Washita Battlefield National Historic Site preserves part of the battlefield near Cheyenne, Oklahoma, where Chief Black Kettle’s Southern Cheyenne village stood and where the Battle of Washita took place on November 27, 1868. Before dawn that day, the 7th U.S. Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Custer attacked the village, and the Cheyenne suffered heavy casualties. The attack was widely hailed at the time as a military victory meant to curb raids on frontier settlements, and it helped force the Cheyenne back onto their assigned reservation. The site includes one of the largest and best-preserved sections of the wider battlefield.