Pawnee Killer-Oglala Sioux war leader

Pawnee Killer



Oglala Sioux war leader (1856-1870).
Pawnee Killer was not a chief but a war leader
of Little Wounds band of the Oglala Sioux
which frequently ranged south of the Platte
and lived and fought with the Southern Cheyennes;
he was a close friend of Turkey Leg, a noted Cheyenne chief,
and often operated with him and his people.
After Sand Creek the Pawnee Killer followers
were camped in the present Cheyenne County, Kansas,
along with some Arapahoes and Cheyennes.
Pawnee Killer was in the attack on Julesburg, Colorado,
January 7, 1865. He was in the Fetterman fight
of December 1866 north of Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming,
until that time the greatest white debacle in the western Indian wars.
He collaborated with Red Cloud and Blue Horse, Sioux;
with Strong Wolf, Little Wolf and Dull Knife, Cheyennes,
and with Black Coal and Eagle Head, Arapahoes.

In mid-April 1867 Pawnee Killer`s people
were camped with the Southern Cheyenne in central Kansas
when Hancock arrived and after the Indian slipped away,
burned their Villages. In May Pawnee Killer
and Turkey Leg conferred briefly with Custer,
but with no important result, and a bit later Pawnee Killer`s warriors
and some Cheyenne Dog Soldiers attacked a Custer wagon trail;
no one was killed. June 24, 1867, Captain Louis Hamilton
of the 7th Cavalry was engaged by Pawnee Killer
and 45 of his men in a fight near the forks
of the Republican River in Kansas; entrapped they would
have been annihilated save that the Sioux were poorly armed
while the soldiers were not; the Indians had to open the trap
and let the enemy go. Pawnee Killer led the Indians
who wiped out the Kidder party July 12, 1867.
Whether he was in the fight at Beecher Island in September 1868
is uncertain; his village was in the vicinity. In 1869 the Soux camps
between the Arkansas and Platte twice were struck by 5th Cavalry units.
Little is known of Pawnee Killer after that year.
His people ultimately settled on the Red Cloud Agency of Dakota
where Little Wound was a close collaborator with Red Cloud.


(Julius Meyer, Spotted Tail, Iron Bull and Pawnee Killer, about 1875)

~U-ne-ga-wa-ya~