Broken Promises, Broken Arrows

November 1868 brought Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Calvary to a Cheyenne camp on the Washita River.  The Indians didn't take much to fighting in the winter so the village, with Black Kettle as resident didn't sight the Army until it was too late.  At dawn on November 26th, Custer  and his men attacked the camp and killed 100 Indians, including Black Kettle. 

Warriors from nearby camps heard the battle cries and forced Custer to retreat with his Indian captives, but he left 19 men under Major Joel Elliott behind.  Cut off from the main unit, the men were quickly surrounded and killed.  Custer was commended by his superiors.for his bold actions...(I am not a Custer fan btw!) and his victory seemed to have crushed the southern plains Indian rebellion.  In March 1869, Gen. Philip Sheridan reported that "the tribes were living quietly on the reservations."  Not for long...

A new threat arose from the Kiowa who were raiding the Texas Panhandle - their traditional hunting grounds..  Kiowa and Comanche had agreed to leave Texas in 1867 for reservations originally given them and resettle on barren land in Indian Territory!  (can't make this up)  In 1871, fed up with the white man's broken promises, they rebelled under Chief Satanta.  Satanta was a long-time foe of the US Army who had fought Kit Carson at Adobe Walls before.

Satanta boldy showed up at Fort Sill after a wagon train raid and boasted of having killed seven men.  Instead of rations, he was arrested, tried for murder in a Texas court and sentenced to hang until the Bureau of Indian Affairs appealed to the governor and Satanta was paroled in 1873.  Satanta then joined Comanche Quanah Parker and 700 warriors in another battle at Adobe Walls on June 27, 1874.  Against the Sharp shooting rifles of the Army, the Indians held their own for a good while.

The Kiowa and Comanche continued raids across southern plains but slowly weakened.  Satanta surrendered to prison in October 1874, where he died by suicide four years later. 

Next time...The Army's Logistics and Tactics
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On December 28, 1869,  the Knights of Labor, a labor union of tailors in Philadelphia, hold the first Labor Day ceremonies in American history. The Knights of Labor was established as a secret society of Pennsylvanian tailors earlier in the year and later grew into a national body that played an important role in the labor movement of the late 19th century.