Pawnee leader Blue Coat's village near the Loup River in Nebraska at a site called Plum Creek was attacked by a group of Lakota fighters on June 27, 1843. This was the worst blow to the Pawnee people until the attack in Massacre Canyon by the Lakota in 1873. Between 65 and 70 Pawnees were killed, scalped and mutilated, few of the earth lodges were burnt Background In the 1840s, the four divisions of Pawnee were living in villages of earth lodges along tributaries of the Loup River. The village of the Kitkahahki (or Republican) Pawnee people led by Blue Coat was located near Plum Creek, north of the Loup, in present Nance County, Nebraska. The village had 41 earth lodges of Pitahawiratas (or Tapages) and in addition "14 lodges of Republicans". (Some sources report a total of 41 lodges). The whites in a newly established Presbyterian mission about a mile away had an open view to the earth lodges. For decades, the Pawnee and the Lakota had been enemies. "While the Pawnee power base was shrinking, their old enemies, the Lakota, were gaining strength...". The days before the attack, the villagers found worn out moccasins and feathers in the grass as well as signs of strangers moving around at night. The battle A 300 strong force, possible of Brulé and Oglala Lakotas, made a large-scale attack on the village at dawn on June 27. "The enemy was so numerous they formed a line from the bluff to the river, which is over a mile". Waves of mounted warriors, many with firearms, dashed through the village. The Pawnee sent couriers out for help and protected as many earth lodges as possible. "Some of the women and children frightened and thinking themselves unsafe in the lodges ran out and started for the river and thus fell an easy prey to the enemy. Some children were taken captive". Around 8 o'clock, the attackers were in control of nearly half the village and set 20 lodges ablaze. Likely, it was at this occasion that a Lakota stumbled on one of the Cheyenne's four sacred arrows, the Mahuts. The Pawnee had won them in 1830, and Blue Coats's village may have watched over one of the trophies. Before noon, the hard-pressed inhabitants got reinforcement from villages further west. The Lakota retreated, taking around 200 of the Pawnees' horses with them. During the attack, the