Customer Reviews

Black Kettle : The Cheyenne Chief Who Sought Peace but Found War

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It has been 140 years since that dark dawn rose over the eastern plains of Colorado bathing the land in blood and gore at Sand Creek. Countless books have been written about the subject, and its story has been recounted in film. Today, there are those who believe it was a massacre, others it was a battle that turned into a massacre, but to all academic historians Chivington's attack upon a sleeping village of Cheyenne and Arapaho was nothing but a massacre turned into a blood bath of unspeakable horror.

A new book by Thom Hatch is now available entitled, "Black Kettle: The Cheyenne Chief Who Sought Peace But Found War" The book is the first ever written biography about the Cheyenne leader. And, Sand Creek is at the center of Black Kettle's life.

Black Kettle is more than a story of one man's life. The story Hatch shares is rich in Plains Indian culture focusing on the Cheyenne people along with their form of government, laws, religion, courtship, and military society. The narrative follows the Cheyenne relationships with other tribes that were both productive and destructive. Hatch also describes life for the Cheyenne after the white man enters the scene. Hatch's passages about the warrior societies are filled with pageantry, color, and ritual.

Much of what Hatch discusses in this portion of the book has been written before, but Black Kettle finally becomes a human being instead of just a symbol of the wrongs committed against the Indians. After Black Kettle witnessed the peace gathering between his people and the Kiowas, Hatch explains its effect upon the Cheyenne leader.

"Perhaps this event made enough of an impression upon Black Kettle that it served as a lesson in shaping his future role as a man who believed that peace with any enemy - even the white man - was attainable if both parties were honorable and sincere with their promise to become friends."

The centerpiece of any story around Black Kettle has to be the Sand Creek Massacre and Hatch does not disappoint the reader. There can be no honest telling of Sand Creek that doesn't move the reader, and the story of Black Kettle at Sand Creek is powerful. Black Kettle leads as many of his people as he can to safety to the Sand Pits except for his wife, Medicine Woman Later, who is shot down near the creek in a hail of bullets.

At twilight, Black Kettle returns to find his wife as the soldiers commit the atrocities around him. Finding Medicine Woman Later still alive, Black Kettle carries her on his back for miles until he catches-up with the survivors, who by now are moving northeast away from the killing field. Putting his wife on a horse, Black Kettle leads his people to the Dog Soldier camps.

So ends the Sand Creek Massacre, but far more of the life of Black Kettle follows. A true leader is one that stands up for what he believes, never wavers, and makes decisions based solely on the betterment of his people, not for how it might make his life better. Black Kettle was such a leader. Black Kettle continued to sue for peace from the white man, even after Sand Creek, even though many of his people chastised him for it, even though the intimidation of the Dog Soldiers tried to stop him. Black Kettle knew his people would be doomed if they continued to fight the people moving into their lands. He believed peace was the only choice the Cheyenne had to save what they could of their way of life.

Tom Hatch brings us the complete life of Black Kettle -- his analysis of the man's life and the events surrounding it is fresh, bold, and provides new challenges for future researches.

The title should read, "Black Kettle, the Cheyenne Chief who Sought Life and Found Only Death". This is a difficult book to read because the story is not only true but shameful. As someone from Colorado, I was horrified to learn many of our streets and city areas are named after men who were often theives, liars, opportunists and some even condoned the murder of the Native Americans. One tries to frame the story in the context of the time and the ignorance and the misunderstandings of the of white America, yet in 2005 the site of the Sand Creek massacre is a minor footnote that most Coloradians are unaware and The Black Hills still have not been returned to the Souix, so has our sense of justice towards Native Americans really changed? The book does a excellent, informative telling of the story of a very shameful part of Colorado and American history.This is the story of an exceptional man who rightly always believed in peace but wrongly believed in the U.S. government. We should be reminded of this past and never forget the genocide that was carried out in the country in the name of westward expansion. Black Kettle should be remembered as man who was as great in statue as any American hero.

This work explores the efforts of a great Cheyenne chief who, despite his betrayal by the white man, continued his search for peace, only to lose his life in the process. It reveals how Black Kettle stood in stark contrast to Chivington, Sherman, Sheridan, Custer and others, who enthusiastically effected our government's policy of destroying the culture of the Plains Indians and killing, with little or no excuse, innocent tribal menbers. Make no mistake, there were elements within the tribes who were no better. However, one cannot read this well-written account without coming away with a sense of revulsion toward those members of the white power structure and our military who made so little effort to understand a people who were different and to treat them with the respect they deserved. Read this book if you want to know more than one will find within the usual histories written by the victors.

