Black Kettle’s camp was the entry point for the returning warriors and they may have stopped there before moving on downriver but 150 warriors would have put up a much stiffer resistence. 150 is way too many for the overall size of Black Kettle’s camp. Even Custer didn’t claim that many killed and he was prone to exaggeration.
In fact, Custer said after visiting the site again in December 1868 that the number of 103 warriors killed wasn’t enough, according to the number of bodies he had seen.
A private said that 80 warriors had been killed.
11 warchiefs were killed + Black kettle and Little Rock = 13 warchiefs and chiefs killed (a lotta guys).
On the resistance, the Indians in the ravine offered a lot of resistance, forcing the cavaliers to form skirmish line and to ask for reinforcement (WW. Cooke’s elite squad). Cooke saw 30 warriors in a single ravine.