The combatants were 30 to 65 Ute and Paiute people and about three dozen white settlers, mostly Anglo cowboys and miners from southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah.

Southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado was historically inhabited by Ute people and a culturally similar tribe, the Paiute.

Prior to European colonization, both Native American tribes were nomadic, moving with the seasons to utilize the limited resources of this desert and mountain area.

[1] The Paiute practiced springtime, floodplain farming with reservoirs and irrigation ditches for corn, squash, melons, gourds, sunflowers, beans and wheat.

[1] In 1868, six bands of the Utes signed a treaty with the United States ceding the eastern part of their range and being granted a reservation of 16,500,000 acres (67,000 km2) (25,781 square miles) comprising most of the western one-third of Colorado.

Despite the prohibition in the treaty on permanent settlements on the mining land, Anglo miners and cattle ranchers rushed into the area.

In 1880, the newspaper in Dolores, Colorado said the Anglo settlers should "muster every man into active service, procure guns, ammunition, and other necessities, and pursue, kill the red-skinned devils."

After a long and difficult search, the combined posses found the Ute camp on 12 June near present-day Warner Lake in the northwestern La Sals.

That evening Dawson's group was reinforced by the 13 men who had walked to Moab, giving him a total force of about two dozen, three of whom were seriously wounded.

[9] The next morning ten men from Moab joined Dawson and he returned to Pinhook Draw to find his missing advance party.

[10] On their return home, the cowboys met four companies of African-American buffalo soldiers (about 190 men) commanded by Captain Henry Carroll, an experienced Indian fighter.