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Kiowa County, Colorado/h1>
The Sand Creek Massacre
by Tom Stockman
Introduction
The Sand Creek Massacre is also called the Battle of Sand Creek, also called the Chivington Massacre.
On November 29, 1864, Colorado Militia troops attacked an encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho American Indians, about 120 miles southeast of Denver. These Indians had surrendered themselves to the U.S. Army at Fort Lyon, they were travelling to an Indian Reservation in Oklahoma, and believed themselves to be under the protection of the U.S. Government.
O. Y. Rookstool's painting depicting the Sand Creek Massacre.
Women and children huddle behind trees in the foreground,
as old men & a few warriors face charging Cavalry.
It was mostly women, children, and old men who were slaughtered. Scalps were taken, so were other dismembered body parts, later proudly displayed by the Militia in a theatre in Denver, to widespread acclaim.
Congressional and Army investigations soon revealed this "victory" as a national scandal.
The background of the times is important to understanding this event.
Pikes Peak Or Bust!
A modest deposit of gold nuggets was discovered on Cherry Creek in what is now Denver in 1858, and in 1859, major finds were made on Clear Creek, 25 miles west, in the Rocky Mountains...and the Colorado Gold Rush was on.
Many tens of thousands of prospectors were followed by tens of thousands of more settlers who set up businesses supplying the miners and prospectors. Central City on Clear Creek alone boasted 60,000 people in the summer of 1860.
The American Government had signed a treaty with four Indian tribes in 1851, agreeing that much of eastern Colorado's plains were designated as their buffalo hunting ground. This territory is exactly where the U.S. whites were migrating through, and some even stayed to settle and establish farms. The buffalo herds began to suffer because the heavily-used wagon trails divided the herds. The Indians were quite alarmed at all of this.
Some of the Indians went on the warpath in the early '60s, in what is now called the Colorado War. Wagon trains were obliterated, farms and settlements attacked, and the Colorado public in Denver and elsewhere were outraged. The Kiowa Indians in particular were involved in the attacks; the Cheyenne and Arapaho were much less interested in conflict.
Surrender To The Inevitable
In 1864, a large group of the Colorado Cheyenne and Arapaho gathered at Fort Lyon, generally under the leadership of Chief Black Kettle. Both tribes had already signed a treaty giving away all Colorado lands, and this group of about 800 surrendered to the U.S. Army and began to migrate to the Oklahoma reservation. By November, they had moved to far eastern Colorado and encamped on Sand Creek as they travelled.
Believing themselves under protection of the U.S. Army, Black Kettle directed the warriors to hunt buffalo to feed the tribes as they moved toward Oklahoma.
Black Kettle flew both a U.S. flag and a white flag to demonstrate this as a peaceful encampment. Neither helped in the early hours of November 29, 1864.
The Only Good Indian Is A Dead Indian
Public anger in Denver at the Indians was insatiable. Territorial Governor John Evans instructed Civil War hero Colonel John Chivington to gather the First and Third Colorado Cavalry, and go after the Indians. Chivington took his force of mounted cavalry men, foot soldiers, and cannon, and attacked at dawn on November 29.
The warriors of the tribes were away, hunting buffalo. The surprise attack by artillery shelling, riflemen on horseback, & riflemen on foot against women, children, & old men was devastating. Something like 180 or more were killed. The bodies were scalped and mutilated in other ways, some of the mutilations too disgusting to mention here. 9 or 10 whites were killed and a few dozen wounded.
The troops triumphantly returned to Denver and displayed scalp and mutilated body parts in Denver's Apollo Theatre, to great acclaim. This was heralded throughout the country in the newspapers as a victory over a brave, fighting opponent, but that perception quickly changed.
Chivington publically stated in his lifetime that any means used to slaughter Indians was acceptable. He certainly demonstrated the strength of his convictions through his actions.
Women, old men, and children were shot in the back, hands raised high to signal surrender, as they tried to flee the carnage.
National Recognition Of An Atrocity
One of the officers in the militia had refused to attack the village, and ordered his men not to fight. As rumors began to surface that this was a slaughter of already-surrendered women, children, and old men, he confirmed that, as did many others who were there. Army and Congressional investigations ensued. Congress issued a scathing statement, condemning Colonel Chivington in the strongest terms.
The officer who refused to attack, and then testified at the Congressional hearing, was murdered in the streets of Denver months later. It was widely thought that Chivington was behind it.
From the Congressional conclusion:
"Having full knowledge of their friendly character, having himself [Colonel Chivington] been instrumental to some extent in placing them in their position of fancied security, he took advantage of their inapprehension and defenceless [sic] condition to gratify the worst passions that ever cursed the heart of man.
"Whatever influence this may have had upon Colonel Chivington, the truth is that he surprised and murdered, in cold blood, the unsuspecting men, women, and children on Sand creek...then returned to Denver and boasted of the brave deed he and the men under his command had performed."
This is as scathing a finding as any U.S. Congress investigation has ever issued.
Yet, Chivington never faced charges in any court of law, military or civilian.
Fallout
Territorial Governor John Evans was forced to resign over the scandal, although he went on to a philanthropic life in Denver and a return to respectability. Among his acts was the founding of Denver University.
The unrepentant Colonel John Chivington joined Evans in some of these ventures, but in a few years moved to other territories. He tried several times to run for public office, but each time, the Sand Creek Massacre was brought up and he found that the scandal dogged him for the rest of his life.
Many of the warriors & hunters of the peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho who were out of the camp hunting buffalo decided there could be no peace with the white man, and joined the Kiowa in what we now call the Dog Soldiers.
And several hundred more settlers and travellers in Colorado were killed by the Dog Soldiers in the ensuing years.
It is thought the Sand Creek Massacre helped put in play events leading up to the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where George Custer led many men to their deaths in yet another attempt to slaughter Native Americans.
The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site
In November of 2000, President Bill Clinton signed into law a Congressional act authorizing creation of the Sand Creek Massacre Historic Site.
Before the Site could be established, the actual site had to be located--it wasn't where local lore said it was--and private land had to be acquired. In August 2005, those were accomplished and President George W. Bush gave final approval. The Site is not yet open to the public.
It is located about 8 miles north of ghost town Chivington, which is a few miles east of current-day Eades, Colorado.
Read more about the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.
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