Warbonnet Battlefield Site

On the summit of a conical hill on the Oglala National Grassland is a monument honoring Col. Wesley Merritt and troops of the Fifth US Calvary who used this position to prevent a group of approximately 800 Cheyenne Indians from joining the victors of the Little Big Horn Battle. As the troops charged toward the southeast, the Cheyenne returned to the Red Cloud Indian Agency near Fort Robinson. The Indian leader, Yellowhand, was killed during the skirmish and Buffalo Bill Cody obtained the scalp and displayed it in his Wild West Show as “The First Scalp for Custer.” An eyewitness account of this skirmish can be found in Campaigning With Crook by Capt. Charles King. This same hilltop was the site of a civilian “fort” used in protecting area residents in case of Indian attack during the Ghost Dance troubles of 1890. The anticipated attack never came.