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The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Sand Creek Massacre (11/29/1864) - Aug. 31st, 2003
http://www.terrain.org/articles/11/borowsky.htm ^ | Larry Borowsky

Posted on 08/31/2003 12:00:52 AM PDT by SAMWolf



Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


God Bless America
...................................................................................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

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The Sand Creek Massacre


Flesh and bone littered the banks of Sand Creek on November 30, 1864. The previous day some 700 Colorado and New Mexico militiamen had routed a village of Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians, killing an estimated 150. As many as 100 of the dead were women and children; two were unarmed chiefs in their 70s, mowed down as they chanted their death songs. Dozens of corpses were left in the field, to be ravaged by vultures, coyotes, and trophy hunters. A month after the battle (three days after Christmas 1864), a rope strung with 100 Sand Creek scalps (or so it was claimed) graced the stage of a glitzy Denver theater. Bones still lay at the site three years later, when a team of Army doctors came to harvest them for a study on the physiological effects of bullet wounds.

Such grisly evidence has long since vanished, but the litter of death remains at Sand Creek. A mile-long gash of war garbage—bullet casings, shrapnel fragments, camp gear, riding tack, brass buttons worked loose from the soldiers' fatigues—mars the landscape, marking the scene of that destructive day 133 years ago. But this symbolic scar is not where it's supposed to be—at least, not where history said it was. The ground long recognized as the massacre site—the place marked by a stone monument since the 1930s—lies barren, nary a spent shell nor ration tin to be found.



The tragedy actually unfolded almost two miles away, on a quiet patch of land that has gone unnoticed since the devastation it witnessed. It was identified as the true battleground in May 1999 after an intensive five-year search involving the National Park Service, the State of Colorado, and three separate tribal entities.

Did history simply make a mistake? Or was the site of the Sand Creek massacre lost on purpose, deliberately forgotten, willed out of existence like a badly dated wardrobe or a disgraced cousin?

How did this sad memory elude us for so long? Is it that we couldn't find the real Sand Creek? Or that we didn't want to?

The Sand Creek massacre is one of the few engagements ever formally disavowed by the U.S. military. Ulysses S. Grant himself denounced it as pure murder, while the Army's ranking jurist, Gen. Joseph Holt, termed it "a cowardly and cold-blooded slaughter, sufficient to cover its perpetrators with indelible infamy and the face of every American with shame and indignation."

Only too true. Yet the two primary authors of this atrocity were men of demonstrated virtue.


Archaeologists and historians recently verified the Sand Creek Massacre occurred at this site in Kiowa County, Colorado


Col. John Chivington, who commanded the attacking force, was a Methodist minister and avid anti-slavery crusader. Indeed, if it weren't for his unyielding opposition to slavery, he never would have come within 500 miles of Sand Creek. But his outspoken views on this divisive issue kept costing him pulpits during the 1850s, pushing him inexorably westward—from Quincy, Illinois, to St. Joseph, Missouri (where he once laid two pistols upon the altar to deter aggression from pro-slavery congregants), thence to Omaha, Nebraska, and finally, in 1860, to Denver, a town then two years old and ridden by vice. As badly as Denver needed his purifying touch, ending slavery proved a higher calling—Chivington quit the ministry and joined the war against the Confederacy. He fought with great distinction, leading Unionist forces to victory at Glorieta Pass, one of the most crucial Civil War battles in the West. This 1862 triumph kept the Confederates from gaining control of the Colorado gold fields and effectively ended the South's agitations on the frontier. Though the war against slavery was still raging in late 1864, John Chivington had already done his part in it and turned his energies to a new battle—the war against the Arapahoe and Cheyenne.

John Evans, governor of Colorado Territory at the time of the attack, was also an avowed enemy of slavery; he was appointed to his post largely in reward for his support of the emancipationist Abraham Lincoln during the 1860 presidential campaign. He and Lincoln knew each other from the Indiana frontier, where Evans had a distinguished career as a medical practitioner. The good doctor had lobbied long and hard for the creation of a state hospital to treat the indigent and mentally ill; he succeeded in 1850 and served as the facility's head for a number of years.

Evans launched quite a different institution on August 11, 1864—the Third Colorado volunteers, raised for the express purpose of Indian killing. Anti-Indian sentiment had been running high since June, when Arapahoe raiders had massacred a homesteader and his family about 30 miles east of Denver. It was the latest depredation in an escalating conflict between Indians and white settlers that began with the Pikes Peak gold rush of 1859. Thousands of fortune seekers raced toward newly born Denver along the Smoky Hill Trail, crossing the heart of Cheyenne and Arapahoe territory—a land promised to the tribes in an 1851 treaty signed near Fort Laramie.


