Chief Black Kettle - Definition and Overview

Chief Black Kettle

Chief Black Kettle (died November, 26 1868) was a Cheyenne Native American.

At dawn on the morning of November 26, 1868, Chief Black Kettle, along with other members of his village, where camped on the banks of the Washita River two miles west of present day Cheyenne, Oklahoma. Black Kettle and all most all of the Cheyenne encamped there that morning where killed at the Battle of the Washita in cold blood, by the 7th U.S. Cavalry under the command of George Armstrong Custer. Chief Black Kettle had white flag flying above his own tipi.

Black Kettle lived in western Kansas and eastern Colorado on land guaranteed to the Cheyenne under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851.

John Chivington's attempt to kill Kettle in 1864, failed, but resulted in the Sand Creek Massacre.

Black Kettle signed the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867.