Black Kettle
Southern Cheyenne
Topics covered in this document:
Introduction
Black Kettle (????-1868) was an enigmatic, respected leader about whom few
biographical details are known. He sought only peace with the Whites.
Despite many broken promises, he continued to believe in the possibility
of coexistence between his people, the Southern Cheyenne, and the growing
number of White settlers flooding onto the Plains.
Under terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, all of western Kansas
and eastern Colorado were guaranteed to the Cheyenne. However, like nearly
every other treaty with the U.S., this one was as worthless as all the
other promises given by Washington polititians.
1859 Gold Rush
Within a decade, the 1859 Pikes Peak gold rush brought hordes of greedy
gold seekers scrambling across Cheyenne land.
Something had to give ... and, as always seemed to be the case, the
Indians ended up the losers. After all, which was more important to the
Whites ... honoring their word ... or giving in to their lust for gold?
You guessed it.
Rather than force the white settlers to leave, the government "convinced"
the Southern Cheyenne to sign a new treaty.
In 1861, fearing U.S. Army retaliation if he didn't sign, Black Kettle
agreed to cede all his lands except the small Sand Creek Reservation in
southeastern Colorado.
Of course, the Cheyenne were expected to be grateful because, hey,
the U.S. Army could have used its overwhelming military might to force
them to relocate to some worse place.
Just think how happy the Cheyenne people must have been to have been
offered the lesser of two evils. And the government was pleased with itself,
because they now had clear access to the gold fields of Colorado.
Killing Spree
If you've ever visited southeastern Colorado, you know how barren the
desert is there. Today, with modern irrigation systems, it has improved
considerably.
Harsh Desert Conditions
However, in the beginning, epidemic diseases swept like wild fire
through the Cheyenne encampments. And people who tried to farm the desert
land starved as their feeble crops died in the severe heat.
For a people accustomed to hunting bison (buffalo), the Cheyenne now
had to travel farther afield to find the herds. By 1862, the nearest herd
was well over two hundred miles away.
Black Kettle probably didn't realize that he had signed his people
into a slow suicide.
Raiding Parties
Many starving Cheyenne, especially the young men, began to leave the
reservation to prey on the livestock and the goods of the local white
settlers. They also raided passing wagon trains.
One such raid, in the spring of 1864, stirred the blood lust anger of
white Coloradoans.
Massacre of Innocents
The Coloradoans dispatched their militia with orders to open fire on
any Cheyenne they happened to meet.
A small band of Cheyenne, on their way to plead with the whites, were
in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although they had nothing to do
with the wagon train raid, the Colorado militia slaughtered every last
person ... many of whom could barely walk from disease and starvation.
That didn't matter. For the militia, the orders were to take no
prisoners!
Indian Uprising
The massacre of this small Cheyenne band touched off an uncoordinated
Indian uprising across the Great Plains. From the Lakota in the north to
the Commanche in the south, small bands of Indians attacked white settlers
wherever they could.
However, because these raids were little more than independent groups,
they accomplished little in the grand scheme of things ... other than to
stir up the hornet's nest of the U.S. Army.
Sand Creek Massacre
Black Kettle refrained from participating in these Indian raids. He
knew only too well of the white man's military supremacy. So he spoke to
the local military commander at Fort Weld in Colorado and agreed to
peacefully lead his band back to the Sand Creek reservation.
He believed he had secured a promise of safety for his people.
He was wrong. Very wrong.
Colonel Chivington
Colonel John Chivington, leader of the Third Colorado Volunteers,
had no intention of honoring such a promise. During the earlier order
to kill any Cheyenne they met, his troops had been unsuccessful in
finding any bands to slaughter.
Consumed by his insatiable need to kill Indians, Chivington learned
that Black Kettle had returned to Sand Creek.
At dawn on November 29, 1864, Chivington and his men attacked the
unsuspecting encampment. Some two hundred Cheyenne died in the massacre,
many of them women, children, and the elderly.
Army Atrocities
But it wasn't enough for Chivington and his men to commit mass murder.
That's not enough for a brave soldier. Oh no.
