenne were the oath-breakers, never mind all the broken American promises.
Dull Knife (from his Lakota Sioux name Tamílapéšni -- Dull Knife) was known among his own Cheyenne people as Vóóhéhéve, or Morning Star. One of the earliest northern plains chiefs to seek peace with the advancing US Army, he had been repeatedly frustrated by the failure of the US government to make good on its treaty obligations. (Ironically, Ranald S. MacKenzie was also upset by those failures, and wrote bitterly to his Commanding General, Phil Sheridan, about the inevitable consequences of the government ignoring its obligations.)
At daybreak on the morning of November 25th, the 4th Cavalry attacked the sleeping Cheyenne village. Using the same tactics he had used against the Quahadi Comanches at Palo Duro Canyon in 1874, MacKenzie concentrated his efforts on destroying the lodges and capturing the horses rather than encouraging his troops to wholesale slaughter. All who chose to flee were allowed to do so without pursuit. The surviving northern Cheyenne then walked through the wintry cold country to Crazy Horse's camp, losing 11 children to exposure and starvation along the way. As a result of the losses sustained in the Powder River raid, Dull Knife and his northern Cheyenne eventually surrendered in the spring of 1877. They were transported to a reservation in southern Oklahoma Indian Territory.