True West: Massacre Canyon

Massacre Canyon looking south towards the Republican River

A modern reinterpretation of the American West story is that Euro-Americans conquered paradise, introducing greed, waste and murder into a veritable Garden of Eden.  When I was growing up the picture was that Indians killed Euro-Americans without mercy and settlers always heroically fought off their tormentors, Indian and outlaw alike.  We like our stories to be black and white, complete with easy to identify good guys and bad guys.  No story is ever that clear cut, especially any story that includes humans.

East side of the memorial

We often refer to humans as a species in a way that makes it sound like we should function as a unit.  However, no species behaves that way.  The functional level of organization in biology is that of a population - nations, tribe, clan, village, state, or family.  We are programmed to be able to detect patterns of similarity and difference.  The more differences we can pick out, the more likely that we are to perceive a threat.  We are nice to those that are like us, but aggressive to those that are different.  Our stories are framed in such a way to dehumanize those that we think are different.  When we see "those people" with "things we need" we compete by seizing resources, mates, manpower and killing "what we don't need".  That is the way evolution works, and has played itself out over Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and South America for millenia.

Just east of Trenton, NE on US-34 stands a 35 feet tall obelisk of Minnesota pink granite with carvings of a Pawnee Indian chief (Ruling His Sun) and a Lakota Indian chief (John Grass/Charging Bear).  It is an odd thing to see in this part of the country, a monument to American Indians without obvious connection to white settlers or army.  The signs indicate that it marks Massacre Canyon.  Massacre?  Canyon? Where? Who? When?

The Pawnee

Ruling His Sun's (Pawnee) likeness

The Pawnee nation is comprised of four independent bands: Chaui (Grand); Kitkehaki (Republican); Pitahawirata (Tappage) and Skidi (Wolf).  Historic Pawnee lands were roughly south central Nebraska to north central Kansas.  The Skidi were the northernmost band.  The Pawnee language belongs to the Caddoan family of languages, which are spoken by peoples from present day Louisiana and Texas northwards to North Dakota.

The Pawnee lived in permanent settlements with large earth lodges that could house as many as 50 people from several related families.  Ancestry was matrilineal, being reckoned through the mother.  Upon marriage, the groom became part of the bride's family and marriages had to be outside of the mother's clan.  Men and women both had decision making roles.

Women were responsible for farming and maintaining seed stocks.  They planted ten varieties of corn, eight varieties of beans, and seven varieties of squashes and pumpkins.  The men provided the protein by seasonal hunts for buffalo, deer, elk, bear, rabbit, big cats and skunks.  The Pawnee would range far while hunting buffalo.  One buffalo would provide enough meat for one person for an entire year, plus uses were found for every other part of the animal from the sinews for thread, the bladder for a canteen, skins for clothing and shelter.  This became easier with the acquisition of horses.  The hunt lasted from late-June to early September.  When the hunt was finished, it was time to return to the village and harvest the corn.

Massacre Canyon looking north toward the start of the fighting

The geographically remote position of the Pawnee kept them from very much contact with Europeans until the 1830s, which protected them from population losses due to smallpox, cholera, measles and tuberculosis.  The Coronado expedition met a Pawnee chief in a Wichita village in 1541, but most contact was with the odd European trader.  The Pawnee were flexible and would make alliances as it suited their needs.  An alliance between Pawnee, Oto and French traders was responsible for dashing Spanish goals of eastward expansion from Mexico when allied forces defeated the forces of Lt. General Pedro de Villasur at present day Columbus, NE on 14 August 1720.  Eventually, the Pawnee would be threatened by encroachment from Siouan peoples being pushed westward by European expansion, and by the 1850s, their population had plummeted to about 30% of 1800 numbers.  The Lakota and Cheyenne became their most threatening enemies.

The Lakota

John Grass' (Lakota) likeness

The Lakota were part of what has come to be called the Sioux Indian Nation, along with the Santee and Yankton-Yanktonai.  They occupied the area that was roughly Minnesota, northern Iowa, western Wisconsin to the Dakotas by 1600.  By the late 1600s the Lakota were being pushed south and west by encroaching peoples from the east, as a consequence of European expansion on the continent.  Their mobility greatly increased upon obtaining horses from the Cheyenne in 1730, and pushed into the Dakotas as the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara populations collapsed due to smallpox, measles and cholera.

The Lakota also have a matrilineal society and the mother's family wields more influence over the young male than the father, much of the time.  Leadership was determined based on the mother's clan.  Upon marriage, the groom lives with the bride's family.  Women control food, resources and moveable property.  While males made the major life decisions for the tribe and served as traditional chiefs, they could not continue to exert influence without the support of the women.  Male roles were to protect the village, hunt, conduct warfare and politics.

