Black Kettle was a leader of the Southern Cheyenne during the American Indian Wars. Born to the Northern Só'taeo'o / Só'taétaneo'o band of the Northern Cheyenne in the Black Hills of present-day South Dakota, he later married into the Wotápio / Wutapai band of the Southern Cheyenne.
Black Kettle
A delegation of Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Arapaho chiefs in Denver, Colorado on September 28, 1864. Black Kettle is in the front row, second from left.
This rare photograph by an unknown photographer shows the ill-fated Cheyenne chief, Black Kettle, and a number of his associates at Camp Weld, on the outskirts of Denver. They had assembled there September 28, 1864.
The Cheyenne are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enrolled in the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma, and the Northern Cheyenne, who are enrolled in the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana.
Cheyenne hide dress, c. 1920, Gilcrease Museum
Cheyenne beaded hide shirt, Woolaroc
Cheyenne model tipi, buffalo hide, 1860
W. Richard West Jr., former director and cofounder of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian
