Diatribune

Black Kettle had lost respect amongst the Cheyenne and Arapahoe for signing the Fort Wise Treaty of 1861.

Source

ARTICLE 1.

The said chiefs and delegates of said Arapahoe and Cheyenne tribes of Indians do hereby cede and relinquish to the United States all lands now owned, possessed, or claimed by them, wherever situated, except a tract to be reserved for the use of said tribes located within the following described boundaries, to wit:

Close to Black Kettle's death at Washita

Crossposted at Progressive Historians

Moxtaveto lost even more respect for signing the Little Arkansas Treaty of 1865 after the Sand Creek Massacre. It gave some land to Black Kettle and others, promised food and other survival necessities, promised that conflicts would be handled by taking Indians into custody rather than being murdered, "and that no white person, except officers, agents, and employees of the Government, shall go upon or settle within the country embraced within said limits, unless formerly admitted and incorporated into some one of the tribes lawfully residing there, according to its laws and usages."

The treaty then listed a few "exceptions" to those promises and rules, but the promises were not kept which would have possibly created the peace Black Kettle strove for. Since the promises of the Little Arkansas Treaty weren't kept, he was even more blamed and shunned for being too trusting. However, his separate encampment should be viewed as following his convictions for peace and wanting to be seen as being separate from the Dog Soldiers, I think. He never let popular opinion steer him away from acting on his vision.

Now we will discuss the deception that happened at Fort Cobb on November 20th, one week prior to Washita and Black Kettle's death, so we can further comprehend Custer's propaganda concerning "white hostages" in Moxtaveto's village at Washita.

Black Kettle and Big Mouth (Arapaho) met with Colonel William B. Hazen, seeking refuge and safety. 

Source

Colonel Hazen refused to give them the protection they sought.
He told them that the federal government had initiated a winter campaign to punish them for attacks against Kansas settlers. When the chiefs returned to their respective winter camps with the bad news, everyone was alarmed.

Hazen was also likely aware of their location,

Source

Traditionally, while the location of friendly Indians was generally known, the location of hostile Indians was generally not known, for they, unlike friendly Indians, did not report their whereabouts to the government.

I consider it safe to assume that Hazen was also likely aware that preparations were being made to advance in the direction of Black Kettle's encampment, which he did not reveal. Whether or not he knew of Moxtaveto's camp location, military preparations were being made to advance towards Moxtaveto's camp location overall.

Source

Even as Black Kettle and Big Mouth parlayed with General Hazen, the 7th Cavalry established a forward base of operations at Camp Supply, Indian Territory as part of Sheridan's winter campaign strategy.

And under these orders.

 

http://books.google....
  The Dust Rose Like Smoke: The Subjugation of The Zulu and the Sioux."By James Oliver Gump. P.80.

"To proceed south in the direction of the Antelope Hills, thence towards the Washita River, the supposed winter seat of the hostile tribes; to destroy the villages and ponies, to kill or hang all warriors, and bring back all women and children."

If Hazen, Custer, and Sheridan communicated thoroughly about all of this seems less relavent to me - than this:

http://books.google....

Understanding Complexity: A Commemorative Volume of the World Congress of the Systems Sciences. By Gillian Ragsdell, Jennifer Wilby. p.286.

"I can't hear what you're saying, because your actions speak so loud!"

Ralf Waldo Emerson

If it wasn't coordinated that well in-so-far as communication went at that time, I feel safe in saying it was good luck to them. The deception worked well. Black Kettle and Big Mouth were to return to their known encampment locations and live the last week of their lives. They wouldn't have been aware of the orders to "kill or hang all warriors" (the War Department didn't discriminate between peaceful and "hostile Indians"); nor, that in the very instance they were denied protection at Fort Cobb, the Custer's 7th was making the preparations to "kill or hang" them both (and all warriors) at Camp Supply, getting ready to continue the campaign of extermination in their future direction. Custer's success and "victory" would be achieved in one week; however, his lie concerning white hostages in Black Kettle's village in a report after his "victory" would be unsuccessful.

The words of Ben Clark, Custer's chief of scouts, brought out the truth after Custer distributed the propaganda about one white woman and two white boys. Here's what really happened using deductive reasoning, Ockham's Razor, and remembering that this Cheyenne woman had likely survived the Sand Creek Massacre four years earlier or knew it very well.

Since she didn't want her son mutilated by Custer or a 7th Calvary soldier; since she didn't want her vagina ripped out with a weapon and put on a stick, or worn, or have her reproductive organs made into a tobacco pouch - she killed her son and herself first.

