Rawlins County was the site of the Last Indian Raid in Kansas, October 1, 1878. It was a raid carried out by Cheyenne Indians as they were moving from the Cheyenne Agency at Darlington Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) toward the former home of the Cheyenne in the Black Hills, South Dakota.
The last raid brought death to 29 or 30 men in Decatur and Rawlins counties. The Supreme Court in 1901, ruled that since the marauding band of Cheyenne was strong enough to break away from the larger group and defy the orders of the U. S. government, the tribe as a whole could not be responsible for the damage.