These commemorations are not complete reckoning.

A complete reckoning would require not only acknowledging what happened but addressing the ongoing consequences — the treaty obligations that were never fulfilled, the land that was taken and never returned, the cultural disruptions that extended across generations.

The National Historic Sites are steps toward historical honesty, not substitutes for it.

Black Kettle himself, if he could see the trajectory of the 150 years since his death, would probably recognize both the progress and the inadequacy.

He was a man who understood the difference between symbolic gestures and substantive commitments.