Massacre Canyon

Massacre Canyon Battlefield
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
View looking southwest from the Massacre Canyon monument
Nearest city	Trenton, Nebraska
Area	3,680 acres (1,490 ha)
Built	1873
NRHP Reference #	74001118
Added to NRHP	July 25, 1974

The Massacre Canyon Battle took place on August 5, 1873, in Hitchcock County, Nebraska. It was one of the last battles between the Pawnee and the Sioux (or Lakota) and the last large-scale battle between Native American tribes in the area of the present-day United States of America. The battle occurred when a combined Oglala/Brulé Sioux war party of over 1000 warriors attacked a party of Pawnee on their summer buffalo hunt. More than 60 Pawnees died, mostly women and children. Along with the assault on Pawnee chief Blue Coat's village in 1843, this battle range among "the bloodiest attacks by the Sioux" in Pawnee history.

According to Indian agent John W. Williamson of the Genoa Agency, who accompanied the hunting party, "On the 2d [in fact the 3d] day of July, 1873, the Indians, to the number of 700, left Genoa for the hunting grounds. Of this number 350 were men, the balance women and children."

The Pawnee were traveling along the west bank of the canyon, which runs south to the Republican River, when they were attacked.

"A census taken at the Pawnee Agency in September, according Agent Burgess. . ."(see "Massacare Canyon Monument" article in External Links section) found that "71 Pawnee warriors were killed, and 102 women and children killed", the victims brutally mutilated and scalped and others even set on fire" although Trail-agent John Williamson's account states 156 Pawnee died (page 388). It is likely the death toll would have been higher, for Williamson noted ". . . a company of United States cavalry emerge[d] from the timber. When the Sioux saw the soldiers approaching they beat a hasty retreat." (page 387), although "Recently discovered military documents disproved the old theory" per the "Massacare Canyon Monument" article. This massacre is by some considered one of the factors that led to the Pawnees' decision to move to a reservation in Indian Territory in what is today Oklahoma. The Pawnee disagree.

Principal chiefs at the battle were:

Among the Pawnee dead were the wife and four children of Traveling Bear, a former sergeant in the Pawnee Scouts who served under Major Frank North and a Medal of Honor recipient.