It was the authorized implementation of a deliberate strategy approved at the highest levels of the military command.

This authorization makes the Washita more damning as a reflection of American policy, not less.

Sheridan’s winter campaign strategy, which targeted all plains camps regardless of whether they were specifically associated with raids, was a decision made with full awareness of what it would produce.

The killing of Black Kettle — a known peace chief who had just been at Fort Cobb seeking protection — was a foreseeable consequence of a strategy that did not distinguish between peaceful and hostile camps.

The Archaeological Record and Its Testimony