BLACK KETTLE: The Southern Cheyenne Chief Who Sought Peace But Found War
By Thom Hatch
John Wiley & Sons

The life of Black Kettle is one of the most compelling and tragic stories in Native American history. Few nineteenth century Native American chiefs played such a pivotal role on history’s stage as this Southern Cheyenne chief. None tried harder to achieve peace with the whites; none was treated so treacherously; none fought more bravely or suffered so grievously – surviving the frenzied Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and dying in Custer’s slaughter of the Cheyenne at Washita Creek in 1868.

Yet, surprisingly, of all the great Native American leaders of his era, Black Kettle is the only one never to have been the subject of a biography. It’s time for him to receive his due: Congress recently passed a law establishing the Sand Creek Massacre site in Colorado as a national monument, commemorating the most appalling and unprovoked atrocity against Native Americans in our history – one that shocked the conscience of America then and will shock it again in Fall 2004 when the dedication of the monument will generate national publicity and focus attention on Black Kettle’s life.

Vividly written and recounting some of the most dramatic yet little known events in American history, BLACK KETTLE: The Southern Cheyenne Chief Who Sought Peace But Found War (about 95,000 words) will captivate the audience for narrative history. But because it also offers in-depth information about treaties, politics, race relations, battles, and tribal history and customs vital to understanding the Plains Indian wars, experts will acclaim it for filling a gaping void in Native American studies.

The author and subject of this book are made for each other. Thom Hatch, who lives in the heart of Cheyenne country a stone's throw from the Sand Creek Massacre site, has published five books on Native American and Western history: Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1997), The Alamo and the Texas Revolution (1999), Clashes of Cavalry: The Civil War Careers of George Armstrong Custer and Jeb Stuart (2001), The Custer Companion (2002), and The Blue, the Gray, and the Red: Indian Campaigns of the Civil War (2003). A former newspaper reporter, film and video writer and producer, Thom knows the Cheyenne as few white men do, having developed a close relationship with a tribal historian, who has passed on to him the oral history of the tribe.

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