A returning “Pike’s Peaker” arrived in Indianola, Kan., on July 28, 1860, bringing news of a terrible Indian fight in the Solomon River valley.

The news created quite a stir in town, as several well-known individuals from west of Indianola had gone out on the plains with Pottawatomies and others to hunt buffalo.

Among the hunters were prominent men from the Silver Lake area. The Leavenworth-Fort Riley military road intersected with the California-Oregon Trail near Silver Lake making the location ideal for trade.

The names of Lafromboise, Beaubien, Ogee, and Darling were among the men who joined the hunt, “for the sake of excitement and pleasure ...”

No first names were given, but Joseph Lafromboise was chief of the Pottawatomies, having settled at Silver Lake in 1847. Madore Beaubien was interpreter for the Pottawatomies and operated a log cabin store on the east bank of the lake. There were several Ogees who operated ferries on the Kansas River south of Silver Lake. Darling’s ferry was another Kansas River ferry operated by Lucius Darling.

Mr. Alford Love Davidson of Indianola provided the report to the Topeka Weekly Commonwealth. Davidson told of narrowly escaping the same wild tribes, the Cheyennes, Arapahos, and Sioux, while with another hunting party only 15 miles from the reported attack on the Pottawatomies.

Originally, Davidson’s party had intended to join the Pottawatomie hunters, but had missed them at the appointed rendezvous. Davidson and 15 men, supported by a small caravan of four wagons, camped at the site of a previous fight between the wild tribes and the Pawnees on Salt Creek (north of present-day Lincoln, Kan.).

Mr. Davidson related that two pioneers who were hunting in the vicinity witnessed “the fearful scene” of the fight between the wild tribes and the Pawnees.

Thousands of mounted combatants constantly circled, “lying down in their saddles, and firing over their horses’ necks as they approached the enemy.” There were many dead, but just how many were killed they could not say. The witnesses watched for two hours when the Pawnees finally broke and hurtled away with the wild tribes racing after them.

The story of the fight was reported in another column of the same paper by a Mr. D. Holland, although he claimed it was on the Republican River. Having witnessed the fight he related that the Cheyennes attacked the Pawnees at daybreak. The Pawnees fled after an hour and a half of fighting.

“Quite a number of ponies were taken, but the number of Indians killed and wounded could not be ascertained.”

Davidson’s party suddenly came upon a large camp of approximately 1,000 Indians. The hunters were immediately surrounded by warriors “making hostile demonstrations.”

But thinking that a large party of Pottawatomies were approaching the warriors stopped short of killing. It was a delusion the hunters encouraged until they got clear of their troublesome visitors.

The rumors of so many Cheyennes and their allies brought a state of panic to the frontier settlements even though the Cheyennes were known to be peaceful at the time. Families packed up everything they could carry and abandoned their homes for the safety of larger settlements. Rumors spread like wildfire of attacks on isolated cabins. Settlers were said to have been killed, although the deaths again could not be confirmed.

There had been many rumors throughout the summer of 1860. Kiowas and Comanches were causing trouble far to the southwest on the Santa Fe Trail. The army sent mounted soldiers into the field to seek out and “punish” the offending warriors. Very few warriors were found. Scattered incidents fueled wild speculation. Newspapermen were seeing “hostiles” behind every blade of grass.

News of 300 to 400 dead Pottawatomies on the Solomon River brought great concern to the Topeka and Indianola communities. The “Terrible Indian Fight” was said to have been about 100 miles northwest of Fort Riley, placing it very near the sacred Great Spirit springs of Wakonda. Plains Indians of every tribe were known to visit the site, making an encounter all the more plausible. That a “Pikes Peaker” had seen the battle ground was also plausible as the Leavenworth and Pikes Peak stage road passed just east of the reported battle site.

To everyone’s relief Mr. Lafromboise and the others returned unharmed, but offered no details of the fight. Strange to say, no more reports of the fight or the supposed deaths were published.

After extensive research the editor of the Lawrence Western Home Journal set the matter straight in his Aug. 11, 1860, edition saying, “The difficulties have been much magnified. No battle of any consequence has occurred between the Indians of the Kansas reserves and the wild Indians, and very little consequence between the troops and the Indians.” With that he boldly declared, “The Pawnee battle on Solomon is a hoax ...”

As cultures clashed, rumors flourished, requiring one to be on guard when reading newspaper stories about the wild frontier on The Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS. Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st Road, Geneseo, Kan. Phone: (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.