The objective was always the clearing of the plains for American settlement.

The question was only about the method.

Black Kettle understood this, at some level, by the end.

His statement at Medicine Lodge, that he wanted peace and that he was doing everything he could to keep his people peaceful, was also an acknowledgment that he could not guarantee peace on behalf of all the Cheyenne — that the Dog Soldiers and other militant groups operated outside his authority.

The American military’s decision to attack Black Kettle’s camp rather than the camps of the actual raiders reflected a failure of intelligence, of policy, and of commitment to the treaty process that the government itself had initiated.