Massacre Canyon

Half a century after the attack, Trenton's citizens set out to commemorate it. In 1923 they brought Lakota people (the plaque's Sioux) from the Pine Ridge Reservation to mark what they called the last fight, the first of the annual Trenton Pow Wows, which ran into the late 1950s. No Pawnee came until 1925, and even then feelings ran deep: only on the second day would the Pawnee survivors sit down with the Lakota and smoke the pipe of peace. The first commemoration of the canyon was a town's festival, and the Pawnee were its guests.

What the plaque says

Massacre Canyon The adjacent stone monument erected in 1930 was first placed about a mile south of this area. Originally on the highway overlooking the canyon, it was moved to this location after the highway was relocated. Massacre Canyon is the large canyon about half a mile west of here. The battle took place in and along this canyon when a Pawnee hunting party of about 700, confident of protection from the government, was surprised by a War Party of Sioux. The Pawnee, badly outnumbered and completely surprised, retreated into the head of the canyon about two miles northwest of here. The battle was the retreat of the Pawnee down the canyon to the Republican. The Pawnee reached the Republican River, about a mile and a half south of here, and crossed to the other side. The Sioux were ready to pursue them still further, but a unit of cavalry arrived and prevented further fighting. The defeat so broke the strength and spirit of the tribe that it moved from its reservation in central Nebraska to Oklahoma. Historical Land Mark Council

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Massacre Canyon Monument — steps away
  A granite shaft east of Trenton above the canyon where Lakota warriors attacked a Pawnee buffalo-hunting camp on August 5, 1873, a year before the Pawnee left Nebraska.
• Senator George Norris State Historic Site — 18 mi
  The McCook house George W. Norris kept as his home base for forty-two years, given to the state with its furniture by his wife Ellie, by the senator who wrote the lame-duck amendment.

More markers nearby

• Culbertson, First Hitchcock County Seat — 6.8 mi
• Stone Church — 10 mi
• Prisoners of War in Hitchcock County — 12 mi
• The Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express — 15 mi