Black Kettle

European-American settlers, starting with the Colorado Gold Rush in 1859, are moving into lands reserved for the Cheyenne and other Plains tribes.

Travel has greatly increased along the Emigrant Trail along the South Platte River and some emigrants stop before going on to California.

For several years there has been peace between settlers and natives.

The only conflicts ware related to the endemic warfare between the Cheyenne and Arapaho of the plains and the Utes of the mountains.

U.S. negotiations with Black Kettle and other Cheyenne favoring peace result in the Treaty of Fort Wise on February 18, 1861, signed by six chiefs of the Southern Cheyenne and four of the Arapaho: it establishes a small reservation for the Cheyenne in southeastern Colorado in exchange for the territory agreed to in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851.

Many Cheyenne do not sign the treaty, and they continue to live and hunt on their traditional grounds in the Smokey Hill and Republican basins, between the Arkansas and the South Platte, where there are plentiful buffalo.

Several skirmishes had ignited hatred from the settlers in Colorado Territory and left Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes in constant fear of being attacked by American troops.

For example, on April 12, 1864, a rancher brings troops to attack a group of fifteen warriors who had asked for reward from bringing his mules back to him.

The warriors act in self-defense, and send the troops running.

Word gets back to John Chivington, commander of the Colorado Volunteers, a citizens militia, and they tell him the natives shot first.

He also hears there have been one hundred and seventy-five head of cattle stolen from the government.

Efforts to make a wider peace continue, but in the spring of 1864, Governor Evans and Colonel Chivington begin a series of attacks on natives camping or hunting on the plains, killing them on sight and initiating the Colorado War.

Chivington "ordered troops to find and 'chastise' the 'Indians'.

Governor John Evans attempts to extend an offer of refuge and protection to "friendly" natives, but these efforts are thwarted by General Samuel R. Curtis's military expedition against tribes between the Platte and Arkansas Rivers.

By this point, both Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes think that an all out war of extermination is about to be opened against them, so they quickly flee, and Curtis and his men never meet them.

As general warfare breaks out, natives make many raids on the trail along the South Platte, upon which Denver depends for supplies.

The Army closes the road from August 15 until September 24, 1864.

The Colorado Militia attacks a Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment under Chief Black Kettle on November 29, 1864, at Sand Creek (where they had been given permission to camp), although it flies a flag of truce and indicates its allegiance to the U.S. government.

The Sand Creek massacre, as it is known, results in the death of between one hundred and fifty and two hundred Cheyenne, mostly unarmed women and children.

Many of the dead are subsequently mutilated.

Chivington boasts that he has surpassed Carson and will soon be known as the great Indian killer.

Carson expresses outrage at the massacre and openly denounces Chivington's actions.

The survivors flee northeast and join the camps of the Cheyenne on the Smokey Hill and Republican rivers, where warriors will smoke the war pipe, passing it from camp to camp among the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho.

The Cheyenne plan and carry out an attack with about one thousand warriors on Camp Rankin, a stage station and fort at Julesburg, in January 1865.

The warriors make numerous raids along the South Platte, both east and west of Julesburg, and raid the fort again in early February.

They capture much loot and kill many European Americans.

Most of the raiders move north into Nebraska on their way to the Black Hills and the Powder River.

Black Kettle continues to desire peace.

He does not join in the second raid or in the plan to go north to the Powder River country.

He leaves the large camp and returns with eighty lodges of his tribesmen to the Arkansas River, where he intends to seek peace with the United States.

Lieutenant Lyman Kidder's party, made up of ten troopers and one scout, are massacred while in route to Fort Wallace on June 26, 1867.

Lieutenant Kidder was to deliver dispatches to Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer from General William Sherman, but his party had been attacked by Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne.

Custer and a search party will find the bodies of Kidder's patrol days later.

Custer had been appointed lieutenant colonel of the newly created U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment, headquartered at Fort Riley, Kansas

As a result of a plea by his patron General Philip Sheridan, Custer has also been appointed brevet major general.

He takes part in Major General Winfield Scott Hancock's expedition against the Cheyenne in 1867.

General George A. Custer and his troops attack Black Kettle's band of Cheyenne and Arapahos in Indian Territory at the Battle of Washita River on November 27, 1868.

Black Kettle has continued to desire peace and had not join in the second raid or in the plan to go north to the Powder River country.

He had left the large camp and returned with eighty lodges of his tribesmen to the Arkansas River, where he had intended to seek peace with the U.S.

Custer had chosen Osage scouts in his campaign because of their scouting expertise, excellent terrain knowledge, and military prowess.

Although his band is camped on a defined reservation, complying with the government's orders, some of its members had been linked to raiding into Kansas by bands operating out of the Indian Territory.

Custer reports killing one hundred and three warriors; estimates by the Cheyenne of their casualties are substantially lower (eleven warriors plus nineteen women and children); some women and children are also killed, and U.S. troops take fifty-three women and children prisoner.

Custer has his men shoot most of the eight hundred and seventy-five Indian ponies they had captured.

There are conflicting claims as to whether the band was hostile or friendly.

Historians believe that Chief Black Kettle, head of the band, was not part of the war party within the Plains tribes, but, he does not command absolute authority over members of his band and the European Americans do not understand this.

When younger members of the band had taken part in raiding parties, European Americans blamed the entire band for the incidents and casualties.

The Battle of Washita River is regarded as the first substantial U.S. victory in the Southern Plains War, and it helps force a significant portion of the Southern Cheyennes onto a U.S.-assigned reservation.

Custer had been court-martialed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, following the Hancock campaign, for being AWOL, after having abandoned his post to see his wife.

He was suspended from duty for one yea, but at the request of Major General Philip Sheridan, who wanted Custer for his planned winter campaign against the Cheyenne, Custer had been allowed to return to duty in 1868, before his term of suspension had expired.

Under Sheridan's orders, Custer had taken part in establishing Camp Supply in Indian Territory in early November 1868 as a supply base for the winter campaign.