"Chief Black Kettle – A Peaceful Leader" Topic

"Called Motavato or Moke-ta-ve-to by his friends and family, Black Kettle was born near the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1803. However, by 1832, he had roamed south and joined with the Southern Cheyenne tribe. Decades later, after having displayed strong leadership skills, he became chief of the Wuhtapiu group of the Cheyenne in 1861.

Living in the vast territory of western Kansas and eastern Colorado, Black Kettle and his band enjoyed the peace guaranteed to the Cheyenne under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. However, by the time he became chief, the 1859 Pikes Peak gold rush had sparked a flood of people encroaching upon their lands in Colorado. Even the U.S. Indian Commissioner admitted that "We have substantially taken possession of the country and deprived the Indians of their accustomed means of support." Instead of upholding the Fort Laramie Treaty, the government sought to resolve the situation by demanding that the Southern Cheyenne sign a new treaty ceding all their lands except the small Sand Creek reservation in southeastern Colorado…"
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Armand

Black Kettle wanted peace. but the problem is he could not control his young men who did not want peace. Warfare was how they gained respect and status.

On Sheridan's winter campaign of 1868, known as the Washita campaign, Custer's Osage Indian scouts discovered an Indian trail in the snow. The scouts said a war party had made the trail. Custer asked how they knew it was a war party. His scouts said there were no dogs. Hunting parties took dogs; war parties did not.

The war party trail led to Black Kettle's village on the Washita which Custer attacked. After the battle the village was found to contain long blonde or red scalps, mail and mail sacks, etc., showing what the warriors had been up to. Also a Mexican boy who had been a captive was killed.

Only later were the bodies of the captives Clara Blinn and her infant son found just outside the village. If I remember correctly they had both been knifed.

All of this gets overlooked or suppressed today. The Indians got a bad deal in many ways. A stone age culture met the industrial revolution. They were unable and unwilling to adapt to the mid 19th Century. But many today don't know, or chose to ignore, that the plains Indians' society was nothing more and nothing less than a warrior society.

Tom

Garryowen ++1

'Unable and unwilling to adapt…' that's to say, they were in the way.

(I suppose a nation that had recently finished tearing itself open in a civil war that cost 600,000 odd lives might be described as warrior society)

Thanks.

Armand

As were many others, all over the world and every century. The natives had no problem doing the same to other tribes. Ask the Mayan, Aztec, Inca, etc. Ask the Erie as they were exterminated by the iroquois confederation and had their lands taken. No country or races hands are clean.

I thought the indigenous people lived in peace and harmony without disease or conflict between themselves, while only taking from the earth what they needed to survive until the greedy Europeans arrived?

I even heard that the streams flowed with chocolate and the land was known as the "Big Rock Candy Mountains".

Isn't that how it was before the evil people came?

Well that is how they would like to rewrite history today. 😉

(smile)

Armand

Weren't the both the Washita and !876 campaigns clearly in breach of both the 1863.General Orders No. 100 and the 5th Ammendment