Kiowa and Cheyenne leaders pose in the White House conservatory with Mary Todd Lincoln (standing far right) on March 27, 1863, during meetings with President Abraham Lincoln, who hoped to prevent their lending aid to Confederate forces. The two Cheyenne chiefs seated at the left front, War Bonnet and Standing In the Water, were killed the next year in the Sand Creek Massacre.
Photo courtesy of Smithsonian Institute, National Anthropological Archives.


As proclaimed by Evans, the volunteers were authorized "to kill and destroy, as enemies of the country, wherever they may be found, all hostile Indians." John Chivington, the territory's most decorated warrior, was the logical choice to command this special force, which was authorized for 100 days of service.

Thus did Evans and Chivington—the frontier healer and the pioneer preacher; the one trained at saving lives, the other at saving souls—bring death and damnation to Sand Creek.

The volunteers of the Colorado Third were guaranteed 40 cents per day, plus rations—roughly $15 a month, or $50 for the entire 100-day campaign. One can imagine the caliber of person who was lured by these wages; but such individuals were in no short supply in frontier Denver. The company was fully manned in a matter of weeks and in the field by the first of October. They waged their initial battle on October 10, 1864, attacking a Cheyenne village on the banks of the South Platte River and killing 10 of the inhabitants.

While the Third was girding for warfare, Cheyenne and Arapahoe leaders were suing for peace. During the last weeks of September 1864 a group of Cheyenne and Arapahoe leaders headed by the Cheyenne chief Black Kettle gained an audience with Maj. Edward Wynkoop, ranking officer at Fort Lyon, the largest garrison in the vicinity (near present-day Lamar).



The chiefs declared their desire for an end to all hostilities, and Wynkoop was sufficiently convinced of their sincerity to organize another council, this one held just east of Denver at Fort Weld on September 28. Both Evans and Chivington attended; neither was impressed by what he heard. When you are ready to make peace, Chivington told Black Kettle coldly, go and lay your arms down before Major Wynkoop. Five weeks later, in early November, he yanked Wynkoop from his command and gave the new man in charge, Maj. Scott Anthony (a first cousin of women's rights pioneer Susan B.), the following instructions: "The Cheyennes will have to be soundly whipped before they will be quiet. If any of them are caught in your vicinity kill them, as that is the only way."

Coming from a man who'd risked his life to end the sufferings of an enslaved people, such race hatred may seem an unfathomable breach of character. But to Chivington there was no inconsistency. In his mind the Indians were nothing like the slaves. The latter had embraced the Bible and adopted English, whereas the Indians were savages and devils who murdered Christians and consigned them to purgatory by violating their corpses. They were the oppressors, not the oppressed. The minister had confronted evil throughout his life, yet never had he seen it on a scale such as this.

On the eve of the massacre (one of his lieutenants later testified), Chivington steeled his troops with this curse: "Damn any man who is in sympathy with the Indians!" His crusade against the heathens trumped everything else, even the cause of emancipation. In preparation for the attack the colonel had frontiersman Jim Beckwourth—a former slave—rousted from his Denver home and pressed into service (on pain of death) as an involuntary scout. Having fought so passionately against slavery, Chivington now—one year after the Emancipation Proclamation, and with the Civil War still raging—enslaved a free black man in the name of liberty.



The Colorado Third Volunteers heeded Chivington's words during the attack on Sand Creek: they showed no sympathy for their victims. As the cavalry thundered forward, Black Kettle raised an American flag and a white handkerchief to signal the village's friendly disposition. He was answered with gunfire. Most of the camp's best defenders were absent, out on a hunting trip; the population mainly comprised women, children, and aged or infirm men. George and Charles Bent, half-white sons of frontier trader William Bent, were present; so, too, were some of the elderly chiefs whose peace offering the colonel had spurned at Fort Weld in September. Two of them—White Antelope and Yellow Wolf—were killed and scalped this day.

The returning volunteers were hailed as heroes in Denver, but Washington D.C. took a less favorable view of their actions. Chagrined by reports from Wynkoop and Capt. Silas Soule (who not only ordered his men to stop shooting at Sand Creek but actually placed them between the attackers and the retreating Indians), Congress and the U.S. Army launched separate investigations. Though both entities deplored the massacre, neither sought punitive measures against those who'd carried it out. The two ranking officers of the U.S. force—Chivington and George L. Shoup—both left the Army for good in early 1865, though they did so voluntarily and with full honors.

Warfare between the United States and the Plains Indians continued for another generation, by which time the Sand Creek massacre was but a faded memory.

