Some troops began to collect the great wealth that was in many of the tepees–prime pelts of beaver, deer and elk, great buffalo robes and huge quantities of food, all of which were to have been traded by the Indians for guns and ammunition. Reynolds found out he was fighting Crazy Horse’s Sioux band of 100 lodges, and that 40 lodges of Cheyenne had escaped from the Red Cloud Agency to join Crazy Horse. The colonel may have decided he could not defeat the combined forces. At any rate, he suddenly ordered a retreat, even though the troops had only begun collecting the riches in the tepees. When Crook came up to help finish the job, he could not hide his bitter disappointment. His column could have destroyed or at least seriously crippled the ability of this strong combination of Sioux and Cheyennes to make war. Reynolds’ order to retreat destroyed that opportunity.

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Reynolds was court-martialed and suspended from command for a year. The Army had not achieved a complete victory at the Battle of Powder River. In fact, the Sioux and Cheyenne decided they had won a very important victory, and it gave them great confidence for the future.

General Crook knew he had to mount another large campaign. On May 29, 1876, he was ready again. Bands of Crows and Shoshones joined him, and Crook’s column started up the Rosebud River as part of a three-column push into Wyoming and Montana territories. Crook was worried because he had not heard from the columns under General Alfred Terry and Colonel John Gibbons, and he needed their support.

On June 17, Crazy Horse attacked with 1,500 men. ‘The broken terrain fragmented the fighting and made central command almost impossible,’ historian Robert Utley noted. It was basically every man for himself, with the troops spread along a thin line three miles long. Never before had Sioux and Cheyenne warriors fought so boldly. They raced their horses toward the troops at a dead run, often breaking through the soldiers’ line. Crook and his Indian allies finally managed to stop the attacks, and Crook counterattacked when he could. When Crazy Horse’s assaults failed repeatedly, the warriors halted their efforts. Years later, a Cheyenne warrior said they quit the fight because they were tired and hungry. At the time, Crook’s contemporaries agreed that he had defeated the Indians, and the Army called it a victory. Some writers today say it was a defeat because it allowed the huge Indian force to go on to the Greasy Grass area, where Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer unfortunately found them on June 25. In fairness it should be said that no one knew where the Indians would go after the Rosebud fight. The Indians could not easily maintain large forces. The Battle of the Rosebud was probably the only time Crook was not a definite victor in his many Indian battles.

Washakie, the greatest Shoshone chief, joined Crook with more warriors, but he advised Crook to wait for more soldiers. He said that Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull would soon have to break up their great force to obtain food, and that many of the warriors would want to go to their families. Lieutenant General Philip Sheridan agreed, and he sent word of the terrible fate of one of Terry’s columns, the one under Custer, at the Little Bighorn.

In September, Crook found and destroyed the camp of American Horse, Roman Nose and Iron Shield. Crazy Horse arrived and attacked but soon gave up the fight and left the area. That winter, Crook defeated Dull Knife, the great Cheyenne, and destroyed his essential war supplies. Soon Arapahos, Utes, Bannocks, Shoshones, Crows and Winnebagos wanted to fight their old enemies, the Sioux. The hostiles began returning to the reservations in great numbers. Even Crazy Horse came in and surrendered with 1,100 people on May 6, 1877.

The last great battles on the Plains were finished. When Crazy Horse later left the reservation, trying to take his band north to live the old wild, free life, his own people stopped him. In a guardhouse fight, Crazy Horse was killed, probably by a soldier’s bayonet. Chief Touch The Clouds said, ‘It is good; he has looked for death and it has come.’

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