Britannica
Sources used in this answer
What happened when Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie attacked Palo Duro Canyon?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Plains Wars
View of the army camp at Hidden Wood Creek during Lieut. Col. George Armstrong Custer's Black Hills expedition, 1874; photograph by W.H. Illingworth.
On September 28, 1874, during the Red River Indian War, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie and his 4th U.S. Cavalry launched a decisive attack on a Kiowa, Comanche, and Southern Cheyenne encampment located in Palo Duro Canyon, Texas.1
While the majority of the Indigenous people were able to escape the immediate assault, the military action had devastating consequences for their ability to resist. Mackenzie’s forces destroyed the village and slaughtered more than 1,000 of the tribes' horses. This destruction of their primary means of transportation and economic support, combined with the relentless pressure of subsequent military campaigns, ultimately shattered the military power of the southern Plains tribes by mid-1875.1