It wasn't until 1993 that anyone noticed the Sand Creek battle site missing. That year two hobbyists went there, to what had always been recognized as the killing ground, hoping to find some souvenirs for their collection of 19th-century military artifacts. But their metal detectors stood mute, registering nothing. They reported this oddity to the Colorado Historical Society, which decided to look into the matter. Surely the collectors had made some mistake. Battlegrounds do not simply vanish into thin air.



A series of investigations ensued. Historians sifted through the archives while geologists sifted through the soil. The Army sent its experts out to Colorado; so did the Arapahoes and Cheyennes, whose oral history of the Sand Creek massacre has come down through the generations. Aerial photographs were taken and matched against old military maps; tribal prayers were invoked, that they might bring spiritual guidance. Taken together, these lines of inquiry pointed to one very specific location, not far from where Rush Creek meets Sand Creek.

On May 24, 1999, volunteers swept the area with metal detectors and confirmed the investigators' guess: this was the place. Bullets, flint stones, buckles, latch springs—the scatter had lain there all those years, as thick as the bodies that littered the prairie the day after the massacre. This was no stone monument, no tidy atonement for long-ago sins; it was an immediate and open wound, the weapons that caused it still palpable, the flesh that received it still torn. Finding Sand Creek reawakened the pain of it, much as frozen fingers throb when they finally start to thaw. But better to ache than be numb. For more than a century the reality of Sand Creek was hiding in plain sight—there for us to look at, if only we would. After 133 years, at last we see what really happened. It is an ugly vision; but that's how it often goes with history.

So what are we to do with this recovered memory? The misplacement of the massacre site is easily corrected—but how to correct the massacre itself? It can't be done in any remedial sense; we can rewrite history, but not the past. The Sand Creek massacre happened; we can't take it back, however badly we might wish to. Nor, as a practical matter, can we give back all the land assigned to the Cheyennes and Arapahoes in the Fort Laramie treaty of 1851— not without displacing three million people.

But we might give them back Sand Creek.

It currently sits on a private ranch, but the owner long ago indicated his willingness to sell it, provided the site is appropriately preserved and the dead appropriately honored. The National Park Service is likely to purchase it next spring, when the final report of the Sand Creek investigation comes out.



Immediately after the sale, the land should be ceded to the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes. Let them decide what to do with Sand Creek; they have already paid too high a price for it. They may preserve it as a historic site, set up a private tribal shrine, or do whatever else with the land that they see fit. If they want to build a factory or a hotel or a farm, let them; if they want to live in teepees here and run a herd of bison, that’s okay, too. The United States should surrender it, unconditionally. We should clean up all the garbage we left behind, then leave the place in peace.

There are many other places we might give back—the mounds of Cahokia, the mined-out Black Hills of Dakota, the forests of the Mohawk Valley, the chutes of the Columbia. Token gestures? Perhaps that's all. But maybe something more—maybe an open and honest admission that we are a squatter nation; maybe the birth of understanding between two groups of people who still don't trust each other.

And the old, erroneous Sand Creek site? We should preserve it as well, as a reminder of our own stubborn blindness, our inability or unwillingness to see.

Contemplating that swath of Army trash, it is impossible not to think of the trail of ruined lives the Sand Creek massacre left strewn behind. We begin with Charley Bent, who survived that day only because a handful of the attacking soldiers knew his father. Afterward he swore vengeance on the United States and became one of the Cheyennes' deadliest warriors, participating in dozens of raids on American frontier towns and military posts. He died in 1868 of wounds sustained in battle.


Black Kettle


Silas Soule, the captain who defied Chivington's orders and stalled the cavalry's charge, was murdered on April 23, 1865, two months after testifying against his old commander at a military inquest. His killer was never found.

John Chivington's reputation was irrevocably stained by the attack on Sand Creek. A man who had done much good in his life would be remembered mainly for a deed condemned as evil.

John Evans was replaced as governor of Colorado Territory in August 1865, nine months after the Sand Creek massacre. He remained one of Colorado's leading citizens and is today among its most honored historical figures. Both he and Chivington defended the attack until their dying days.

The specter of Sand Creek haunted Chief Black Kettle for the rest of his life. He survived the massacre, dragging his wife (wounded nine times) to safety in a shelter he clawed into the stream bank. But his dream of peace died that day. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes could never bargain with the United States again, never believe in a peaceful coexistence. From now on they must fight for their land and their lives. This they did, with increasing ferocity. Thousands would die over the next 25 years, Indian and white, in the war for the Great Plains. The victims would include Black Kettle himself. He was one of 101 Cheyennes killed in western Oklahoma on November 29, 1868—four years to the day after the Sand Creek massacre—during an attack led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.



