Black Kettle: Motavato
Personally, it is hard to understand all the struggles that people go through. Mine seem to be grossly incomparable to that of chief Black Kettle. Motavato, he was called in the spoken tongue of the Southern Cheyenne, meaning Black Kettle. He was a chief, a hero and a peacekeeper.
There are few biographical details are known about the Southern Cheyenne chief Black Kettle, but his repeated efforts to secure a peace with honor for his people, despite broken promises and attacks on his own life, speak of him as a great leader with an almost unique vision of the possibility for coexistence between white society and the culture of the plains. (www.pbs.org)
The Southern Cheyenne lived on the great plains of western Kansas and eastern Colorado. The land was given to them under the Fort Laramie treaty of 1851. (www.pbs.org) They were a peaceful people, surviving off the land that provided everything that they needed.
Colonel John Milton Chivington, United States Army
Camp Weld Conference
Black Kettle, Southern Cheyenne chiefIt is believed that he was born in 1813, and was considered to be a great warrior in his youth. (www.lastoftheindependents.com) Growing up he soon had the opportunity to travel to Washington with his lifelong friend, where he met President Lincoln. The president presented them with medals and papers proclaiming that the Southern Cheyenne were good friends of the United States. (www.lastoftheindependents.com) The medals and papers were sure to provide them the peace they so desired; unfortunately it did not.
One morning Motavato's friend went to meet up with the cavalry as they approached their camp. He tried to inform them of the president's proclamation of peace, instead, he was shot and killed as he drew near the cavalry.
Black Kettle was sad and confused. Why would they would do this, they were good peaceful people. Things would get worse,