Battle Canyon, 1878

Battle Canyon, 1878. . , This marks the site of the last encounter in the State of Kansas between Native Americans and the United States Troops. Homesick and ill, the Northern Cheyenne under the leadership of Chief Dull Knife and Little Wolf were trying to return to their former home in the north. There were 92 warriors, 120 women, and 141 children who had escaped from the reservation at Ft. Reno, Oklahoma. As they came through Kansas crossing the Arkansas River at Cimarron Crossing, Lt. Colonel William H. Lewis, commander at Ft. Dodge, was dispatched to capture and return them. On September 27, 1878, the Northern Cheyenne were located at this site. Sentries were hidden in circular pits, surrounded by rock barricades, still visible today. Women, children, and the elderly were hidden in the Den below. When Lewis advanced, coming from the Southwest, he was mortally wounded in the thigh, dying enroute to Ft. Wallace, Kansas, forty miles Northwest. He became the last army officer to be killed in Kansas during the Indian wars. The Cheyenne escaped by night, crossed the Smokey [sic] Hill River, fled into Nebraska, where their parties split. One group going with Chief Dull Knife, and the other with Little Wolf. Dull Knife's group was captured close to Ft. Robinson while Little Wolf remained in the sand hills of Nebraska for the Winter. This thirty acre site was donated to the citizens of Scott County by the late R.B. Christy, Scott City banker and stockman. The site now is maintained by the Scott County Historical Society.