Remembering the Sand Creek Massacre and the Founding of America

Following the UB Intercultural and Diversity Center’s efforts to shed light on the history of Thanksgiving, the Young Americans for Freedom, a campus student organization, hosted a protest outside the Student Union. The group, which claimed the IDC’s efforts were aimed at erasing Thanksgiving, condemned the initiative as historical revisionism and an attack on family values. 

These events inspired me to revisit our country’s history. I recently learned that this month marks the 157th anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre — an event that, despite being one of the worst atrocities committed by the US government in history, remains largely unknown to many, including myself before writing this. The following is a small effort to try to change that. I hope that in telling the story of Sand Creek, I can give a voice to the victims, honor their lives and dignity, and keep their story alive. I also hope that it can shed light on why this history matters. The story of the Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek is reflective of the attitudes that have shaped our institutions and impacted the lives of millions of people.

Every attempt we make to erase this history only bolsters its legacy of continued injustice and indifference. I ask readers to forget politics for a moment and consider the past with open minds and hearts. While easy to get caught up in the culture wars and political grievances, we should not lose sight of the humanity of America’s first peoples. It can be tempting to see those who lived long before us or those whose culture differs from our own as distant and alien, but really, they were and are just like us.

The Founding of Colorado and the Sand Creek Massacre

In the first half of the nineteenth century, European immigration to the US soared and white settlers began to cross the Mississippi in large numbers. By the mid nineteenth century, US officials decided that the “Indian problem” could no longer be solved only by forcibly exiling Native Americans westwards. During this time Native Americans in the West faced increasing pressure from both the federal government and white settlers to cede their land.

In 1851, the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and several other tribes that had been living freely in the Colorado plains met with US representatives and agreed to allow the establishment of roads and military posts across their territory. Both parties to the treaty swore to maintain good faith and friendship and to make an effective and lasting peace. In signing the treaty, the Plains tribes did not relinquish any rights to their lands, nor did they surrender the right to move freely and hunt, fish, or travel as they desired. 

In 1861, after a gold rush brought thousands of settlers to the area, Congress created the Territory of Colorado, breaking the treaty they signed ten years prior. As the influx of settlers continued, US officials tricked the Cheyenne and Arapaho into signing another treaty — one that was purposefully misrepresented to them. Chiefs were told that while they would agree to live within a specified area of territory, they would retain their land rights and freedom of movement. Freedom of movement was especially vital, as the reservation assigned to them was not hospitable for agriculture and lacked wild game. 

Months later, several Cheyenne hunters encountered American soldiers with cannons approaching their camp. As the Cheyenne attempted to make peace, the soldiers opened fire, killing several. Concerned about their future (especially after hearing the stories of neighboring tribes), Cheyenne leaders instructed warriors not to make revenge attacks. Later, however, they found out that American soldiers were under command to “kill Cheyenne whenever and wherever found.” This would mark the start of a war between the Cheyenne and Arapaho and the American soldiers.

When William Bent, an ally of the Cheyenne, traveled to Denver to inform Colonel John Chivington that the Cheyenne wished for peace, the Colonel responded that peace was not an option. He made clear he wanted war and bloodshed. Several weeks later, the governor of Colorado Territory, John Evans, issued a circular to the Plains tribes that stated their members had gone to war with white people, despite the fact that it was US soldiers who had always attacked first. The Governor then assured that anyone who wished to remain friendly with the whites would be protected if they fled to the reservation established by the 1851 treaty. The Governor also led the Cheyenne and Arapaho to believe that they would be able to leave the reservation, as per their treaty rights, once the “hostile Indians” could be subdued. 

During the period where the Cheyenne and Arapaho were being reached with the Governor’s message, they were attacked repeatedly by US troops without any cause. In response, they carried out retaliatory raids. Several weeks later, the Governor of Colorado Territory issued a proclamation authorizing all citizens of Colorado to pursue, kill, and destroy Native peoples wherever they may be found, labeling them as “enemies of the country.” Only those who had fled to the assigned reservation, the Governor asserted, would be spared. Upon hearing this, Black Kettle, one of the Cheyenne leaders, wrote a letter to a US agent telling him yet again that his people wished only for peace. He also agreed that his people would come peacefully to the reservation. Although he received the letter, the agent deceptively wrote to the Governor that they could not be depended on to keep peace, and that “a little powder and lead is the best food for them.”

