For the Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho families who retreated into Palo Duro in 1874, the canyon offered something the open plains could not: concealment, water, grass, wood for fires, and natural walls that reduced the directions from which an enemy could approach.

The canyon was a refuge that the Southern Plains peoples had used for generations.

It was known country to the people who used it and largely unknown country to the army that was searching for it.

Mackenzie found it anyway.

That finding — and what he did when he got there — is the hinge on which the Red River War turned.

The Southern Plains In 1874: A World Being Dismantled