The failure of the treaty system was not primarily a legal failure.

The law was reasonably clear.

It was a political failure — the failure of the political system to honor commitments made in its own name.

Black Kettle understood this failure, at least partially.

His continued pursuit of treaty-based solutions even after the failure of every previous treaty reflects not ignorance of the pattern but the absence of any better alternative.

If the treaty system couldn’t be made to work, the alternatives were worse.

George Armstrong Custer: Hero and Villain