Historic Indian battle forms part of ranch family's heritage
ANNA KOCH Star-Tribune correspondent | Posted: Monday, April 2, 2007 12:00 am
KAYCEE - Thousands of children grew up playing cowboys and Indians, but few lived as close to a site of an American Indian battlefield as Ken Graves of Barnum.
Ken is the fourth generation of the Graves family to own and operate the Red Fork Ranch, whose headquarters are just across a dirt road from the battle site acknowledging one of the last major confrontations between Indians and the U.S. military.
The Dull Knife battle took place Nov. 25, 1876, a little more than six months to the day after the defeat of George Armstrong Custer and his troops at the Little Big Horn.
Graves, known as "Kenny" to friends and family, says his great-grandfather, Charley Graves, bought the land along the Red Fork of the Powder River from the original settler. After several years, the Graves holdings were divided between Charley's sons, Noble and Frank. The descendants of both families still work the land in the colorful shadows of the Red Wall and Fraker Mountains.
Ken and his siblings, Joyce Reculusa, Bonnie Smith and Lee Graves, have happy memories of their grandparents, Frank and Fannie Graves, who settled early in the 20th century and spent more than 50 years on their ranch. Their son, Norris, and his wife, Mae, took over the family operation early in 1940. Fourth-generation Ken and his wife, Cheri, raise both grade and registered Angus cattle and have reared three members of the fifth generation of Red Fork Graveses - their three daughters, Kendi, Lyndi and Neteal.
First owner of the land was Harmon Fraker, a trapper and general entrepreneur who built the first buildings. He constructed the old homestead cabin with its massive logs. That building was used by three generations of Graveses as a sort of storage place, milk room and a site to hang the laundry during bad weather. Then Ken and Cheri decided to remodel the home where Frank and Fannie lived. Today, the house is a stylish, modern facility, and the original cabin logs with their polished look serves as a combined living room/library and an artifact repository for numerous items retrieved from the ranch land.
"I knew early on that the field where my grandfather and dad put up hay was a special place," Graves said. "I really recall more than anything picking up rocks off that land so it could be productive."
Over the years a number of historians and other visitors came to the ranch to see the battle site, he said. Among them was Luther North, whose brother, Major Frank North, was the organizer and commander of Pawnee scouts who assisted the U.S. military. Luther North came back to the site in the mid-1920s.
"My dad's older sister, Nona, was just a child, but she remembers Luther North's visit," Graves said. "Quite a few other veterans have also visited here."
About the battle
The Dull Knife battle was part of the U.S. military's campaign against the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes that followed the battle of Little Big Horn. Gen. George Crook led the campaign, in which he sought out bands of Indians in their winter camps.
According to historical accounts, as they approached the night before the battle, Crook's troops and their allies could clearly hear the muffled tones of the Indian drums and sound of the chanting that went along with traditional dancing.
Dull Knife's Cheyenne name was Morning Star, but he was called Dull Knife by the Sioux, the hidden meaning being that he was such a tough chief that it would dull a knife if any enemies tried to stab him. He and his people were camped in the Red Fork valley.
As dawn broke, the sleeping village was awakened by the sound of hoofs as the U.S. troops charged up the valley. The Indian warriors grabbed their guns and ammunition and attempted to stop the invaders, but the soldiers and their allies charged on through the village. The warriors hurried their women and children up to the surrounding hills. The troops finally burned the village and destroyed everything in their path. History records at least three separate versions of the conflagration.
The Indians made one last brave stand, but there was no attempt made to stay in the valley of the Red Fork.
The U.S. military lost a lieutenant and five troopers, with about 25 troopers wounded. According to the late T. J. Gatchell's writings, the Indians' loss was 23 dead, including babies who died because of improper protection from the vicious weather.
As parents who have reared infants in the valley during the winter, Ken and Cheri Graves often ponder how difficult it must have been for the mothers to take their children up the steep mountain to safety.
"That is a difficult climb, even in good weather," Cheri said. "The Indian women must have been incredibly tough even to attempt it."