The Supreme Court had established in a series of decisions that Indian nations had recognized sovereignty, that treaty rights were real, and that the federal government had trust responsibilities to Indigenous nations.

In theory, this legal framework meant that the commitments made to Black Kettle and his people were genuine legal obligations.

In theory, violations of those commitments should have been addressed through the same legal mechanisms that would address violations of any other treaty obligation.

In practice, the system didn’t work that way.

The political will to enforce treaty obligations consistently was absent.

The institutions that might have enforced those obligations — the courts, the Congress, the executive branch — were all susceptible to the political pressure from settlers, territorial governments, and economic interests that wanted the Indigenous peoples removed regardless of what treaties said.