In 1874 Rice commanded an expedition against Ute tribe Indians near Spanish Peaks, Colorado, and volunteered for an 1876 campaign against Sioux Indians in Montana, in retaliation for the loss of the 7th Cavalry at Little Bighorn. Buffalo Bill Cody was employed as a scout to aid the company in its trip up the Yellowstone River in search of hostile Indians. In July 1879 Rice commanded a six-gun battery in Colonel Nelson Miles' expedition against the Sioux, north of the Missouri River near the Canada–US border. He took part in the engagement of July 17, where their Hotchkiss guns were used to disperse the Sioux.