Black Kettle: The People’s Peacemaker

Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s surprise attack on Black Kettle’s camp on the Washita River in the Indian Territory on November 27, 1868, was initially reported as a victory for Custer’s 7th Cavalry against hostile Indians, but soon thereafter many contemporary factions viewed the unprovoked sunrise attack as a massacre and “cold-blooded butchery.” The battle, which included the killing of Black Kettle and his wife, Me