Probably as a direct result of the battle at Adobe Walls, there followed 14 pitched battles between the military and the Indians during 1874 and 1875 known as the Red River War. Five columns of soldiers from different locations were dispatched to converge on the Texas Panhandle. Col. Nelson A. Miles left from Fort Dodge, Kansas in August, 1874. From Fort Union, New Mexico, Maj. William A. Price moved out with his column on August 28th. Lt. Col. John W. Davidson left Fort Sill, Oklahoma on September 10 with the Tenth Cavalry. This was an all black unit with white officers. From Fort Concho, Texas came Col. R. S. Mackenzie leaving on August 23rd, and Lt. Col. George P. Buell left in late August with 253 men of the Ninth Cavalry from Fort Richardson, Texas. General William Tecumseh Sherman, the Civil War hero of the North, was the overall commander of the army at that time with General Philip H. Sheridan under him as commander of the Department of the Missouri. All together, there were 46 companies involved in the action consisting of 3,000 soldiers. Their orders were to keep the Indians moving.

There ensued seven major battles and seven minor skirmishes, or running engagements. The major battles consisted of the following:

August 30th	Miles' First Battle of the Palo Duro Canyon
September 7th	Baldwin's Engagement in Donley County
September 9th - 14th	Battle of Lyman's Wagon Train (Battle of the Upper Washita)
September 12th	Battle of Buffalo Wallow (Near the Washita)
September 28th	Mackenzie's Second Battle of the Palo Duro Canyon
November 6th	Farnsworth's Engagement on McClellan Creek
November 8th	Baldwin's Wagon Charge (McClellan Creek)

Most of these battles took pace on the upper Llano Estacado. The closest battle to Lubbock was Miles and Mackenzie's Battles of the Palo Duro Canyon, occurring in Hall, Brisco, and Armstrong Counties just north of Lubbock.

The Red River War, for the most part, decimated the Indian threat. Even Quanah became a "solid" citizen, thereafter acting as a negotiator between the Indians and the U.S. Government with the same vigor as in his warrior days. However, sporadic violence did continue.

One example occurred when Chief Nigger Horse secured permission from the reservation agent at Fort Sill to make a hunt into West Texas. A Marshall Sewell and his outfit had been camped below the Caprock to the east of Lubbock County. A party of Nigger Horse's band came upon Sewell while he was making his daily kill of buffalo. The Indians hid until Sewell had expended all of his ammunition and then killed him. This was witnessed by Sewell's three skinners who were about a mile away.

These skinners made their way to Rath City, where news of the attack spread quickly. Hunters began to converge on this supply base, where liberal portions of alcohol caused 500 men to volunteer to go after the Indians. The next day, having sobered, a mere 46 men and a barrel of whisky departed in pursuit of the Indians, with Jose, a Mexican guide who had been with General MacKenzie during the Red River Wars.

The expedition proceeded to Sewell's camp where they picked up the trail of the Indians. The group left their wagons along the way at Buffalo Springs. From there, they eventually trailed the Indians into the "Hidden Canyon", the elbow of the Yellow House where the Lubbock Lake Site is now located. There, they managed to get within gun range of Nigger Horse's camp without being discovered.

When they opened fire on the Indians, Nigger Horse's camp returned the fire with such spirit that the hunters took whatever cover they could. They began to retreat along the Long Water Hole, their courage dissipating in direct proportion to the exhaustion of the whiskey supply. Eventually, they retreated to the wagons at Buffalo Springs as the Indians followed at a distance. Even with all this, the hunters sustained no fatalities and only three were wounded. They managed to get the wagons out of Buffalo Springs and headed back eastward as fast as they could. When daylight came, they started great prairie fires behind them as smoke screens and managed to return to Rath City twenty-three days after their departure.

After news of the battle reached Fort Griffin, a detachment was sent to find and bring in Nigger Horse's band, which was accomplished without incident, other than the killing of Nigger Horse and his squaw.

By the end of 1879, there were virtually no more buffalo on the South Plains. With the destruction of the buffalo went the end of any Indian threat.