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. The history student in me hoped that in piecing together an outline of several hundred years of US-Native American relations, I could offer a more nuanced perspective and shed light on why these uncomfortable truths still matter. After trying to draft an outline, I decided the story of Sand Creek conveys the attitudes and atrocities that shaped this history far better than a brief overview could. The story of the Cheyenne and Arapahos at Sand Creek is a powerful demonstration of the vicious, unrelenting, and callously cruel attitudes that have underpinned our history, and by extension, the present day.
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. As the population of the West began to increase dramatically, it became clear to the government by the mid nineteenth century that the “Indian problem” could not be solved only by forcibly exiling Native Americans westwards. There became increasing pressure on recently removed groups in the West to give up some of their new lands and on groups indigenous to the West to give up large swaths of their historic lands.
In 1851, the Cheyenne, Arapahos, 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 Arapahos 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 Cheyennes and Arapahos and the American soldiers.
When William Bent, an ally of the Cheyenne, traveled to Denver to inform Colonel John Chivington that they 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 Arapahos 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 Arapahos were being reached with the Governor’s message, they were attacked repeatedly by American 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 that 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 Arapahos 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 Arapahos arrived at the Sand Creek reservation, they were assured that they would be protected from American 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 Arapahos 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 Arapahos. Soldiers who opposed the slaughter were threatened with imprisonment and death. The Cheyenne and Arapahos were so confident of absolute safety on the reservation that at first many of them did not think they were in danger upon seeing the soldiers. Once they became aware of the looming threat, 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. Shortly after, white settlers claimed the Cheyenne and Arapahos’ homelands. Despite their treaty rights, they had no choice but to abandon all claims to what is now the US state of Colorado. While many of the Cheyennee and Arapahos fled north to take refuge with the Sioux, they too would soon face the same deception and violence. And like the 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. It is a disgraceful and unforgivable past. It is a remarkable demonstration of the brutish and ruthless attitudes that underscored US policy and expansion; a harrowing reminder of the power of dehumanization and the dangers of allowing cruelty and greed to go unchecked.
For those who wish to erase this history, think of the people at Sand Creek on November 29, 1864. Try to imagine the trauma and despair the Cheyenne and Arapaho people faced in the aftermath as they were confined to small, impoverished reservations and watched their ancestral lands be stolen and desecrated before their eyes. Consider how their freedom, traditions and ways of life were violently ripped away, leaving them forced to exist within the confinement, unfamiliarity, and brutality of the reservation system. Remember their descendants, who bear the scars of these policies and attitudes and continue to face highly disproportionate rates of injustice and neglect.
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.
Readers who have witnessed, or even taken part in, the continuation of the false narratives and dismissiveness surrounding Native Americans and this history may now find it possible to understand why. Where words might fall short, there is still so much that can be done. And that starts with acknowledging the truth.
