Chief Black Kettle
(c. 1803 - 1868)

Cheyenne Leader, worked for peace with settlers

birthdate: ?
birthplace:
near Black Hills, South Dakota

In the mid-1800s white settlers came to the West in great numbers, claiming lands where Native Americans lived. Some Indian chiefs like Crazy Horse, Geronimo and Sitting Bull led their tribes to try to stop the settlers. But Black Kettle, a Cheyenne chief, knew that the Indians would not be able to militarily defeat the white man. He tried to avoid bloodshed by urging the Indian tribes not to fight the settlers and gathered chiefs to sign peace treaties with the white leaders. As more settlers flooded into Colorado, the American government broke the treaties, demanding the Indians give up the land guaranteed in earlier treaties and live on smaller and smaller reservations. Even when one military leader broke his promise in 1864 and massacred two hundred mostly women and children in his tribe, nearly killing him as well, Chief Black Kettle continued to try to get the Cheyenne tribes to agree not to retaliate. Indians throughout the west were revolting as Indian lands were being taken everywhere with the surviving Indians forced to live on small reservations, but still Chief Black Kettle tried to find ways for Indians and white man to live peacefully. In 1868, Black Kettle's village was again attacked, this time by General Custer's troops and the chief and his wife were among those massacred. Chief Black Kettle's heroic story is a tragic reminder of how inhumane people can be and how difficult it often is to work for peace.

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