[6] Following the defeat of Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer on June 25, 1876, in the Battle of Little Bighorn, the United States government sent a large number of reinforcements into Montana Territory.

By autumn, a few bands of the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes had begun returning to the reservations and agencies to acquire food and annuity goods in preparation for winter.

General Nelson Miles led a mixed force of infantry, artillery and cavalry after Sitting Bull's band, and had effectively defeated them by December.

Ranald S. Mackenzie had similarly defeated Dull Knife's Cheyennes, who trekked through snow and icy conditions to join the camp of Crazy Horse in the Tongue River Valley.

In December, 1876, Colonel Miles led most of nine Infantry companies out of the Cantonment in pursuit of Crazy Horse, marching south, up the Tongue River valley.