An End to the Slaughter

Chief Black Kettle and George Bent sought shelter in a sand pit with almost one hundred others while another hundred survivors sheltered in two other sand pits to the south, where soldiers brought up cannon and killed everyone there. Only a lack of ammunition for the cannon saved Black Kettle and George Bent from the same fate. In one account, thirty or forty women were in a hole for protection and sent out a little girl about six years old with a white flag on a stick, but she was shot and killed after only a few steps. Many Cheyenne and Arapaho escaped north from the village, while others fled northeast and northwest, then endured a long, cold, and difficult night on the prairie as wounded, frightened survivors without shelter or firewood; some died of their wounds and others were found and rescued by relatives. As evening fell, soldiers returned to the village, turned tipis into hospitals for wounded troops and used others to house captives. Eighteen soldiers were dead, and their bodies were recovered for burial at Fort Lyon. On the morning of December 1, soldiers burned the tipis and executed several prisoners before departing, leaving the Cheyenne and Arapaho dead where they had fallen, many of their bodies mutilated.

Brandon, Colorado · United States