The Dull Knife Battle
Kaycee Rest Stop I-25 Exit 254

On November 25th the final battle of the Sioux campaign of 1876 was fought approximately 28 miles west of this point. Colonel Ranald Mackenzie with 750 cavalrymen and 400 Indian scouts and auxiliaries attacked a Northern Cheyenne encampment at dawn. Leaders Dull Knife and Little Wolf were among the Cheyenne.

This village consisted of about 175 lodges housing 1400 people, some of whom had participated in the defeat of Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn the previous summer. Cheyenne women and children fled to the surrounding mountains, but the men checked the army’s advance during the day-long battle.

The army lost 1 officer, 6 soldiers and had more than 20 wounded. At least 25 Cheyenne died. Mackenzie ordered the village destroyed and 500 ponies were captured. This proved disastrous for the Cheyenne who were left destitute. They found sanctuary with the Sioux in Montana and South Dakota but by May 1877 surrendered. The U.S. government, thus, secured control of the Powder River country. In 1884 it established the present Northern Cheyenne reservation in southeast Montana.