National Historic Site National Park Service Washita Battlefield U.S. Department of the Interior

Washita Battlefield National Historic Site protects and interprets the site of the Southern Cheyenne village of Peace Chief that was attacked by the 7th U.S. Cavalry under Lt. Col. George A. Custer just before dawn on November 27, 1868. The controversial strike was hailed at the time by the military and many civilians as a significant victory aimed at reducing Indian raids on fi-ontier settlements. Washita remains controversial because many Indians and whites labeled Custer's attack a massacre. Black Kettle is still honored as a prominent leader who never ceased striving for peace even though it cost him his life.

INTRODUCTION The cultural collision between this choice produced little conflict. pioneers and Indians reached its peak But following the Civil War, land- on the during the hungry settlers began penetrating the decades before and after the Civil plains in increasing numbers, War. U.S. Government policy sought encroaching upon tribal hunting to separate tribes and settlers from grounds. Indians could no longer each other by establishing an Indian retreat beyond the reach of whites, Territory (present-day ). and many chose to defend their Some Plains tribes accepted life on freedom and lands rather than submit reservations. Others, including the to reservation life. Cheyennes, , and , did not. They continued to hunt and live on traditional lands outside the . At first.

PRELUDE TO BATTLE Events leading to the Battle of the opposed to reservation life, Washita began with the Sand Creek continued to raid white settlements Massacre of 1864. On November 29, in Kansas. troops under the command of Col. J.M. Chivington attacked and Major General Philip H.-Sheridan, in destroyed the Cheyenne camp of command of the Department of the Chief Black Kettle and Chief White Missouri, adopted a policy that Antelope on Sand Creek, 40 miles "punishment must follow crime." In from Fort Lyon, Colorado Territory. retaliation for the Kansas raids, he Black Kettle's band flew an planned to mount a winter campaign American flag and a white flag, and when Indian horses would be weak considered themselves at peace and and unfit for all but the most limited under military protection. The service. The Indians' only protection terrible slaughter caused a massive in winter was the isolation afforded public outcry. In response, a federal by brutal weather. Peace Commission was created to convert Plains Indians from their Black Kettle and Chief Big nomadic way of life and settle them Mouth went to Fort Cobb in on reservations. November 1868 to petition General William B. Hazen for peace and On the Southern Plains, the work of protection. A respected leader of the the Commission culminated in the Southern Cheyenne, Black Kettle Medicine Lodge Treaty of October had signed the Little Arkansas 1867. Under treaty terms the Treaty in 1865 and the Medicine , Cheyennes, Comanches, Lodge Treaty in 1867. After giving Kiowas, and Plains Apaches were the two chiefs flour, blankets, and assigned to reservations in the Indian other goods, Hazen told them that he Territory. There they were supposed could not allow them to bring their to receive permanent homes, farms, people to Fort Cobb for protection agricultural implements, and because only General Sheridan or Lt. annuities of food, blankets, and Col. George Custer, his field clothing. The treaty was doomed to commander, had that authority. failure. Many tribal officials refused Disappointed, the chiefs headed back to sign. Some who did sign had no to their people at the winter authority to compel their people to encampments on the Washita River. comply with such an agreement. War parties, mostly young men violently