Washita Battlefield Historic
Park Dedicated In Oklahoma

By David Bowser

CHEYENNE, Okla. — Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders are working with the National Park Service to develop Oklahoma's newest national historic site.

The Washita Battlefield National Historic Site, where Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his Seventh Cavalry swooped down on the winter camp of Cheyenne Peace Chief Black Kettle in 1868, formally became a unit of the National Park Service in a dedication ceremony this month.

"We will help develop the educational narrative that will be here at the site when the National Historic Park is opened," said Cheyenne Peace Chief Lawrence Hart during the dedication ceremony.

Hart has special ties to the site. His great-grandfather, Afraid of Beavers, was camped here when Custer attacked. Hart's grandfather was six years old at the time and was shot in the leg.

"I was here on this site 26 years ago when there was a reenactment of that awful day of Nov. 27, 1868," Hart said.

In the village that had been set up for the 100th anniversary of Custer's attack were Cheyenne and Arapaho, including Hart's children. There was a quiver in Hart's voice when he spoke of the reenactment group shooting as they rode through the village.

"They began shooting at our people, including my own children," he said. "That scene became too real for me."

Later, at the Black Kettle Museum in Cheyenne, Hart said, the grandsons of Seventh cavalrymen and the grandsons of the Cheyenne and the Arapaho people embraced each other.

"It's in that spirit, a spirit of peace and friendship, that we will build this facility together," Hart said.

"Washita has many stories to tell, and by bringing together the people that can tell them best, we begin a partnership, we begin a friendship, and we begin a learning process that will benefit all of us for many generations to come," said Sarah Craighead, the new park superintendent. "The dedication is only the beginning."

The 326 acre site along the Washita River was purchased from Roger Mills County ranchers Betty and Brian Wesner with funds from the State of Oklahoma and a grant from the Mellon Foundation of Pittsburgh, Pa.

"It includes all the land that once contained Peace Chief Black Kettle's Cheyenne village, which was massacred by George A. Custer's troops," said Dr. Bob Blackburn, deputy executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society.

A Mellon Foundation grant, administered by the Conservation Fund, was combined with a $262,000 supplemental appropriation from the Oklahoma Legislature to the Oklahoma Historical Society to complete the purchase and pay related expenses. The amount of the grant was not disclosed. The historical society deeded the land to the National Park Service.

"The Washita Battlefield National Historic Site will become the first cultural national park in Oklahoma," said Blake Wade, the society's executive director, "and it will become a significant tourism attraction in Western Oklahoma."

It was at the Washita battlefield site that Custer and the Seventh Cavalry, after a forced march in bitterly cold weather and deep snow from Fort Supply, attacked Black Kettle's village. Black Kettle and his wife were both killed in the dawn attack, along with more than 100 Cheyenne men, women and children. More than 800 horses were shot.