On the night of September 9, 1878, eightynine men and two hundred and forty-six women and children, vanished in the darkness, leaving their tepees standing to deceive the soldiers. As soon as the departure was discovered, hundred of troops from a half dozen posts, were detailed to overtake or intercept them. Guards were placed along the Kansas Pacific and the Union Pacific railroads to prevent their crossing and engines with steam up and ready to go, were held in waiting to be instantly away, when the wires would flash the news that they had been discovered.

In spite of all this, the desperate little band of fugitives swept across Oklahoma and Kansas, killing more than forty settlers, and burning houses, and committing other outrages. Remounting on two hundred and fifty freshly captured horses, they crossed the Kansas Pacific between the patrols, and a few hours ahead of the pursuing party. On October tenth, after they had reached the Sand Hills of Nebraska, the troops temporarily abandoned the chase.

In their flight of five hundred miles, they had, besides the damage inflicted on the settlements, fought three engagements, each time with more than twice their number, and with a total loss of only fifteen Indians killed.

From prisoners taken later, it was learned that they were trying to reach their kinsmen in Montana, where they intended to surrender if they would he allowed to remain in the north. < Itherwise they were intending to push on, and join Sitting Bull in Canada.