ACROSS THE WATERS OF SAND CREEK
“Across the waters of Sand Creek winter winds blow cold; From Cheyenne River to the Standing Rock Stronghold”
ACROSS THE WATERS OF SAND CREEK
NOVEMBER 29, 2022 | Native Children’s Survival
Robby Romero, Sand Creek, Photograph by Odette Artime
“Heartbreaking truths can be brutal to tell, painful to hear, and problematic for some to believe. In the spirit of Chief Black Kettle and his people...”
Early one morning in 1864, Chief Black Kettle and his people, approximately 750 Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho, and Cheyenne and Arapaho, were encamped along the bend of the Big Sandy Creek in the Indigenous Territory the United States calls Colorado.
At the break of dawn, U.S. Colonel John M. Chivington, a Methodist minister, and elements of the 1st Colorado Infantry Regiment of Volunteers and 3rd Regiment of Colorado Cavalry Volunteers arrived and commenced an unprovoked surprise attack opening fire on a peaceful camp. Massacring more than 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho, primarily women, children, and the elderly, when it was over, the troops burned the village and mutilated the dead, carrying off body parts as trophies.
In 2000, the U.S. Congress designated the location of the Sand Creek Massacre as a National Historic Site. On April 27, 2007, it was opened to the public. The site consists of 3,025 acres. 1,560 acres are owned by the National Park Service, and 1,465 acres are held in trust by the United States for the Cheyenne and Arapaho. In 2022, the United States purchased nearly 3,500 additional acres to be added to the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.
“The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site is the place where their spirits reside, where we come to learn, to remember, to heal, and to make sure such atrocities never happen again.”