Washita River in 1868



(Taken with permission)

Black Kettle and the Sand Creek Massacre of Nov. 29th, 1864 (Part 2)

U.S. soldiers inevitably chased the defenseless Cheyenne and Arapaho by horse and foot with knives and guns in hand. Their victims had to be positioned before ripping off their scalps, cutting off their ears, smashing out their brains, butchering their children, tearing their breastfeeding infants away from their mother's breasts, and then murdering those infants. The "Bloody Third" soldiers necessarily had to kill the infants before cutting out their mother's genitals.

The one question I never saw asked in the congressional hearings was, "Didn't you beyond disgraceful soldiers ever realize that they were all family?"

Kurt Kaltreider, PH.D. "American Indian Prophecies." pp. 58-59:

-The report of witnesses at Sand Creek:

"I saw some Indians that had been scalped, and the ears cut off the body of White Antelope," said Captain L. Wilson of the first Colorado Cavalry. "One Indian who had been scalped had also his skull smashed in, and I heard that the privates of White Antelope had been cut off to make a tobacco bag of. I heard some of the men say that the privates of one of the squaws had been cut out and put on a stick -"

John S. Smith:

All manner of depredations were inflicted on their persons; they were scalped, their brains knocked out; the men used their knives, ripped open women, clubbed little children, knocked them in the heads with their guns, beat their brains out, mutilated their bodies in every sense of the word - worse mutilation that I ever saw before, the women all cut to pieces -children two or three months old; all ages lying there.

  From sucking infants up to warriors.

The fact the Sand Creek was a deliberate massacre is not contested, especially since the "Bloddy Third" set the village in flames and took all the evidence back to Washington to hide it.

  A Cheyenne man spoke to me when I was at the Washita Battlefield. He said the elders said they didn't do ceremony yet (or maybe they won't; I can't remember exactly), because there's a lot of bad energy down there and something might be caught by or brought back with someone if ceremony is done. Apparently, I was so close to where the murders, mutilations, and the Cheyenne woman were; I had a horrific dream after my visit. It was about the Cheyenne woman who killed herself and her son, sparing her son and herself a worse fate. I woke up in tears, but then I remembered one less current fact about the Iraq War.

Killing Iraqi Children

By Jacob G. Hornberger

06/20/06 "Lew Rockwell" -- -- In a short editorial, the Detroit News asked an interesting question:

"Some war critics are suggesting Iraq terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi should have been arrested and prosecuted rather than bombed into oblivion. Why expose American troops to the danger of an arrest, when bombs work so well?"

Here's one possible answer: In order not to send a five-year-old Iraqi girl into oblivion with the same 500-pound bombs that sent al-Zarqawi into oblivion.

Of course, I don't know whether the Detroit News editorial board, if pressed, would say that the death of that little Iraqi girl was "worth it." Maybe the board wasn't even aware that that little girl had been killed by the bombs that killed Zarqawi when it published its editorial. But I do know one thing: killing Iraqi children and other such "collateral damage" has long been acceptable and even "worth it" to U.S. officials as part of their long-time foreign policy toward Iraq.

How many innocent children have been murdered since the war began? Is it 100? 1,000? 5,000? 10,000? Less or more?

The Obituaries Of King George's War

Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America's War on Iraq -  At Least 655,000 + +

Is the answer over 200,000 innocent children murdered? It must be "worth it" to our congressmen and senators who condone it. Maybe this song was written partly for people like Joe Lieberman.

Throw Away Children by Ronnie James Dio

Oh-oh, the sun's gone down

Her day begins

And the rhythm of the darkness

Wakes the dead

Don't answer eyes that smile

Don't let them in

They see the lonely child

She feels their sin

But it's getting so much colder

And she's afraid

Never going back to where the pain was

She'd rather face the pain that's here and now

Someone's thrown away their children

You can see them running from your smile

Sing for the runaway children

The throw-away child

I'll make you safe and warm

Words she needs to hear

What they really mean is no more little girl

Don't see her anymore

They disappear

Yesterday they said that she was dying

And just today I heard that she was dead

The Cheyenne woman took me back in time to where she was by her lodge when the soldiers attacked in my dream. I became her and felt her terror in that horrific event, about a century and four decades ago. Before stabbing myself to death, I screamed and killed my son with the knife. I heard her say these words as I was saving my son and myself from the worse fate of being mutilated, "Don't let them kill my son. My son is their future."

Dreams may just be dreams, but the murdering of innocent civilians consisting of men, women, and children in this illegal and immoral war is no dream...nor nightmare.

Perhaps Moxtaveto ("Black Kettle") at Washita: 11- 27, 1868 (Re-introduction) will make more sense now, and the story of reconciliation and forgiveness there will have more meaning. I sincerely hope that it does.
 
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