November 27, 1868 is one of the most disputed days in the
Indian Wars; it is the day Custer ordered the 7th Cavalry to murder 103 women
and children and elders and the Southern Cheyenne Peace Chief Black Kettle.
There had been raids in the Indian Territories, in what is now Oklahoma, by
several bands of the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho after they had
signed the Medicine Lodge Treaty agreeing to move from Colorado and Kansas
to the assigned lands in Oklahoma. These raids were partly related to the fact that the final treaty did not have language that the Southern Cheyenne had agreed to
regarding their traditional hunting grounds. In the oral agreement, they had the
right to hunt the bison in Southern Colorado and Kansas, but the final document
had removed this language.
The tribes were preparing for wintering along the Washita
River which was known to them as the lodgepole river. There were several encampments,
and some were the warriors who had been fighting with settlers and the cavalry.
On November 20 Black Kettle and three other chiefs had tried to arrange passage
south of the Arkansas River which was the boundary line but because of orders
by General Sherman that there existed a state of hostilities regardless of the
Medicine Lodge Treaty. So they got supplies for his band and headed for the Washita
river and traditional wintering areas quickly hoping to connect to other
groups.
Two events combined to cut off Black Kettle’s band. A powerful
winter storm on Nov. 26 moved into the plains bringing travel with women and
children to a near standstill. Also, on Nov. 25th a group of 150 warriors,
which included young men of the camps of Black Kettle, Medicine Arrows, Little
Robe, and Old Whirlwind, had returned to the Washita encampments. They had
raided white settlements in the Smoky Hill River country with
the Dog Soldiers.
So Black Kettle’s band was basically trapped without their men
when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry came up
on their camp guided by Cheyenne enemies the Osage. On the early morning of the
27th, the attack came with Custer’s forces killing indiscriminately, and mercilessly
any Cheyenne and Arapaho they found. By Custer’s own report 103 members of the
camp, including all the women and children were killed.
Some historians have debated whether this was indeed a massacre
since Black Kettle knew a condition of war existed and there were armed men in
the camp, however with the total annihilation of the camp and the majority being
women and children it is hard to dispute the term
Image: The 1868 Battle of the Washita by Steven Lang
Sources:
https://www.nps.gov/articles/washita.htm
shorturl.at/dFSZ9
No comments:
Post a Comment