Their survival is not separate from Black Kettle’s story — it is the continuation of the community he spent his life trying to protect.

The Historical Recognition of Black Kettle

The public recognition of Black Kettle as a significant historical figure has grown in recent decades, driven both by the broader reconsideration of the Indian Wars in American historical scholarship and by the advocacy of Cheyenne and Arapaho descendants.

A number of communities in Oklahoma — in the territory assigned to the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho by the Medicine Lodge Treaty — have monuments and commemorations associated with Black Kettle and the events at Sand Creek and the Washita.

The National Park Service’s management of both Sand Creek National Historic Site and the Washita Battlefield National Historic Site has evolved significantly in recent years, with both sites developing interpretive programs that acknowledge the perspective of the Cheyenne and Arapaho descendants and that place the events in their proper historical context.