Furious with this event and losing control of their lands, the Arikara attacked a trapping expedition of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company who were traveling along the Missouri River on June 1, 1823, resulting in about a dozen of the trader’s deaths.

Afterwards, the survivors retreated downriver where they waited more than a month for reinforcements so they might retaliate. The U.S. Army sent some 230 soldiers, 750 Sioux, and 50 trappers under the command of U.S. Army Colonel Henry Leavenworth, to take vengeance on the Arikara. After the attack on the Indians on August 9, 1823, some 50 of the Arikara lay dead. Six days later, on August 15th, the military forces burned an Arikara village, where they later built an American post as a message to other "unfriendly” Indians, including the Crow and the Blackfoot.

Though the U.S. Military was successful in subduing the Arikara, the conflict sparked a great debate because Colonel Henry Leavenworth had not entirely wiped out the tribe, at a time when Americans were demanding cohabitation and subjugation of the Native Americans.

In addition to subduing the Indians, the area was also central to the competition between the U.S. and Great Britain for control of the middle Missouri River and access to areas farther upriver and the Pacific Coast trade. After this first plains war, the American fur trade and exploration greatly expanded.

In the 1830's, the Arikara were almost destroyed by small pox and in the end, were forced from their lands by the Sioux in the 1870's. Migrating into North Dakota, they lived for many years near the Fort Clark Trading Post on the Knife River and began to work closer to the Hidatsa and Mandan tribes who inhabited the area. In 1862, they joined the Hidatsa and Mandan at Like-a-Fishhook Village, near the Fort Berthold trading post in North Dakota. Ironically, for protection and jobs, the Arikara men began to scout for the U.S. Army stationed at nearby Fort Stevenson and in 1874, guided George Custer on his Black Hills Expedition.

Two years later, in 1876,  a large group of Arikara men accompanied Custer and the 7th Cavalry on the Little Bighorn Expedition and were the first scouts to lead the men when the village was attacked.

Several of the Arikara fought valiantly alongside the soldiers, while others there were cut off, returned to the base camp as they had been directed. During the battle, three Arikara warriors, Little Brave, Bobtail Bull, and Bloody Knife, were killed along with some 260 other men serving under Custer. Searching for scapegoats, the Arikara scouts were undeservedly blamed by many for the the loss of the Battle of the little Bighorn.