Wahista is known as the Washita Massacre, or to the Cheyenne, the Lodge Pole Massacre. Custer claimed to have killed about 100 men, but it was closer to 11 braves, and 90 old men, women and children.
The day before, Black Kettle had tried to surrender to US forces, only to be rejected by Hazen, who directed them to talk to Phil Sheridan. The following morning Custer's men attacked at dawn, opening fire on the village. The majority of the women and children killed were shot in the back beside or in the river while attempting to escape. After the massacre was over, Custer's men slaughtered some 800 Cheyenne horses. Custer reported that he had captured all their meat, meal, flour, everything they possessed, burned their lodges, leaving the site unfit for habitation.
This of course, is a few years after Chivington's 700 men massacred some 200 Cheyenne at Sand Creek (his men took over 100 scalps, many of them pubic from the women.)
For Custer, payback was a b***h.
The Washita “massacre” is pure political correctness. Nothing happened that way.
Washita was a battale and the Cheyennes got what they deserved after destroying Kansas and Texas during a whole year.
Watch the video “The battle of the Washita” on http://www.custerwest.org
Black Kettle wasn’t surrendering, he was trying to escape punishment by presenting himself as a peaceful one. Usual Indian tactics: murdering pioneers, and then claiming that they were peaceful with tears in their eyes.
That time, it failed. Custer got Black Kettle and Historian Jerome Greene, of the National Park Service, proved that the 7th cavalry soldiers “took measures to prevent the killing of women and children” (Washita, University of Oklahoma Press, page 189). Custer himself gave orders to prevent civilian casualties.