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Washita Massacre!

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 Near Cheyenne is this memorial to the massacre of Black Kettle, his wife, and many other Indians Nov. 27, 1868.

 

 There is a wonderful film to view before taking the 1.5 mile walk through the actual massacre site along the Washita river.  

 

Today, I was the only visitor and the only viewer for the movie!

This is the mural depicting the early morning 7th U.S. Army attack led by Gen. Custer.  As it turned out, the only Indians in that camp  were the women, children, crippled, or ill as Chief Black Kettle was in charge of transporting those groups.  There were several other Indian groups - Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Kiowa-Apache, whose separate camps ran 10 to 15 miles along the Washita River.  it was a bitter winter, and because the Indians believed that the army would never attack during winter, there were few braves left in camp to protect the women and children.

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Today, as I walked the mile and a half of battleground, I was struck by the beauty of the place today, 140 years after the horrors of that day.  Beautiful sunflowers waved in the gentle breeze, and I could not help but reflect for a moment.  How often during the past years have similar events taken place - Ruwanda, Serejevo, Armenia, Syria - yet, we never seem to learn the lesson.  There are still those who divide us into black or white, immigrant or native, Catholic or protestant, Muslim or "other," rich or poor, schooled or unschooled...  

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