Then the old dun horse died, and disasters fell thick and fast upon the Pawnees.

The Sioux made it so uncomfortable that the Pawnees decided to retire some distance down the river, having no particular objective, and to cover their retreat, they left a number of the braves to keep the Sioux engaged while the main village was moving. And these were attacked by the Sioux with such fierceness of purpose that they were driven to the top of Court House Rock for refuge.

About the base of the rock camped a number of the Sioux, w,ith the evident intention of starving them to come down, or to their death.

Meanwhile the main Sioux bodies hurried on after the retreating village. This they overtook, and engaged in the final struggle for possession of the upper Platte river, at Ash Hollow, in about the year 1835. It was the fiercest of all their engagements.

The battle raged all day, beginning with the dawn. In the early part of the conflict, the air was filled with arrows. Then after all their ammunition was gone, they fought on hand to hand, with battle axes and tomahawks until darkness settled over the land. The Sioux were victorious in the end, but at such cost, such frightful loss, that they were willing to let their hereditary enemy depart without further engagement.

Under the stars and moon forty-six Sioux and sixty Pawnees were cold in death, and

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

many another nursed his wounds. The Pawnees were so humiliated and discouraged, that they retired three hundred miles farther down the river, and gave up their claim to the North Platte valley. In the new land they have worked out the fulfillment of their destiny, and their merging into the races of civilized mankind takes place through the medium of the school at Genoa.