Washita Battlefield National Historic Site
National Park Service National Historic Site; Authorised 1996, Site Of The 27 November 1868 Attack On Black Kettle'S Village · Cheyenne, Oklahoma
The site on the Washita River in western Oklahoma where, at dawn on 27 November 1868, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer's Seventh Cavalry attacked the sleeping Southern Cheyenne village of Peace Chief Black Kettle, killing him, his wife and dozens of others, most of them women, children and elders, and destroying the lodges and hundreds of ponies. It became a model for the winter campaigns that followed across the southern plains. The National Park Service runs a visitor centre in Cheyenne with a film and exhibits, and a 1.5-mile trail loops through the valley below the overlook, where the village stood and where interpretive signs mark the attack's course. The ground is left bare on purpose: there are no reconstructions, and descendants of the survivors still hold memorial ceremonies here. Entry is free.
18555 State Highway 47A, Cheyenne, Oklahoma, 73628, United States
Visitor centre in Cheyenne open 8 AM-4:30 PM, seven days a week; closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The overlook and trail are open daily from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset (check nps.gov/waba or call 580-497-2742).
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