Sand Creek Massacre (1864) - The Sand Creek Massacre was one of the most sordid affairs between the white settlers and American Indians in U.S. history. The massacre, occurring on November 29, 1864, was led by Colorado Territory Commander, John M. Chivington, was made upon Black Kettle's Southern Cheyenne village, nestled along Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado. Though the Cheyennes were flying an American flag over their village and had already surrendered, Chivington, who was a known "Indian hater" attacked anyway, leaving more than 200 Cheyennes, mainly women and children, dead.

The massacre site was authorized as a National Historic site on August, 2, 2005. However, it will not be established until the National Park Service acquires enough land to provide for the preservation, commemoration, and interpretation of the Sand Creek Massacre and is not yet open to the public.

Summit Springs (1869) - The Battle of Summit Springs, fought on July 11, 1869 near Sterling, Colorado, broke for all time the power of the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers on the central Plains. The battle, in response to a series of Indian raids in north-central Kansas was led by Colonel Eugene Carr, commanding the U.S. Fifth Cavalry. During the conflict, Cheyenne leader, Tall Bull, was killed (some say by Buffalo Bill Cody), the Dog Soldiers fragmented into two groups, one drifting north to join the Northern Cheyenne and the other joining the Southern Cheyenne. Carr reported killing 52 Indians and capturing 15; however, only one soldier was wounded in the fighting. The site, located about 14 miles southeast of Sterling, Colorado is marked, but is on private property.

Idaho

Battle of Pierre's Hole, Idaho (1832) - Taking place after the 1832 trapper’s rendezvous, much of the hostilities seem to have been initiated by Antoine Godin and Baptiste Dorian, trappers who had attended the rendezvous. See full article HERE.

Kansas - See Kansas battles HERE.

Montana

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

P.O. Box 39
Exit 510 Off I-90 Hwy 212
Crow Agency, Montana 59022-0039
406-638-3204

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, painting by Charles Russell, 1903

This image is available for photographic prints HERE.

Blue Water Battle (1855) - Also called the Ash Hollow Battle, it was the first major clash between U.S. soldiers and the Sioux Indians. In 1855, to punish the Sioux for their depredations following the Grattan Fight near Fort Laramie, Wyoming the previous year, the Army sent out Colonel William S. Harney and an expedition of 600 men from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Harney discovered the Brule Sioux village of Little Thunder in Blue Water Creek Valley, just above the creek's junction with the North Platte River. By a circuitous route dragoons entered the valley and advanced downstream, while Harney and a force of infantrymen marched up the valley from the Platte. Attacked from two directions on September 3, 1855, the Indians scattered, but not before the troops killed 80 warriors, wounded five, and captured 70 women and children. Four soldiers met death and seven suffered wounds. The rest of the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne in the vicinity managed to avoid the troops. The latter moved northwestward to Fort Laramie and marched over the Fort Laramie-Fort Pierre Road through the heart of Sioux country to Fort Pierre, on the Missouri River. There, they joined part of the expedition that had come up the Missouri and spent the winter of 1855-56. For almost a decade most of the Sioux gave no further serious trouble. The site is in privately owned, but a 40-acre State historical park overlooks the battlefield. It is located in Garden County on U.S. Highway 26, 1 ½ miles west of Lewellen, Nebraska.

Battle at Warbonnet Creek (1876) - Three weeks after Custer's defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the Fifth U.S. Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Wesley Merritt, skirmished with Cheyenne Indians from the Red Cloud Agency on July 17, 1876 at in northwest Nebraska. The cavalry's purpose was to block an Indian supply trail from the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies in Nebraska to the Powder River country of northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana. When the Cavalry learned that 1,000 Cheyennes had left the Spotted Tail and Red Cloud Agencies to join the triumphant Sioux, and were encamped at Warbonnet Creek, the Cavalry attacked and forced them back to the reservations. Fighting in the skirmish was William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody who was working as a scout. He claimed to have taken "the first scalp for Custer" by killing a warrior named Yellow Hair, an episode that novelists and Cody publicity agents later turned into a legend. However, Cody's claim has long been disputed. The battle signaled the army's ultimate victory in the Great Sioux War of 1876-77. The battle site, located in Sioux County, Nebraska is on an unimproved road, about 17 miles northeast of Harrison, on privately owned land. No monument or marker exists.