Buffalo Soldier tragedy of 1877 also known as the "Staked Plains Horror" occurred when a combined force of Buffalo Soldier troops of the 10th Cavalry and local buffalo hunters wandered for days in the dry Llano Estacado region of north-west Texas and eastern New Mexico during July of a drought year. The groups had united forces for a retaliatory attack on regional Native American groups who had been staging raids on white forces in the area, during what came to be called the Buffalo Hunters' War. Over the course of five days in the near-waterless Llano Estacado, four soldiers and one buffalo hunter died.