Present on the Cheyenne and Arapaho side were Black Kettle, White Antelope, Bull Bear, and several other chiefs.

The substance of the council has been reconstructed from the accounts of participants and from the brief official record.

Black Kettle and the other chiefs came to Denver because they had been told that meeting with American officials was the path to peace.

They had been given assurances through military intermediaries that making this contact was a necessary step in the peace process.

Evans’s behavior at the council was evasive.