The Battle of the Tongue River is the most significant engagement of the Powder River Expedition.
Connor marches north from Fort Connor and on August 28 Frank North and his Pawnee scouts find an Arapaho village of about six hundred people on the Tongue River near present day Ranchester, Wyoming.
Connor sends in two hundred soldiers with two howitzers and forty Omaha and Winnebago and thirty Pawnee scouts, and march that night toward the village. (The Pawnee, Omaha, and Winnebago tribes are traditional enemies of the Arapaho and their Cheyenne and Lakota allies.)
With mountain man Jim Bridger leading the forces they charge the village, whose leader is Black Bear.
The people in the village are primarily women, children, and old men, as most of the warriors are absent, engaged in a war with the Crow on the Bighorn River.
The few warriors present at the camp put up a strong defense and cover the women and children as most escape beyond the reach of the soldiers and Indian scouts.
The surprised natives flee the village, but regroup and counterattack and Connor is dissuaded from pursuing them.
The battle is a U.S. victory, resulting in sixty-three Arapaho dead, mostly women and children.
After the battle the soldiers burn and loot the abandon tipis and capture eight women and thirteen children, who are subsequently released.
The Pawnee make off with the five hundred horses from the camp's herd as payback for previous raids by the Arapaho.
Connor, who singles out four Winnebago, including chief Little Priest, plus North and fifteen Pawnee for bravery, claims to have killed thirty-five Arapaho warriors, a total probably exaggerated, at a cost to his force of five dead.
Connor now turns around and returns to Fort Connor, harassed en route by the Arapaho.
The Arapaho, who had not been overtly hostile before, now join the Sioux and Cheyenne.
