The Battle of Sappa Creek

This Day in Kansas History

In northwestern Kansas in what is today Rawlins County just 14 miles south of the present-day town of Atwood lies the site of the last battle of the Red River War which was fought between 1874 and 1875. It was at this location known as Sappa Creek to the white man and as Black Water Creek to the Cheyenne that the bloodiest battle was fought between Southern Cheyenne and the U.S. 6th Calvary. On April 23, 1875, one of the most controversial engagements between whites and Native Americans took place and still to this day it is unknown exactly what happened on the banks of Sappa Creek. Southern Cheyenne leader Little Bull was told of the unrest at the Cheyenne reservation in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) and decided to move his people north at the beginning of April 1875. They moved above the Arkansas River with two other smaller groups of Cheyenne led by Sand Hill and Bull Elk. The move proved difficult for the Cheyenne as fleeing north meant trying to avoid towns, farms, and ranches. There were also telegraph wires and railroads that crisscrossed the landscape. They struggled to find food as buffalo were almost gone in Kansas. When Little Bull and his followers reached the middle fork of Sappa Creek they were in need of both food and rest. They made camp where the creek formed a horseshoe shaped bend. There were bluffs that rose to the north and south protecting them from the wind. By treaty this land was Cheyenne hunting ground and was way off the beaten path for the white man. This knowledge probably made Little Bull feel safe.

By mid-April the Commander of the Department of the Missouri at Fort Leavenworth General John Pope had heard of a small band of Cheyenne that had stolen cattle from cowboys near Fort Wallace, KS. He immediately sent a telegraph to Fort Lyon, Colorado Territory where there were available Calvary troops. He sent orders to pursue the Indians and this fell to Second Lieutenant Austin Henely and the 40 men of H Company, 6th Calvary. They arrived at Fort Wallace on April 18 and early the next morning Henely and his troops set out with the post trader Homer Wheeler as their guide. It’s important to note that Henely’s orders were to intercept the Indians and return them to Indian Territory and he was only to fight them if they resisted. On April 20, Henely and his men picked up the Indians trail but that night thunderstorms blew through and made the trail difficult to follow. On the morning of April 22 they met a group of Buffalo hunters who were old friends of Wheelers and told Henely that the Cheyenne’s had looted their camp just the day before and were now just 18 miles away camped on the banks of Sappa Creek. Three of the hunters—Hank Campbell, Charles Schroeder and Samuel Scrack—left with Wheeler after nightfall to locate the Cheyenne village. By 2 AM on April 23 they had found what they were looking for and returned to inform Henely. It wasn’t long before Henely and his men moved out following behind Wheeler who was soon out ahead and pinpointed exactly where the Indians horse herd was. There are some accounts of what happened that say that there were up to 25 Buffalo hunters with the soldiers; however, in his official report, Henely never mentions the hunter which is one of what some believe to be many omissions by Henely in his report.

The plan was to send in a detail of men to kill the herders and capture the horses, then a handful of troopers would guard the supply wagon. Henely would lead the rest of the men in an attack on the Indian camp; however, near dawn, as Wheeler got close enough to see the lodges he also saw an Indian, most likely a herder, running to warn the camp. Wheeler informed Henely of what he had witnessed. What happened next is unclear but it is safe to say that Henely and his men charged down the bluffs to the Southwest of the camp to a draw that brought them to the middle fork of Sappa Creek. The water was high, but this didn’t stop the men and they made it to the north bank on horseback. By this time many of the Cheyenne had fled while others had chosen to take up good defensive positions not just in gullies but also in holes which they had dug earlier and were now trying to deepen. One account of what happened states that an Indian wearing a buffalo horned headdress that trailed to the ground approached the soldiers and tried to communicate using sign language. According to author Mari Sandoz who, in her book, “Cheyenne Autumn” wrote that this man was Medicine Arrow or Stone Forehead the Keeper of the Sacred Arrows and that he was shot down trying to make peace. However according to William Y. Chalfant, author of, “Cheyennes at Dark Water Creek: The Last Fight of the Red River War” Stone Forehead was already in the North and nowhere near Sappa Creek. The more likely scenario is from the account of the Cheyenne which says that this was the village leader Little Bull who tried to arrange a truce. He was killed along with an old Cheyenne named Dirty Water after White Bear, acting alone, killed the Sergeant who had gone forward to meet Little Bull.

