Sand Creek Massacre NHS had a weird kind of energy; you could feel that you were on sacred ground. It's an undeveloped spot in the middle of eastern Colorado. A ranger came out to meet me and asked what kind of experience I'd like to have. I chose the 15 minute lecture, so he pulled out a chair for me and stood there and explained what exactly happened in this spot.
I know this won't be completely accurate, but here is the story as I remember it. Gold had been discovered in Colorado. A lot of it was in Indian territory, so of course the white guys pushed them out onto a small reservation. The young warriors were pissed and wouldn't go along with it; they were determined to fight. So the reservation was mainly populated with the elderly, women, and children.
It was kind of a free for all in terms of governance at this time. Federal troops were off fighting in the Civil War, so the people who were left in charge were locals. Obviously, they had special interests in this area (GOLD!), so they had their own agenda. On November 29, 1864, the Colorado U.S. Volunteer Calvary attacked a village at dawn and killed anywhere from 73-160 Native Americans.
It's still unclear as to who gave the order. There was a lot of anti-Native American sentiment at the time.
I know this won't be completely accurate, but here is the story as I remember it. Gold had been discovered in Colorado. A lot of it was in Indian territory, so of course the white guys pushed them out onto a small reservation. The young warriors were pissed and wouldn't go along with it; they were determined to fight. So the reservation was mainly populated with the elderly, women, and children.
It was kind of a free for all in terms of governance at this time. Federal troops were off fighting in the Civil War, so the people who were left in charge were locals. Obviously, they had special interests in this area (GOLD!), so they had their own agenda. On November 29, 1864, the Colorado U.S. Volunteer Calvary attacked a village at dawn and killed anywhere from 73-160 Native Americans.
It's still unclear as to who gave the order. There was a lot of anti-Native American sentiment at the time.
(As you can see, I was having a lot of fun with SnapChat.)
But there were a few conscientious objectors who refused to participate. Three of them wrote extremely detailed letters to the federal government, exposing the truth of what happened. As a result, Colonel Chivington (the guy who ordered the attack) was going to be put on trial, but got out of it on a technicality. On top of that, one of the soldiers who had objected and ordered his men not to fire was "mysteriously" murdered in Denver a few weeks after he gave his testimony against Chivington.
The whole thing is just sickening.
When you visit this site, you aren't allowed to visit the actual location of the massacre. That land has been repatriated to the tribes, and they only allow descendants of the victims to visit.
(The site is located at the bottom of the hill, by the trees.)
This is what I love about our National Park Service. They don't try to hide the ugly things that have happened, and they are trying to make things right. My National Park quest also took me to Washita Battlefield, where many of the Native Americans killed were survivors of the Sand Creek Massacre. I love how these places teach me about history that I didn't learn in in school.
Here is the Wikipedia article about the Sand Creek Massacre:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Creek_massacre
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