Plains style tipi

Villages were mobile and the dwelling was the conical buffalo skin tipi.  Women owned the tipis and were responsible for their manufacture, care and upkeep.  They also made nearly every bit of clothing and utensils that were used in the household.  Women also raised the crops that were used by the tribe and they prepared the fish and game caught by the men.

The Buffalo

Buffalo hunt silhouettes at visitor center

Buffalo (Bison bison - the American bison) were a supermarket on the hoof - enough protein for one person for a year, source of clothing, shelter and all manner of tools from sewing needles to hoes.  The summer hunt would provide an immediate supply of fresh meat and dried meat could be used through the winter.  Buffalo historically occupied a huge range: From the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains and from the level of Great Bear Lake in Canada into Mexico.  Buffalo were still seen in North Carolina as late as 1750. The prairies of the Great Plains evolved with the dual grass and tree trimming action of fire and buffalo.

Buffalo enjoying a late afternoon graze in Yellowstone National Park

Hunting buffalo was a dangerous proposition.  Buffalo are large, standing nearly six feet tall at the shoulder and weighing in around one ton.  The largest wild buffalo measured weighed nearly 2800 pounds.  Despite their size, they are quick and agile, running up to 40 miles per hour and having a 6 foot vertical leap.  Coupled with the large herd sizes, hunting was very hazardous.  The hunters had the fastest, most athletic horses.  Several tactics, such as walking up on the herd dressed in animal skins were employed to pare out a small portion of the herd to hunt with fewer bodies.  If possible the buffalo would be herded towards and then stampeded over a steep incline called a buffalo jump.   Injured surviving animals could be killed using spears and arrows with reduced risk of injury to the hunters.

1870's pile of buffalo skulls for use as fertilizer

Commercial use of the buffalo increased pressure on the people that relied on them for food.  Buffalo hunters would hunt them for meat, but often just took the hides and/or tongues for use and left the rest of the carcass to rot.  Later, buffalo bone would be collected and ground into fertilizer.  Before 1800, there were about 60 million buffalo in North America, a number that dropped to less than 6 million by 1870, less than 400,000 by 1880 and less than 600 total by 1890. Mass extermination of the buffalo by commercial hunters and US Army policy could do no less than bring conflict between the peoples that relied on the buffalo for their livelihood.   This situation was reaching a critical point as more nations were pushed into the same geographic areas by Euro-American encroachment and seizure of territory, often in open violation of treaties.

Massacre Canyon

The events at Massacre Canyon were perhaps inevitable.  Encroachment of Lakota and Cheyenne into Pawnee territory and hunting grounds were intolerable to both groups.  The Lakota, Cheyenne and Pawnee all needed space and resource for their people, and things were getting crowded geographically.  Males of the Pawnee and Lakota culture built individual prestige and wealth through raids on villages of neighboring tribes and capture of horses.  The back and forth raids between the two led to intense hatred and open warfare in which even women and children became legitimate military targets.  The Pawnee allied with the United States and served as scouts and soldiers in the US Army, especially in campaigns against the Lakota and Cheyenne, which only heightened an already tense situation.

The US policy of forced removal pushed all of the Pawnee to a 10 mile x 30 mile reservation at the northern extreme of their range, along the Loup River in modern Nebraska.  This was accomplished by treaties in 1833, 1843, and 1857.  Under the conditions of these treaties, the Pawnee were to be allowed to conduct their summer hunt for buffalo, although white settlement meant that they had to travel farther and farther to accomplish the hunt. By 1873, they were pushed out along the Republican River in southwest Nebraska.  The site of the reservation was poorly considered by the US government, as it placed the Pawnee right in the path of Lakota coming down the Platte and Loup Rivers from Dakota.  Failure of the Army to protect the Pawnee from these raids coupled with a string of Quaker agents that preached nonviolence only angered and mystified the Pawnee.

During the 1873 hunting season, the Pawnee set toward the Republican River from the east with their hunting agent, John Williamson.  The youth (24 years) and inexperience of Williamson provided him with little stature and less knowledge in avoiding the coming conflict.  At the same time, the Cut-Off band of Oglala Lakota (subagent Antoine Janis) and a Brule Lakota group (subagent Stephen Estes) were working their way down the Republican from Colorado.  During the trip, the Lakota lost several horses and a man killed by Ute Indian raids.  On 03 August 1873, the Oglala discovered the Pawnee position.

Seeking a pre-emptive strike to prevent a repeat by the Pawnee of the Ute raids, the Oglala decided to attack the Pawnee.  When Janis was asked if he would allow the raid he basically said that they could not go into white settlements or onto the Pawnee reservation, but he had no instruction against a raid in the open country.  While Estes did not condone the raid, he was wholly ineffectual in dissuading the Brule from participating when invited by the Oglala.  A Lakota war party of about 1000 started moving down the Republican River towards Culbertson.