According to Henely’s report he ordered his men to dismount and to fight on foot which seemed to cause the Indians to open fire. However, Sandoz and others believe that the buffalo hunters were the first to fire from their positions on the high ground to the north and east of the camp. The soldier returned fire and moved to higher ground to the north as they did so. Henely got his men to settle after a failed charge from some of the over eager men led to the deaths of a Private and a Sergeant. Both sides exchanged volleys of fire from safe positions with the Indians using a combination of rifles and bows and arrows. The Indians soon reduced their fire presumably because they were running out of ammo. The supposedly Indian men and women began to jump up from pits and holes then quickly ducked again to cover Cheyenne’s escaping. Then on Henely’s orders the soldiers took up strong positions on both ends of the village trapping the Cheyenne in the crossfire. Soon, there was very little fire coming from the Cheyenne and any that were still alive had very little chance of escape or survival. Soldiers and the buffalo hunters thought to be there began going from hole to hole and shooting anything that moved. After these killings, the lodges were looted and the village was burned.

Henely reported that the Cheyenne had refused to surrender and that 27 Cheyenne—19 men and 8 women and children—were killed in the battle. However, Indian Agent John D. Miles at Darlington wrote in a letter dated May 30, 1875 that “a number of Cheyenne’s had arrived from the North and reported that 40 men, women, and children had been killed at Sappa Creek.”  Later, writers and historians would put the numbers as high as 70 or 80 killed. Only two soldiers were killed and when Henely returned to Fort Wallace he had just 8 fire arms that had been recovered. Some of the deceased Indians were more than likely thrown into the burning village and the Cheyenne tell stories of women and children being thrown into the fires alive. Many years after the battle, a Sergeant named Fred Platten wrote that Henely had ordered him to kill a wounded mother and child and throw them into the flames. He refused to and, if this is true, then another soldier must have followed orders because there is no record of a wounded mother and child having been taken prisoner. How many were actually killed at Sappa Creek and how many atrocities were committed there will never be known, but according to Chalfant more Cheyenne died in this one attack than in all other engagements of the Red River War combined. The Army never investigated the battle and instead Henely’s reputation was enhanced and eight of his enlisted men received the nation’s highest honor: the Medal of Honor.

Henely would not live long after the battle as he tried to sell a warbonnet that belonged to a Cheyenne warrior killed at Sappa Creek in 1877 to a Cheyenne Squaw who told him that it would bring bad luck. He, of course, did not believe her, but her words were true and a year later on July 11, 1878, at the age of 30, Henely drowned while trying to cross a stream flooded by heavy rain in Arizona. He was buried first a Fort Bowie and when the Fort closed, he was reinterred in the San Francisco National Cemetery. The eight men who received a Medal of Honor are Private James F. Ayer, Trumpeter Michael Dawson, Private Peter W. Gardiner, Private Simpson Hornaday, Private James Lowthers, Private Marcus M. Robbins, and Sergeant Richard Longstreet Tea, and Sergeant Frederick Platten (who is the same soldier who refused Henely’s order to kill a mother and child).

The Battle of Sappa Creek faded into memory and over the years became known as the Massacre at Cheyenne Hole. It is thought that this attack was the reason for the brutal murders of more than 30 settlers on Sappa and Beaver Creeks in Rawlins County and Decatur County during the Cheyenne’s trek North in the Autumn of 1878. Lost to time, this battle is little known to most, but the Cheyenne still remembers and in recent years so has the State of Kansas.

Today the battle site is part of private property but to protect it from future owners who may disrespect it, the current owners reached out to the Kansas Historical Society to have it protected. In October of 2020, a form was prepared and submitted by Robert J. Hoard of the Kansas Historical Society to the National Register of Historic Places and the U.S Department of the Interior. The site was listed on the Kansas State Register of Historic Places on November 7, 2020, and was officially placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 28, 2021. It is listed in the Category of ‘camp, battles, graves/burials’ which means that it is officially a protected site. Though the exact location is restricted due to it being on private property. However, there is a historical marker located in Atwood at the intersection of Lake Road and North 2nd Street. In the years after the battle, it was argued that it was a massacre rather than a battle that took place on Sappa Creek and over the years many have argued on both sides. However, with its placement on the National Register of Historic Places, the question as to whether it is a battle or massacre seems to have been resolved as it is listed as the Sappa Creek Massacre Site.