Despite more attempts by the Cheyenne and Arapaho to make peace, US officials could not be persuaded to abandon their pursuit of violence. The Governor of the Colorado Territory remarked that the Indians should be punished, despite knowing that the whites had instigated all the violence. In a telegraph to the Colonel, the Governor wrote, “I want no peace till the Indians suffer more.” He also stated that the Third Colorado Regiment had been raised explicitly to kill Natives, and they must do so, regardless of the Cheyenne and Arapahos’ peaceful intentions and willingness to retreat to the reservation.

Once the Cheyenne and Arapaho arrived at the Sand Creek reservation, they were assured that they would be protected from US soldiers and were ordered to surrender their weapons. They agreed to stay at Sand Creek for the winter rather than move to the south of Arkansas, where they could also escape soldiers. US officials deliberately made a point to lure the Cheyenne and Arapaho into a sense of safety and security and keep them camped where they were. At the same time, these officials were actively calling in reinforcements — the Colorado Calvary was on its way to carry out a planned mass murder on the reservation.

On November 29, 1864, seven hundred soldiers marched into Sand Creek to slaughter the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Soldiers who opposed the slaughter were threatened with imprisonment and death. The Cheyenne and Arapaho were so confident of absolute safety on the reservation that many of them did not think they were in danger at first. Once they became aware of the troops’ violent intentions, hundreds huddled around their chief’s American flag to signify that they were not enemies. They were all promptly shot. 

For the next seven hours, the indiscriminate torture and slaughter of men, women and children ensued. Hundreds who begged for mercy were beaten, shot, and scalped. According to the account of S.S. Soule, a soldier present at the massacre, “Hundreds of women and children were coming towards us and getting on their knees for mercy. [Major Scott Anthony] shouted, ‘Kill the sons of bitches.’”

Soule noted, “There was no organization among our troops — they were a perfect mob.” The Colonel advocated for the killing and scalping of all Natives, including children, telling his soldiers that “nits make lice.” “It was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized,” Soule wrote. “One squaw was wounded and a fellow took a hatchet to finish her, she held her arms up to defend her, and he cut one arm off, and held the other with one hand and dashed the hatchet through her brain. On squaw with her two children, were on their knees begging for their lives of a dozen soldiers, within ten feet of them all, firing — when one succeeded in hitting the squaw in the thigh, when she took a knife and cut the throats of both children, and then killed herself.” By the end of the massacre, over two hundred people were dead or mutilated.

In the aftermath of the massacre, white settlers claimed the Cheyenne and Arapahos’ homelands. Despite their treaty rights, the Cheyenne and Arapaho had no choice but to abandon all claims to what is now the US state of Colorado. While many of them fled north to take refuge with the Sioux, they too would soon face the same deception and violence. And like other tribes, they would eventually be forced to give up their lands and flee to reservations. 

The Legacy of Sand Creek and the American Indian Wars

It is impossible to find the words to convey the magnitude of the suffering endured, all that was lost, and the callous inhumanity and cruelty of it all. Yet Sand Creek is but one example of the brutish and ruthless attitudes and actions that underscored US policy and expansion.

For those who wish to erase this history, I ask you to imagine — seriously imagine — losing your loved ones, your freedom, and your way of life so swiftly and violently, all while facing relentless attacks on your identity and humanity. Consider the pain of witnessing the earth you grew up on be stolen and desecrated while you are forced to exist within the harshness, poverty, loneliness, and unfamiliarity of the reservation. Consider their descendants, who must bear the scars of these policies and attitudes and continue to face injustice, neglect, and broken promises.

We often forget that the past is not as distant as it so often seems. While this history may seem far off, its legacies — not only the conditions it has created, but the attitudes it leaves behind — are all around us. Trying to bury this past only strengthens its destructive legacy. While we can’t turn back time, we can choose to break the cycle started by those who came before us and unlearn attitudes defined by bigotry, ignorance, and disregard.

Red Cloud, an Oglala Lakota leader who lived to see his people’s freedom fade into the confinement of the reservation system, said, “They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one. They promised to take our land, and they took it.” Readers who have witnessed, or even participated in, the continuation of the false narratives and dismissiveness surrounding Native Americans and US history may now begin to understand why. Yet where words fall short, there is so much that can be done. And that starts with acknowledging the truth.

Author’s note: The information in this article was obtained from Dee Brown’s 1970 book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West.

Author