Chief Black Kettle

Black Kettle was a Southern Cheyenne peace chief whose village was destroyed twice by American troops while he was seeking terms. Born around 1803 in the Black Hills, he became a member of the Council of Forty-Four, the body of peace chiefs, and spent the last decade of his life arguing within his own people for accommodation with the United States. He signed the Treaty of Fort Wise in 1861, which reduced Cheyenne territory drastically, and was criticised by younger warriors for it. In 1864 he came in to Fort Weld near Denver, was told to camp at Sand Creek under the protection of Fort Lyon, and did so, flying a large American flag and a white flag over his lodge on the assurance of the garrison commander. On 29 November 1864 Colonel John Chivington attacked the camp at dawn with about 700 Colorado volunteers. Around 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho were killed, the great majority women, children and old men; bodies were mutilated and body parts displayed in Denver. Congressional and military inquiries condemned it, and no one was prosecuted. Black Kettle escaped, carrying his wounded wife, who had been shot nine times. He continued to seek peace, signed the Treaty of the Little Arkansas in 1865 and Medicine Lodge in 1867, and moved his band to the Washita River. On 27 November 1868 George Custer's Seventh Cavalry attacked that village at dawn in the snow. Black Kettle and his wife were shot crossing the river, and the horse herd was killed.

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