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.

This is the only "Battle of Ash Hollow" known in history, that really took place on the geographical location.

Meanwhile the young chief left with the braves to the defense of the rear were marooned on the top of Court House Rock and the situation was very desperate. He went out alone at night and plead with the god Ti-wa-ra to show him some avenue of escape, and the answer came. He went near the edge of the rock and found one of the perforations that extended downward into darkness. He tied his lariat and the lariats of others together, and fastened the upper end to a jutting rock

point, and let himself down into the hole or "well" as it is called. At its bottom he found an opening large enough for a man to crawl through, and it was unguarded. He climbed back up the rope to await the following night.

When the darkness came over the land he called his men together, and told them of his plan for escape, and they all crawled to the edge where the perforation in the brule rocks made the well. One by one they went down the rope, and crawled out through the hole at the bottom and away in the darkness. And the last to go was the young chief.