Massacre at Slim Buttes ,

Great Sioux Reservation, South Dakota
September 09, 1876

Agencies: Unspecified

Cause of death: Not Yet Known


Follow This Case


Last updated: almost 6 years ago

Overview

The Battle of Slim Buttes was fought on September 9 and 10, 1876, in the Great Sioux Reservation in the Dakota Territory, between the United States Army and the Sioux.

The Battle of Slim Buttes was the first U.S. Army victory of the Great Sioux War of 1876 after George Armstrong Custer's defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn on June 25 and 26, 1876. Brigadier General George Crook, one of the U.S. Army’s ablest Indian fighters, led the "Horsemeat March," one of the most grueling military expeditions in U.S. history, destroying Oglala Chief American Horse’s village at Slim Buttes and repelling a counter-attack by Crazy Horse.

The American public was fixated on news of the Indian Wars after the defeat of Custer at the Little Bighorn, and war correspondents with national newspapers accompanied Crook and reported the events.

The Battle of Slim Buttes signaled a series of punitive blows that ultimately broke Sioux armed resistance to reservation captivity and forced their loss of the Black Hills.

Community and Family Efforts

#NativeLivesMatter