Chivington's men scalped and sexually mutilated the dead, later
exhibiting their trophies to cheering crowds in Denver. A bunch of
really brave men. Yeah right.
Black Kettle Survives
Miraculously, Black Kettle escaped harm at the Sand Creek Massacre,
even though he had paused during the fighting to rescue his seriously
injured wife, Medicine Woman.
In spite of everything that had befallen his people, he still continued
to counsel for peace ... even though many of the young men of his band
wanted to strike back with isolated raids. He just couldn't bring himself
to believe that the white man was anything but honorable. Big mistake!
Leadership Questioned
Black Kettle and several other leaders managed to arrange an uneasy
truce on the plains. He signed a new treaty allowing him to move his
people from Sand Creek to another reservation in southwestern Kansas.
However, the Cheyenne were still forbidden to hunt on their coveted
Kansas hunting grounds.
Little Arkansas Treaties
He signed the Little Arkansas Treaties in 1865.
Black Kettle's continued attempts at peace were seen by some of his
people as a sign of weakness in an old man who had lost his will to fight
for his people.
Roman Nose
Some of the younger members of his band headed north to join the
Northern Cheyenne living in Lakota territory.
Others, consisting mainly of young warriors, simply ignored the treaty
and continued to hunt throughout their ancestral lands.
These young warriors aligned themselves with a Cheyenne war chief known
as Roman Nose.
General Sherman
By flaunting their rebellion, they aroused the ire of General William
Tecumseh Sherman, who launched a campaign to force them back onto their
assigned reservations.
Halt to Wagon Trains
Roman Nose and his warriors managed to accomplish a stand-off, which
pretty much halted all wagon train traffic across western Kansas for a
while.
Relocation to Oklahoma
The government wanted Kansas ... and of course, Black Kettle once again
found himself and his people in the way.
Medicine Lodge Treaty
Black Kettle signed yet another treaty, the Medicine Lodge Treaty
of 1867, which relocated his people to two smaller reservations in Indian
Territory (present-day Oklahoma), where they were promised food and
supplies.
Unscrupulous Indian Agents
Of course, as you can probably guess, the promised provisions never
arrived. Unscrupulous Indian Agents siphoned off the supplies for their
own profit. They got rich selling the food and supplies that were supposed
to be delivered to the Cheyenne.
Kansas Farm Raids
By year's end, more and more of Black Kettle's band had wandered off
the reservation to join Roman Nose and his band of rebels. In August 1868,
Roman Nose launched a series of raids on Kansas farms along the Saline and
Solomon Rivers.
General Sheridan
That action provoked another full-scale military response. General
Philip Sheridan led three columns of troops in a winter campaign to put
an end to Cheyenne resistance.
Black Kettle's Death
On November 22, 1868, the Seventh Cavalry set out from Fort Supply in
a snowstorm.
General Custer
The Seventh Cavalry, under command of General George Armstrong Custer,
followed the tracks of a small raiding party to a Cheyenne village on the
Washita River. It was Black Kettle's village, but not his raiding party.
Black Kettle had peacefully settled his band at their appointed location,
well within the boundaries of the Cheyenne reservation. A white flag even
flew above the chief's tipi.
But none of that mattered to Custer. He wanted blood, not surrender.
Washita Massacre
At dawn on November 27, 1868, nearly four years to the day after the
Sand Creek Massacre, The Seventh Cavalry charged into Black Kettle's
encampment killing everyone and everything that moved.
Black Kettle and his wife did not escape this time. After having
survived the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864, Black Kettle died at the Battle
of the Washita.
One witness reported:
Both the chief and his wife fell at the river bank, riddled with
bullets... The soldiers rode right over Black Kettle and his wife and
their horses as they lay dead on the ground, and their bodies were all
splashed with mud by the charging soldiers.
Custer later reported that one of his Osage guides took Black Kettle's
scalp.
Cheyenne End
The Cheyenne's hopes of remaining an independent people died on the
Washita River as well. By 1869, they had been driven completely from the
plains ... and were confined to tiny reservations.
What Next?
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