But the specific territorial and economic rights that the treaties promised have been substantially reduced from what was formally committed.

The ongoing conversation about how the United States honors its trust responsibilities to Indigenous nations — the conversation about treaty rights, about tribal sovereignty, about the specific obligations created by specific agreements — is a conversation that Black Kettle’s story is directly relevant to.

He made specific agreements.

Those agreements created specific obligations.

The extent to which those obligations have been honored is a live question with live consequences.

His story is American history in the deepest sense: a story about who the country was, what it promised, and what it delivered.