"In 1874, U.S. forces led by Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie carried out a surprise attack on several Cheyenne, Comanche, and Kiowa bands that had taken refuge in the Palo Duro Canyon of the Texas panhandle and destroyed their winter stores and horses. After this devastating loss, many of these Indians returned to their reservations and effectively brought to a close what has come to be known as the Red River War, a campaign carried out by the U.S. Army during 1874 as a result of Indian attacks on white settlers in the region. After this operation, the Southern Plains Indians would never again pose a coherent threat to whites' expansion and settlement across their ancestral homelands."--Cover flap.

Historical overview: the Southern Plains Indians -- Field and laboratory methods -- Historiography and archival research by Martha Doty Freeman -- Army and Indian strategies, tactics, and weapons -- The war begins -- The indians take the offensive -- Outnumbered twenty-five to one -- The Indians elude the 8th Cavalry -- The turning point of the war -- A most desperate fight.