He was trying to comply with the terms of the treaty he had signed.

But other Cheyenne — particularly the Dog Soldiers under Tall Bull and Roman Nose — refused to accept the Medicine Lodge terms and continued to raid in Kansas and along the emigrant routes.

These raids provided the American military with justification for the campaign that would kill Black Kettle.

The Road to the Washita

The military campaign of 1868 that culminated in the Battle of the Washita — the attack on Black Kettle’s camp — was designed by General Philip Sheridan, who commanded the Military Division of the Missouri.

Sheridan’s strategy was a winter campaign — a deliberate decision to attack plains Indians during the winter, when they were concentrated in their camps and when their horses were weakened by the cold and the lack of grass.