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.
Ah, don't let the facts stand in the way of your conclusions eh? I think you've drank too much of the PC kool-aid. When Islamic nut-jobs slammed 3/4 planes into buildings/ground slaughtering some 3990 civilians, would you consider that a 'battle'?
Washita was not a battle in any sense of the word.
US forces had congregated the Cheyenne/Arapaho in that area, Black Kettle did attempt to surrender only to be rebuffed, and Custer's men did attack Washita at dawn, firing first into the village. Custer was simply following Sheridan's orders to exterminate the 'savages' (post Darwinian justification) and continue the ruling party's quest for a lily-white West.