Washita Battle / Oklahoma

The Washita Battlefield National Historic Site might not be the most publicized historic location to visit but it exemplifies the struggle between the Native Americans and the American westward expansion. It highlights all of the ingredients of conflict. Located 150 miles west of Oklahoma City near Cheyenne Oklahoma and easily accessible off Interstate-40, it is the site of a battle which had lasting effects even to the present day.


Facts About the Washita Battle

Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle

The Washita National Battlefield Historic Site marks the location of Lt. Col. George A. Custer's 1868 surprise dawn attack on the Southern Cheyenne village of Peace Chief Black Kettle.

Another interesting fact for history buffs on the National Park Service website is that Captain Louis Hamilton was the first casualty during the attack on the Washita. Captain Hamilton was grandson of Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.

If your next western road trip takes you though or near the state of Oklahoma you may want to add it to your vacation trip itinerary. In addition to ranger led talks there is a 1.5 mile walking trail. Admission is free. The site is located in western Oklahoma halfway between Amarillo, TX and Oklahoma City, OK. Cheyenne is approximately 30 miles north of I-40 on Hwy 283 and approximately 20 miles east of the Texas border.

 Broken Treaties and Trouble

Years before the battle of the Little Bighorn, there was a key battle called the Battle of Washita and it's frequently also referred to as the Washita Massacre. Similar to many other battles during this country's Indian War it had to do with the moving or attempted moving of Native Americans to reservation land. The visitor center features exhibits about the battle, the soldiers involved and the Cheyenne people, as well as an informative film and a bookstore.

Washita Battlefield

In the case of the Washita episode which was to have reverberations for many years, the episode was a bloody one. After the Southern Cheyenne and the Arapaho agreed to the Medicine Lodge Treaty they were required to relocate south from what is now Kansas and Colorado to Oklahoma which was then Indian Territory. The problem was simply that these tribes had to give up very good hunting grounds for what was marginally arable land in present day Oklahoma.

Part of the Indian policy of the U.S. was to teach the Indians the art of farming. This was not something agreeable to the tribes who had been hunters for centuries. The Medicine Lodge Treaties were really three separate treaties signed during 1867. The first was with the Kiowa and Comanches. The second with the Kiowa-Apache and the third with the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho.


Why didn't these treaties hold? The first and probably foremost problem was that under the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867, the tribes were given reservations of much smaller size than assigned in an 1865 treaty. In addition to this, the male members of the tribes did not okay the vote as stipulated in the agreement. What typically happened in situations of this kind was that a fragile peace would be followed by raids on white settlements. In the summer of 1868, war parties representing most of these tribes went on a raiding rampage in western Kansas, northwest Texas and southeast Colorado. Among the raids in Kansas, which started in August 1868, Indian warriors killed at 15 white settlers, wounded others, took some captive and allegedly  raped some women. This of course was met with a U.S. military response.


Indian Agent Wynkoop

Gen. Philip Sheridan

It was learner by Indian Agent Edward Wynkoop, through an interview with Little Rock, a chief in Black Kettle,s camp, that a large war party of Cheyennes from another camp set out to engage Pawnees but attacked the white settlers in Kansas instead.

After the Kansas raid several of the warriors responsible returned to Black Kettle's camp and Little Rock assured the Indian Agent that he would identify them and turn them over. That didn't happen. Instead, a month later many warriors, some leaving from Black Kettle's camp went on the warpath once again and attacked white settlements in the Smoky Hill River area in west central Kansas.

Smoky Hill River

What occurred next is what has been debated for over 150 years. The central question is...were all the Cheyennes on the warpath? The agreed upon answer is no. Some were. The action taken in response to the continued raids and massacres was a plan put together by General Philip Sheridan (U.S. retouched public domain photo above right) for punitive attacks.