Ruling His Sun

On 04 August, a party of three white hunters informed Williamson and the Pawnee of the presence of a large body of Lakota warriors.  The head chief at the meeting, Sky Chief doubted that the Lakota were near, assuming that the hunters wanted the buffalo skins for themselves.  When Williamson tried to call off the hunt and head back to the reservation to avoid conflict, Sky Chief accused him of being a coward and a woman.  Williamson angrily replied that he would go as far that the chief dared to go.  Macho superseded good sense, especially as US Army protection failed to materialize.

On Tuesday 05 August, Sky Chief apologized for his harsh words, but still refused to send out scouts to look for the Lakota.  Buffalo were sighted in a canyon running northwest from the Republican River and the hunt commenced.  Several kills were made before the Lakota fell on the Pawnee from both sides of the canyon.  Sky Chief was one of the first Pawnee killed.  One thousand Lakota warriors made fairly short work of 350 Pawnee men and 350 women and children.  As the Pawnee retreated down the canyon, Lakota fired on them from both rims.  In the end, twenty Pawnee men, 39 women and 10 children were killed in the "battle".   It is thought that six Lakota were killed in the engagement. The loss for the Pawnee was severe.  The meat they needed, the skins, tents, cookware and 10% of their party killed - everything was gone.  They had to abandon belongings and their dead and flee for their lives.

Sky Chief, 1868

"The following morning August 5, we broke camp and started north, up the divide between the Republican and the Frenchman Rivers. Soon after leaving camp, Sky Chief rode up to me and extending his hand said, 'Shake, brother.' He recalled our little unpleasantness the night previous and said he did not believe there was cause for alarm, and was so impressed with the belief that he had not taken the precaution to throw out scouts in the direction the Sioux were reported to be. A few minutes later a buffalo scout signaled that buffaloes had been sighted in the distance, and Sky Chief rode off to engage in the hunt. I never saw him again. He had killed a buffalo and was skinning it when the advance guard of the Sioux shot and wounded him. The Chief attempted to reach his horse, but before he was able to mount, several of the enemy surrounded him. He died fighting. A Pawnee, who was skinning a buffalo a short distance away, but managed to escape, told me how Sky Chief died." - John Williamson

John Grass (Charging Bear) 1880s

Despite being informed of the attack by Williamson and three Pawnee chiefs, a search of the area by the army failed to turn up the Lakota.  It seems likely that the Army detachment of 52 thought it poor odds to fight 1000 well armed Lakota and did not push the issue.   Estes and Janis would eventually regain most of the Pawnee captured by the Brule and Oglala.  The Pawnee would return to their reservation but briefly.  It is often said that the Pawnee were so discouraged after the battle that they asked to be relocated to a new reservation in Indian Territory.  The real story is that the US government sold off Pawnee reservation land to homesteaders after Nebraska was made a state.  The proceeds from these sales were used to buy land for a Pawnee reservation in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and to relocate the Pawnee in 1876.  Tensions between the US and the Lakota would culminate in the Indian Wars of the late 1800s.  In the end, the Lakota would end up on reservations and having to abandon their traditional nomadic lifestyle, as well.

The Memorial

Spotted Tail (Brule)

As the 50th anniversary of the battle approached, the locals decided to have a commemoration of the event.  In 1923, residents sponsored a Pow-Wow with Lakota survivors of the Massacre Canyon incident.  The Massacre Canyon Pow-Wow was an annual event until the 1950s.  The first time the Pawnee attended was in 1925 and they refused to meet with the Lakota until the second day of the Pow-Wow.  After 50 years, the hurt still ran that deep.  In the obituary of Ruling His Sun it is stated that it was difficult to restrain Ruling His Sun from violence when he learned that Sioux were at the 50th anniversary commemoration of the battle on the old Pawnee reservation.  This is understandable since one of Ruling His Sun's wives and at least one child were killed in the ambush.

This marker was dedicated on 26 September 1930 and stood on the side of US-34 at the mouth of the canyon about 1 mile south of the current location.  As the highway was realigned, the monument was moved to its current location in 1951.  The monument indicates that this was the last battle between the Pawnee and Lakota (Sioux).  Others assert that it was the largest and last engagement between two American Indian Nations.  To some it serves as a monument to "forgiveness" and "peace".  To me it causes one to remember that outside forces sometime conspire to bring about conflict that would not have otherwise existed and that individual actions can cause consequences that ripple out for generations.

Getting There

Little Wound (Oglala)

The monument is in a roadside pull-out along US-34 just between Trenton and Culbertson, NE.  It's the big rock column (ok, obelisk) with the Indian faces on it.

Waypoint:  40.206405 N; 100.965038 W

Further Reading

The Battle of Massacre Canyon

Ruling His Sun obituary

Across the Fence: Massacre Canyon

Sun Chief (Pawnee)

Two Strikes (Brule)