Washita: The U.S. Army and the Southern Cheyennes, 1867-1869

An evenhanded account of a tragic clash of cultures

On November 27, 1868, the U.S. Seventh Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer attacked a Southern Cheyenne village along the Washita River in present-day western Oklahoma. The subsequent U.S. victory signaled the end of the Cheyennes’ traditional way of life and resulted in the death of Black Kettle, their most prominent peace chief.

In this remarkably balanced history, Jerome A. Greene describes the causes, co…