 The plan was for attacks on Cheyenne winter camps for the purpose of destroying both supplies and livestock, and killing any Indians who resisted his forces. The attack took place at dawn on November 28, 1868. At this time Black Kettle and his people set up a camp on a bend on the Washita River. The camp had fifty-one lodges and the village was populated by Cheyenne women, children, and elders as well as recently returned warriors who  now were much willing to accept the peaceful ways of Black Kettle after chief Roman Nose was killed in September 1868 at the Battle of Beecher's Island. The facts accepted by most researchers is that Black Kettle, in November 1868, was presiding over an encampment of peace seeking people.

Chief Black Kettle

Research portrays Black Kettle as being a peaceable leader which at that time he appeared to be.  His stance for peace was probably based more in realizing the strength of his opposition. Black Kettle was said to have stated that a war with the whites could not be won. He decided that the whites were too numerous and their weapons too strong. He also acknowledged their ability to fight during the winter when Indian horses were at their weakest. It's also noted that when the red stone war pipe was passed among the chiefs, Black Kettle was the one chief who did not partake.

A Dawn Raid By Custer

Washita Massacre, Harpers Weekly, 1868

The dawn raid on Black Kettle's village on the Washita River remains a somewhat controversial  topic. The slaughtering of men, women and reportedly children had lingering effects that probably were contributing factors of later battles.

What some historians refer to as Sheridan's extermination policy set Custer on his way to the Washita. The bloody Cheyenne raids in Kansas gave the government it's reason to pursue it. Considering the war departments stance that all Cheyennes were guilty for the trespasses of the few in the Kansas raids, there is no question that Custer was following his orders by attacking Black Kettle's Washita River village.

The tale is that Custer followed a small party of returning warriors right to Black Kettle's camp. The majority of the warriors heading to a larger encampment elsewhere. A woman reportedly alerted Black Kettle of the approaching cavalry and the chief fired a warning shot to awaken his people so they could flee. At this point Black Kettle apparently tried to flee on horseback with his wife and both being shot off the horse and killed. Custer reported after the battle/massacre that one of his Osage Indian guides took Black Kettle's scalp. Records from the military state that the 7th cavalry had twenty one officers and men killed and 13 wounded. The army estimated the Indians had about 50 killed and most likely the same number wounded.

The Debate Regarding Custer's Attack

The debate regarding the Washita affair really centers around the question...did George Armstrong Custer and his Seventh Cavalry cut down a village of innocent people? My research would indicate the answer is yes. However, to fully understand (not necessarily vindicate) what happened in November 1868, one has to study the era.

Westward migration was running at a fast clip. The Civil War had concluded just a few years prior. During the Civil War years the plains Indians had less opposition since many of the troops were back east. White settlements were raided quite regularly during those years and now the raids were continuing. What riled the Indians? You could say broken treaties, promised food and supplies arriving late if at all and of course the dictate that they were to move to barren reservations. In retrospect, these are fairly good reasons to rebel. The press of the day also joined the debate. Both the Leavenworth Daily Bulletin and the New York Tribune reported that some government officials, including a few army officers, felt that an innocent village was attacked. One reported that Indian Agent Edwin Wynkoop, who had tried to keep the peace, resigned after the attack.

Who Will the Military Punish?

Edwin Wynkoop

I suppose you could ask how the military, with all the numerous tribes and chiefs, could discern who was a guilty warrior and who was a peaceful Indian. They probably couldn't. I would expect that from the perspective of a frontier white settler, an Indian was an Indian.

Chasing down only those warriors directly responsible for bloody raids would be complicated to the least. A large band of say 200 warriors might come from and return to several different camps. Who would have or could have admitted their participation? Considering this, the government for better or for worse  appears to have taken the shotgun approach to solving the problem of Indian raids.

Anyway you look at it, the Washita Battle/Massacre was a very unfortunate engagement. There is no question that innocent people lost their lives. This by no means was the first or last time innocents died. The Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 is just another example. Obviously this still occurs during modern warfare. The white settlers who perished during Indian raids would also have to be considered innocent casualties of war. These types of engagements unfortunately have bad results for both sides. What happened on the Washita River is a perfect example. Visiting the Washita National Historic Site is a walk back into history where you might be able to discover for yourself what exactly caused this unfortunate episode in American history.

This very historic site is a good addition to your western road trip planner.

(Photo and images from the public domain)