Cowboys hardly roughnecked with indians, cowboys spent their days protecting their scalps, and their horses from horse-thieves and ambitious young indian males who syoel the horses to become more rich. Indians considered horses as a form of money. When an indian male took a wife, it was customary to give the girls family 5-10 horses if she was poor, if she was rich it can take up to 100 horses to ern the right to marry her, and if you did you must also be a brave warrior, with many coups, horses, and brave deeds. Etc. Cowboys were cow herders, they spent long months working on ranches and in-between towns moving large herds of cows or horses to markets. Some fights did occur between indians and cowboys but most of them were scrimishes. Suprise attacks. Etc.
Usualy the indians got the better end of the fight, and sometimes the cowboy got the better end of the fight. Most fo your "wild west" battles took place between indians and united states army. And them battles were more than mere scrimishes. They were long and bloody. Sometimes the army would surprise attack the indians and wipe out entire villages just because people wanted the land. But then you have some battles that came to a draw, some battles won and lost, some battles not all indians were killed, but imprisoned or forced onto reservations... These fight occurred to the disappearance of the buffalo, treaty breaking, to many encounters with white settlers, and a growing white american population, who wanted the lands the indians lived on. One battle in particular was the bloodiest of all the battles. Little big horn. Gen. Louis Armstrong Custar lead 3 army battalions numbering 400 men, against a force of 4000 warriors from two combined indian tribes... Souix and the cheyanne...
The most famous of these warriors, red cloud, sitting bull, crazy horse, big foot, and many more lead the warriors. Gen l.a. Custar lost 2 battalions, one battalion lead by maj. Reno was stuck in a smaller battle 3 miles from little big horn, and was kept from advancing unto the battle, his battalion turned back and went back to their fort, while being cashed by a band of warriors. Gen. L.a. Custar and his 2 remaining battlions all praised in the battle, they were completely wiped out no surviors. They only known white survivor of the battle was a man known as little big-man, who as a boy was adopeted and raised by the Cheyanne after his wagon train was attacked and wiped out by Pawnee indians, only him and his sister survived.