In Cheyenne society, a leader’s authority depended on his followers’ confidence in his judgment.

Publicly acknowledging that you could not control your own people was a political risk as well as a strategic statement.

Black Kettle made this acknowledgment because he believed that honest communication with American officials was necessary for genuine peace, and because he knew that American officials consistently overestimated how much authority Cheyenne peace chiefs actually had.

In his last known contact with American officials — his meeting with Colonel Hazen at Fort Cobb in November 1868, just before the Washita — he asked for protection for his band.

He was told he couldn’t have it.