The Texas Canyon Battle Where U.S. Cavalry Captured 1,400 Native Horses — Then Destroyed About 1,000 Of Them
It appears in the Texas State Historical Association account.
Various other sources give similar or identical figures — some give slightly higher numbers for Native casualties, some corroborate the zero cavalry casualties, some note that the fighting in the canyon walls and ravines was difficult terrain where exact casualty counts would have been uncertain.
But even taking the maximum plausible range of casualties — adjusting for the possibility that some dead were not counted, that some wounded died later, that the rough terrain of the canyon concealed some outcomes — the battle at Palo Duro Canyon was not, by any standard, a mass killing event.
The families escaped.