The main body of the Cheyenne surrendered to Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas H. Neil, Sixth cavalry, near the agency (Darlington), on March 6, 1875, and were at once disarmed and placed under guard, their ponies being confiscated and sold. Their agent says:
A more wretched and poverty-stricken community than these people presented after they were placed in the prison camp it would be difficult to imagine. Bereft of lodges and the most ordinary cooking apparatus; with no ponies nor other means of transportation for food or water; half starved and with scarcely anything that could be called clothing, they were truly objects of pity; and for the first time the Cheyenne seemed to realize the power of the government and their own inability to cope successfully therewith (_Report, 48_).
On the 27th of April they were formally transferred from the charge of the military to that of the agent and declared to be again at peace with the government. Throughout this whole period the Arapaho camped near the agency, in spite of short rations and all the other difficulties of their position, had maintained untarnished their treaty obligations.
It had been determined, on the surrender of the hostiles, to select some of the most prominent leaders from each tribe concerned for a term of confinement at some military prison in the east. Accordingly thirty-three of the Cheyenne were selected, with two Arapaho, who, though not concerned in the outbreak, had been guilty in other ways. Among the Cheyenne selected was one woman, who was identified as having participated in the murder of the Germaine family. While ironing the prisoners on April 6, a young warrior named Black-horse, stung by the taunts of the women, kicked over the blacksmith and attempted to escape, but was immediately shot down by the guard. The Cheyenne at once attacked the guard with guns and arrows. A troop of cavalry was quickly ordered up from Fort Reno, 2 miles away, when the Cheyenne fled to the sandhills on the river bank across from the agency, where they had secreted a quantity of firearms and ammunition, and, digging pits in the sand, opened fire on the troops. A severe engagement ensued, the Indians holding their position until dark, several being killed or wounded on each side. During the night they fled, and when daylight came nothing remained of the prison camp but a few worn-out tipis. Most of the Indians soon afterward surrendered; but a band of about sixty, including the murderers of the Germaine family, attempted to escape to the Dakota country, and had made their way to the vicinity of Fort Wallace, Kansas, when they were intercepted by a detachment under Lieutenant A. Henley, Sixth cavalry, who cut off about half of them from the rest. On their refusal to surrender, he attacked them and killed nineteen, captured over one hundred and twenty-five ponies, and burned their camp, with the loss of two soldiers killed. The remainder escaped to the northward. The thirty-five Cheyenne and Arapaho prisoners selected for imprisonment were sent to Fort Marion, near St Augustine, Florida (_Record, 9_; _Report, 49_).