Quir-par-ke ( Guipage ) or Lone Wolf's camp at Fort Sill Indian Territory after the battle of the Palo Duro Canyon 1874 PALO DURO CANYON, BATTLE OF. The battle of Palo Duro Canyon was the major battle of the Red River War,qv which ended in the confinement of southern Plains Indians (Comanches, Kiowas, Kiowa Apaches, Cheyennes, and Arapahos) to the reservations in the Indian Territory. By late September 1874 the warring Indians had camped in the protection of Palo Duro Canyon, where a Kiowa shaman, Maman-ti,qv promised them they would be safe. Col. Ranald S. Mackenzieqv led his Fourth United States Cavalryqv from the south in a plan to trap the Indians in their refuge. His soldiers pursued several small Comanche bands into Tule Canyon and defeated them. Mackenzie reached the edge of Palo Duro Canyon on September 28, 1874, guided by the Tonkawa chief Johnson, and ordered his scouts to locate a path to the canyon floor, which they quickly did. Although Mackenzie's attack on the large Indian encampment at sunrise on September 28 was designed to be a surprise, the Indians were warned by the Comanche leader Red Warbonnet, who discovered the soldiers and fired a warning shot. He was then killed by the Tonkawas. The leadership of the several Indian bands fell to the Cheyenne chief Iron Shirt, Comanche leader Poor Buffalo, and the Kiowa chief Lone Wolf.qv Because their camps were scattered over a large area on the canyon floor, the Indians were unable to assemble a united defense; the soldiers fought a series of skirmishes against a number of war parties who lacked the individual strength to defeat them.