The treatment of the Washita operation in American popular culture and military history has varied considerably over time.

Custer portrayed it as a great victory.

The Seventh Cavalry’s regimental song, “Garryowen,” was played as they attacked Black Kettle’s sleeping camp.

Later historians, particularly in the post-civil-rights era, have been more critical of both the specific operation and the broader strategy it represented.

The Question of Blame: Who Was Responsible?

The deaths of Black Kettle and his wife at the Washita, following their survival of Sand Creek, raise a specific and important historical question: who was responsible?

The simplest answer locates responsibility with the immediate perpetrators — Chivington at Sand Creek, Custer at the Washita.