Early on the morning of November 29th, 1864, a regiment of mostly volunteer soldiers attacked a group of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians at Sand Creek, CO.
There had been increased tensions between the Indians and the white settlers. Governor John Evans appointed Colonel John Chivington, a Civil War Hero, to lead the attack.
|
Chivington had political aspirations and thought the assignment would help his career. He was not only a military man, but also a minister. Oddly, as a minister, he saw the Indians as "heathens" that had attacked white settlements. He saw the eradication of the Indian as a sort of "Holy War" and his ideas and beliefs were not unique.
Prior to the attack the Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders had come to Denver to come to a peaceful solution to the rising tensions. The Indian leaders were turned away and sent to Fort Lyon where they were instructed to set up camp at Sand Creek. There, they where told, they would be safe.
The morning of the attack, Chivington told his men:
"I don't tell you to kill all ages and sexes, but look back on the plains of the Platte, where your mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters have been slain...their blood saturating the sands of the Platte."
The regiment attacked while the Cheyenne and Arapaho were sleeping. Chief Black Kettle raised the American flag to show his allegiance to the government, along with a white flag signaling surrender. Both flags were ignored as men, women and children were shot, beaten, scalped and mutilated by Chivington's men.
A few soldiers refused Chivington's order to attack. Men like Captain Silas Soule who said:
"It looked too hard for me to see little children on their knees begging for their lives, having their brains beat out like dogs."
In the end, the Cheyenne and Arapaho reported 163 dead. Chivington boasted that he had killed between 400-500.
There were those that applauded Chivington's actions. However, there were others who had worked for a peaceful solution and were horrified by what had been done.
An inquiry was made by Congress and they concluded that Chivington had disgraced his office and the country. He was immediately court marshaled. Chivington never faced any punishment for his actions, although is political career was finished.
Later, there were those bitter Cheyenne and Arapaho that formed a group called the "Dog Soldiers", whose ultimate goal was retribution for the Sand Creek Massacre. Bloody raids on white settlements followed. Still, leaders such as Chief Little Raven worked towards a peaceful solution of co-existence with the white man.
In 1998, the National Park Service identified the exact location of the massacre.
In 2000 Congress named Sand Creek as an official historic site.
In August of 2005, President Bush approved the site as the first historic site dedicated to a massacre.
In 2007, the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site was established.
