A Crow camp had neutralized thirty Cheyennes…
1820 CE
To avenge the loss of so many young men, the whole Cheyenne tribe carried its sacred arrows, Mahuts, against the Crow the next spring.
A Lakota camp had joined the war expedition.
They camp at Powder River, either in present-day Montana or Wyoming.
Crows from a camp at the Tongue River chance upon them just before dark.
The Cheyenne and the Lakota realize they are discovered, and the warriors quickly prepare to make an attack on their foes.
Meanwhile, the Crow camp organizes a big war party to strike first and drive the enemies out of the Crow country.
The two native armies cross one another unnoticed during the night.
The Crows lose the track and never find the camps on the Powder River.
The Cheyenne and Lakota attack the unprotected Crow camp at noon.
With a camp with only women, children and old men, they are in control right from the start.
They kill all the old men, capture the horse herds, take the women and children captive and reduce the camp to rubble.
On the way back to Powder River, a disagreement starts between the Cheyenne and the Lakota over the division of the more than one hundred captives.
During the heated discussion, an unknown number of Crow women and children are killed by the warriors.
The battle is mentioned in the Oglala Lakota American Horse's winter count.
It tells of a Crow camp with one hundred tipis. The Lakotas "killed many and took many prisoners".
This is likely the most severe blow to the Crow tribe on the battlefield in historic time.
Due to the meager sources, it is difficult to name all war leaders and warriors involved in the fighting, provide exact figures of the strength of the camps, or the number of casualties.
The attack may sometimes be confused with other big Cheyenne or Lakota victories over the Crow.
In 1876, James H. Bradley, chief of Crow scouts, will give an account of the battle as understood by him.