The Chief of this village, Chief Dull Knife had not taken part in the earlier battle but some of his sons and their followers had. Although the Sioux and Cheyenne won one of their greatest battles at Little Bighorn, this was to be their downfall and the end of being able to resist the might of the US government. When news of the massacre of Custer and his men reached the east coast in the summer of 1876 amidst the outrage at the way one of their popular heroes of the civil war had been killed resulted in many Americans wanting an intensified military campaign against those held to be responsible.

The US government sent one of its most successful Indian fighters to the region, General Mackenzie. He had previously been successful against the Comanche and Kiowa Indians in Texas so he was sent with an expeditionary force in November 1876 to the Powder River in Wyoming. It was here he found the village of Cheyenne Indians.

Mackenzie, with over 1,000 soldiers and 400 Indian scouts led a raid at dawn, opening fire on the sleeping village. Many of the villagers were killed within the first few minutes, while some were fortunate enough to reach the safety of some nearby hills. They were unable to do anything but watch as all their winter food and clothing was burned before the Indians horses were then slain. Some of the soldiers found souvenirs taken by the Cheyenne from dead soldiers at Little Bighorn, for them justifying the attack.

For the surviving Cheyenne, many of them wearing only light clothing, they had to endure an 11 day walk north to the safety of Crazy Horse’s camp, where they were given food, clothing and shelter. Many of the children and old people that began the journey did not survive the wintry weather on the way north. The next spring Dull Knife, convinced the remaining Cheyenne to surrender. The Army sent them further south where they were later joined by other defeated tribes of plains Indians to live on reservations assigned to them.