whites nearby had stayed in their homes. They knew this was a matter between the Pawnee and the Lakota. However, the attackers killed a mixed blood Omaha woman living with a blacksmith and a mixed blood Pawnee interpreter, Louis LaChapelle. With the attackers away, some from the mission hurried to the village. Here they, "...saw the dead, burning lodges also saw the confusion, heard the screeks & cries of the women and children ...". The Lakota had killed more than 65 Pawnee, among them chief Blue Coat. The Pawnee claimed they had neutralized many Lakotas, who had been carried off by their comrades. Later The day after the battle, missionary Samuel Allis helped burying a few of the dead. Far from the village, he found three Pawnees, killed and mutilated. Dead horses lay both in and out of the Indian town. Many of the villagers had already left the area, leaving early for the tribal summer hunt on the open plains. The Lakota had recognized the unique Medicine Arrow of the Cheyennes. They gave it back to their allies, who already were in possession of one of the arrows lost 13 years before. "... the Brule Sioux captured a Pawnee village ... and in this camp they found another of the Medicine Arrows, which they returned to our tribe with great ceremonies" retells George Bent. (According to Bent, this was in 1837, but four Lakota winter counts give the year as 1843). The next year some Pawnee braves told Lieutenant J. Henry Carleton about their plight. The Lakotas "burned our lodges and murdered our women and children". Carleton grieved over the death of Blue Coat. He had met the chief at Council Bluff one time and exchanged presents with him. The deserted Pawnee village was not yet rebuilt, the refugees went to live in other villages. Likely, military surveyor G. K. Warren refers to Blue Coat's village in his 1857 expedition journal. "The [village] ... was lately deserted. The charred upright beams still standing". The fighting between the Pawnees and the Lakotas continued. During the summer of 1845 a Lakota war party burned down "many earthlodges", while the inhabitants were away on a tribal hunt. Again, in 1860, some Lakotas set fire to "more than 60 lodges" in a Pawnee village, assisted by Cheyennes and Arapahos. References 1843 in North America Conflicts in 1843 Nance County, Nebraska - Lakota Pawnee