Qualla: Battle of Slim Buttes

Battle of Slim Buttes: Introduction

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. Captain Anson Mills was not looking for a fight. He was looking for food. His 150 cavalrymen had been reduced to eating their horses after weeks of pursuing the Sioux through the Dakota wilderness. General Crook had sent Mills toward the Black Hills mining town of Deadwood to find supplies. Instead, on the evening of September 8, 1876, the captain found thirty-seven Miniconjou Sioux lodges nestled in a depression among the buttes near present-day Reva, South Dakota. What followed was the army's first significant victory since Custer's catastrophic defeat at Little Bighorn three months earlier.

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Image: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided | Public domain

Battle of Slim Buttes: Starving Soldiers

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Morrow, Stanley J., Yankton, S.D., Public domain. The Great Sioux War had become a desperate affair by late summer 1876. Generals Terry and Crook led their men on an unsuccessful chase through mud, rain, and exhaustion. By August 18, Terry's force had given up and returned to base. Crook pressed on, but his supplies ran out. He ...

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Image: Morrow, Stanley J., Yankton, S.D. | Public domain

Battle of Slim Buttes: Dawn Attack

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Morrow, Stanley J., Yankton, S.D., Public domain. Mills surrounded the village overnight. At dawn on September 9, his troopers attacked, shooting anyone who resisted. The Miniconjou fled in panic. Their leader, American Horse, was mortally wounded. He retreated to a nearby ravine with fifteen women and children, holding out unti...

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Image: Morrow, Stanley J., Yankton, S.D. | Public domain

Battle of Slim Buttes: Crazy Horse Arrives

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Morrow, Stanley J., Yankton, S.D., Public domain. The survivors had reported encountering perhaps 150 soldiers. When Crazy Horse and six to eight hundred warriors rode ten miles northward to counterattack, they discovered something far worse. Crook's main column of infantry, artillery, and additional cavalry had arrived. From th...

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Image: Morrow, Stanley J., Yankton, S.D. | Public domain

Battle of Slim Buttes: Ghosts of Little Bighorn

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Morrow, Stanley J., Yankton, S.D., Public domain. Among the 110 ponies and supplies of dried meat the soldiers captured, they found something that stopped them cold: relics from the Battle of Little Bighorn. A 7th Cavalry guidon from Company I. The bloody gauntlets of Captain Myles Keogh, killed alongside Custer. Government-issu...

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Image: Morrow, Stanley J., Yankton, S.D. | Public domain

Battle of Slim Buttes: The Long Pursuit Ends

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Royce, Charles C. Map maker unknown, Public domain. Crook led his famished soldiers away from the smoldering village on September 10, headed for the Black Hills. The Sioux harassed them for days, keeping up a running fight until September 15, when the column finally reached a supply train. The war would continue through winter. Du...

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Image: Royce, Charles C. Map maker unknown | Public domain