Many thanks for a valuable source and a great story -

Thom Hatch hits the mark on Cheyenne Indian Chief Black Kettle's efforts to uphold peaceful relations throughout manifest destiny. Despite broken treaty after broken treaty by the government and gluttonous bone-headed army generals with personal vendettas and lack of respect for the Indians, it is a wonder that Black Kettle maintained his philosophy on peace for so many years.
It is disheartening that the vision of peace is what eventually killed him along with many of his people.
If surviving the brutal and senseless butchery of Sand Creek Massacre by egotistical Colonel Chivington wasn't enough punishment, Black Kettle was to soon afterwards undergo additional tests of endurance from the thoughtless and misguided behavior of the U. S. military and government.
A very persuasive, gripping and touching account of one man's dream of peace.

With the coming of the Europeans to America's shores, it was only a matter of time before the settlers whose ancestors were from the Old World would lock horns with the many Native American tribes that roamed across the Great Plains. With only a small amount of traffic going across the Santa Fe Trail beforehand, the discovery of gold near preent-day Denver sparked a rush of miners and others who would profit from the new discoveries. The resulting antagonsim from the influx of settlers into Indian lands resulted in attacks depredations by the Indians as well as counterattacks from the whites.

This book is about the life of the Cheyenne chief, Black Kettle, who saw that the combined forces of the Indians of the plains would be no match for the might of the United States Army and tried to resolve the conflicts between the two races peacefully. Not only did he face opposition from the new settlers, but also from members of his own tribe, especially the fierce Dog Soldiers.

The story is told brilliantly by the author and it illustrates the conflict, the betrayal of the Indians by corrupt Indian agents and U.S. soldiers through fraud and broken treaties and the needless killing of innocent women and children at Sand Creek, CO in 1864 and along the Washita River near present-day Cheyenne, OK in 1868 where Black Kettle would meet his tragic demise at the hands of General Custer.

Despite the harshness of his life, Black Kettle fervently sought peace for his people and did what he could to keep violence at a minimum to his last days. He learned from his experiences that peace was possible, for his tribe the Cheyenne made peace with their previous enemies, the Kiowas and the Comanches. It is a shame that it has been only in the past few years that a biography of any kind has been created for Black Kettle. Mr. Hatch does a yeoman's job of bringing to life the career of this peaceful man who tried to minimize the sorrow of his people that still exists unto this day.

The book is a quick read at around 270 pages with a good biblipgraphy, endnotes and index. I recommend this book to anybody who wants to drop the old myths and tales about the original inhabitants of this land.

Sorry so late guys. The book arrived fast and was in excellent condition! I will certainly oreder from you again. Keep up the great work!

"Black Kettle: The Cheyenne Chief Who Sought Peace but Found War", is an excellently written; interesting and moving story about the major events in the life of an important Native American "Peace Chief". The story begins with the days of freedom on the vast plains of North America and ends with the tragic death of Black Kettle at the Washita.

Mr. Hatch states in his introduction that with all the books written about Native Americans who choose war that it was time to write a book about a Native American who choose peace. I could not agree more, and Black Kettle was an excellent choice. Black Kettle made a very difficult choice in a personal sense, yet the right one if the Cheyenne were to have any hope of survival and preserve what little autonomy and freedom they might possibly preserve in the face of the pernicious and overwhelming aggression against them.

So where was Black Kettle's victory through all this suffering and sacrifice?

Read Mr. Hatch's book especially the last chapter "Legacy" in order to get the author's thoughts on Black Kettle's meaning when he said, "It was like coming through fire", for perhaps an answer.

The book was a smooth read for me and through every page it held my interest. Chapter 8 "The Sand Creek Massacre" was difficult emotionally. I felt a combination of sadness, and anger at the awful cruelties inflicted and the duplicity of the political leaders both federal and state. The idea that streets of Denver are actually named after these cold blooded killers both in and out of uniform boggles the mind.

I give Thom Hatch great applause for taking the time and extensive research to write this tragic history.