Battle of Powder River

Battle of Powder River
Part of the Big Horn Expedition, Great Sioux War of 1876
The Powder River looking north on the battlefield.
Date March 17, 1876 Location Powder River, Montana Territory, 45 09 86 N 105 85 60 W Result Native American Victory
Belligerents
Northern Cheyenne Oglala Lakota Sioux	United States
Commanders and leaders
Two Moon He Dog Little Coyote Short Bull Wooden Leg	Joseph J. Reynolds Anson Mills John G. Bourke Frederick W. Sibley Frank Grouard
Strength
100-250	383
Casualties and losses
4-6 killed, including women and children 3 wounded	4 killed 6 wounded 66 frostbitten

The Battle of Powder River, also known as the Reynolds Battle, occurred on Friday, March 17, 1876, in Montana Territory, United States. The attack on a Cheyenne Indian encampment by Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds initiated the Great Sioux War of 1876. Although destroying a large amount of Indian property, the attack was poorly carried out and probably solidified Lakota Sioux and northern Cheyenne resistance to the U.S. attempt to force them to sell the Black Hills and live on a reservation.

The Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) granted the Lakota Sioux and their northern Cheyenne allies a reservation, including the Black Hills, in Dakota Territory and a large area of "unceded territory" in what became Montana and Wyoming. Both areas were for the exclusive use of the Indians, and whites, except for government officials, were forbidden to trespass. In 1874, the discovery of gold in the Black Hills caused the United States to attempt to buy the Black Hills from the Sioux. The U.S. ordered all bands of Lakota and Cheyenne to come to the Indian agencies on the reservation by January 31, 1876 to negotiate the sale. Some of the bands did not comply and when the deadline of January 31 passed, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Q. Smith, wrote that "without the receipt of any news of Sitting Bull's submission, I see no reason why...military operations against him should not commence at once." On February 8, 1876, General Phillip Sheridan telegraphed Generals George R. Crook and Alfred Howe Terry, ordering them to undertake winter campaigns against the "hostiles".

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