The Battle of Palo Duro Canyon was a military confrontation and a significant United States victory during the Red River War. The battle occurred on September 28, 1874, when several U.S. Army companies under Ranald S. Mackenzie attacked a large encampment of Plains Indians in Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle.
Late in the summer of 1874, Quahada Comanche, Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho and Kiowa warriors led by Lone Wolf left their assigned reservations and sought refuge in Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle. There they had been stockpiling food and supplies for the winter. Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie, leading the 4th U.S. Cavalry, departed Fort Clark, Texas on August 15, reached Fort Concho on the 21st and the mouth of Blanco Canyon on the 23rd with eight companies plus three from the 10th Infantry and one from the 11th Infantry. Mackenzie's orders from General Christopher C. Augur stated he was "at liberty to follow the Indians wherever they go, even to the Agencies."
Mackenzie formed three columns, the first column consisting of eight companies of the 4th Cavalry and two infantry companies, the second column under Lt. Col. George P. Buell consisting of five companies of the 9th Cavalry, one from the 10th Cavalry, and two infantry companies, and the third column under Lt. Col. John W. Davidson consisting of eight companies of the 10th Cavalry and two infantry companies. The first column moved north along the edge of the Staked Plains, the second advanced up the Red River and the third marched from Fort Sill. By September 25, Indians began to gather around Mackenzie's troops so that on the night of September 26–27, they were attacked near Tule Canyon and Boehm's Canyon, resulting in the deaths of 15 warriors including the Kiowa chief Woman Heart.
Early in September, Tonkawa and Black Seminole Scouts in advance of the 4th Cavalry were ambushed by Comanche near the Staked Plains and escaped with their lives. The scouts relayed and alerted the Comanche position to Mackenzie.
Early on the morning of September 28, two of Mackenzie's Tonkawa scouts found a "fresh trail" and Mackenzie resumed the march, reaching a "wide and yawning chasm" at dawn, where they could see the Indian lodges. Mackenzie's cavalry dismounted and led their horses single-file along a narrow zig-zag path.
Mackenzie first hit Chief Lone Wolf's Kiowa camp and routed it. Chiefs Poor Buffalo and Lone Wolf and the Indians managed to get away, leaving behind their possessions and horses, climbing up both sides of the canyon. The Indian warriors began firing on the troops from 800–1000 feet above, making "it so hot", it prompted one to say, "How will we ever get out of here", to which Mackenzie stated, "I brought you in, I will take you out". Part of the command started a retreat up the "precipitous cliffs" from which they had descended while others pulled down the lodges, chopped up the lodge poles, and burned all of the Indian belongings in huge bonfires. Almost 2000 horses were captured and moved from the canyon with the remaining troops by 4 PM. Mackenzie's troops made it back to their supply camp in Tule Canyon on the morning of the 29th.
The Indian Wars encompass more than three centuries of armed conflict between the United States government, American settlers, and Indigenous nations — from the Powhatan Wars of the 1620s through the final Plains campaigns of the late 19th century. The eastern conflicts — King Philip's War (1675–1676), the Tuscarora War (1711–1715), and the Creek and Seminole Wars — largely ended organized Indigenous resistance east of the Mississippi by the 1840s. On the Great Plains, the Sioux Wars (1854–1890), Red River War (1874–1875), and Nez Perce War (1877) followed the displacement wrought by the transcontinental railroad and the near-extinction of the American bison — an estimated 30 to 60 million animals reduced to fewer than 1,000 by 1890. The Ghost Dance religious movement and the massacre at Wounded Knee (December 29, 1890), in which US cavalry killed approximately 250 Lakota men, women, and children, marked the effective end of armed resistance. The Dawes Act (1887) allotted reservation land to individual families, opening millions of acres to white settlement and reducing Indigenous landholdings by about two-thirds over the following decades.
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