The Battle at the Sappa was the result of escalating tensions between Indians, US settlers, and the US Government over the issue of land rights and buffalo hunting.

The battle occurred as Henely was chasing after Little Bull's group, which had been sent running in panic caused by a nearby prison break from Black Horse, who was accused of murder, rape, and abuse.

This battle has garnered controversy from several individuals – authors, local settlers, and participants in the fight – over allegations of atrocities committed by Henely and his troops, including ignoring an attempt to parley and burning of living Indians.

President Andrew Johnson removed Hancock from his post and created the Indian Peace Commission in part to repair his actions.

An important part of the treaty read that the Indians "yet reserve the right to hunt on any lands south of the Arkansas River so long as the buffalo range thereon in such numbers as to justify chase.

At the meeting, the Buffalo Chief said he would let the white settlers build the railroad through his land, but he refused to leave western Kansas and eastern Colorado.

Senator John B. Henderson of Missouri took the chiefs aside and told them they could stay on their land until the buffalo were gone if they stood at least 10 miles away from any white settlements or roads.

[1]:13 At first, the hunters respected the hunting rights of the Indians south of the Arkansas River, as outlined in the Medicine Lodge Treaty.

The Indians attacked the camps of various hunters, killing Dave Dudley, Tommy Wallace, John Jones, and Blue Billy.

[3]:39 On July 3 of that year, 1/4 of the Kiowa warriors accepted to join the Cheyenne and Comanche headmen who planned to lead war against the Whites.

[3]:40 Beginning in summer 1874, at least two bands of Cheyenne warriors moved from the south into Kansas to seek revenge on the horse thieves and buffalo hunters they blamed for the Red River War.

In the fall, a column of US soldiers led by First Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin attacked the Cheyenne band who had possession of three of the German sisters.

[4]:29-31 The harsh winter of 1874-75 combined with relentless army pursuit of the Cheyenne led to Chief Stone Calf's surrender,[3]:50 whereupon he revealed the location of the remaining two living German sisters, who were swiftly rescued.

[4]:32 Following the German Massacre, military authorities, especially General Sheridan, ordered that all the “ringleaders” of the Red River War as well as “such as who have been guilty of crimes” were to be incarcerated.

33 Cheyenne were selected in total, including a large number of chiefs, mostly chosen based on the unsubstantiated testimony of white men.

At one point, Lieutenant Colonel Niell was reportedly intoxicated and in order to fulfill his quota, picked the eighteen right-most Indians to be incarcerated.

[3]:54 Many guards raced towards White Horse's village, but could not enter due to the Dog Soldiers who stayed behind to buy the rest of the camp time to flee.

General Pope offered amnesty from the sand hill fight for all Indians who would come back to Cheyenne-Arapahoe Agency, which many of the women from White Horse's village did.

On April 7, those Dog Soldiers reached the camp of Little Bull and told him that the U.S. military was killing Cheyenne near the Indian Agency.

The company lost the trail, and after bivouacking on April 21, determined to head towards the North Fork of Beaver Creek, upon suggestion from Wheeler.

[4]:50-51 On April 22, the company met a group of buffalo hunters, whose camp had been robbed while they were out hunting by Little Bull's band mentioned earlier.

[4]:x Before daybreak, Henely commanded Sergeant George Kitchen, along with ten other men of the party, to round up a group of Indian horses grazing on the nearby plateau, and to kill the herders.

[3]121,123 According to Cheyenne testimony, the buffalo hunters' long-range guns caused many Indian fatalities, and so much suffering occurred that Little Bull and Dirty Water went out to parley with the soldiers.

[3]:127 One last warrior popped out of the pits and started to move in a strange, side ways hopping manner, for unknown reasons.

A similar story was told among Indians about a young Cheyenne named Little Bear who tried to could have escaped, but at the last moment decided to go back to die with his family, although in this version there was no mention of an extra horse.

[4]:xi[3]:110 More and more Indians flowed into Fort Sill, who were then stripped of their weapons, put into iron cuffs, or sent free to non-aggressor chiefs.

[9] Attacks from the Northern Cheyenne in the area three years later was seen widely as justified vengeance on the white men who had massacred their Southern brethren at Sappa Creek.

They began to speculate that atrocities were committed by Austin Henely and his company, beginning with Street's article in Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society, where he claims the battle was overly violent against the Indians, including the post-battle burning of a living child.

[4]:xii Sandoz published a widely read book entitled Cheyenne Autumn, which suggested that the battle was in reality a massacre, one of the first times the word was used to describe the actions of white men against Indians.

[5]:136 However, Sandoz' book has been criticized for factual inaccuracies, such as placing Medicine Arrows' death at the massacre,[4]:xii as well as its dramatic depictions of Henely as a psychotic killer.