TOPICS: VetsCoR
KEYWORDS: blackkettle; cavalry; cheyenne; colorado; freeperfoxhole; johnchivington; michaeldobbs; sandcreekmassacre; veterans
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To: snippy_about_it
Present!
81 posted on 08/31/2003 11:38:51 AM PDT by manna
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To: Samwise
Beautiful prayer Samwise. I hold much respect for Native Americans. My dearest friend was a full blooded Ojbwa. She died in 1995. Born on the rez in Cape Crooker, Ontario, Canada.
82 posted on 08/31/2003 12:46:49 PM PDT by Soaring Feather
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To: manna
Good afternoon manna.
83 posted on 08/31/2003 1:17:26 PM PDT by snippy_about_it (Pray for our troops)
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To: SAMWolf; snippy_about_it; AntiJen; MistyCA; SpookBrat; PhilDragoo; All
Happy Sunday, Snippy, Sam, and all.

Blessed are they who give
without expecting even thanks in return,
for they shall be abundantly rewarded.

Blessed are they who translate
every good thing they know into action,
for ever higher truths shall be revealed unto them.

Blessed are they who do God's will
without asking to see results,
for great shall be their recompense.

Blessed are they who love and trust their fellow beings,
for they shall reach the good in people and
receive a loving response.

Blessed are they who have seen reality, for they know
that not the garment of clay but that which activates
the garment of clay is real and indestructible.

Blessed are they who see the change we call death
as a liberation from the limitation of this earth-life,
for they shall rejoice with their loved ones
who make the glorious transition.

Blessed are they who after dedicating their lives
and thereby receiving a blessing, have the courage and faith
to surmount the difficulties of the path ahead,
for they shall receive a second blessing.

Blessed are they who advance toward the spiritual path
without the selfish motive of seeking inner peace,
for they shall find it.

Blessed are they who instead of trying to
batter down the gates of the kingdom of heaven
approach them humbly and lovingly and purified,
for they shall pass right through.

- Mildred Norman

84 posted on 08/31/2003 1:21:11 PM PDT by Victoria Delsoul (The opinions I value are the ones from people I respect… the rest are just comic relief)
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To: SAMWolf
Thanks for the thread, SAM.

I tell you one thing that is true, I have had about enough of killing. I strictly keep that stuff for when it must be done, hopefully as rarely as possible! Talk about a guy who tries to stay out of trouble! Kept a peaceful life for many years now, and hope for many more, the Lord willing!

85 posted on 08/31/2003 2:19:29 PM PDT by Iris7 ("..the Eternal Thompson Gunner.." - Zevon)
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To: Victoria Delsoul
Thank you Victoria and good afternoon.
86 posted on 08/31/2003 2:24:16 PM PDT by snippy_about_it (Pray for our troops)
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To: snippy_about_it
You're welcome, Snippy. I'll be back later, hope to see you then.
87 posted on 08/31/2003 2:29:12 PM PDT by Victoria Delsoul (The opinions I value are the ones from people I respect… the rest are just comic relief)
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To: SAMWolf; Valin; Samwise
Killing develops it's own momentum. I look at Sheridan and Sherman with sympathy (and sadness), believe it or not. Bunch of Tolkien folks on the thread, me, for instance. Tolkien was talking about this subject, this decay of what makes us men, this decay we call forth from our own hearts, when he talked about the craving for the Ring. Damned, damned thing.

My favorite character amongst the Hobbits is Samwise, because I can see I simply could not do what Frodo did. Gollum would have been my fate if I had tried and lived, a horrible fate. My sympathy is for Boromir, and unbounded respect for Aragorn and Faramir, who were strong enough to resist and behave as men.

If Aragorn could only be king here! Elessar the First! I guess we have to wait patiently for The Return of the King of all men, Mary's Son! May I be as steadfast as Samwise the Great!

88 posted on 08/31/2003 2:42:25 PM PDT by Iris7 ("..the Eternal Thompson Gunner.." - Zevon)
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To: Victoria Delsoul
Afternoon Victoria.

2 outta nine ain't too bad for me I guess.
89 posted on 08/31/2003 4:20:16 PM PDT by SAMWolf (Ahhhhhhhh, I forget what I was going to say.)
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To: Iris7
You're welcome Iris7.

Like we've always said, we cover the bad as well as the good.
90 posted on 08/31/2003 4:21:33 PM PDT by SAMWolf (Ahhhhhhhh, I forget what I was going to say.)
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To: SAMWolf
Time for this song again. Good Night SAM.
91 posted on 08/31/2003 9:09:38 PM PDT by snippy_about_it (Pray for our troops)
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To: snippy_about_it
Good Night Snippy. It's always time for that song!!
92 posted on 08/31/2003 9:14:13 PM PDT by SAMWolf (Ahhhhhhhh, I forget what I was going to say.)
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To: SAMWolf; snippy_about_it; Victoria Delsoul; Darksheare; E.G.C.; bentfeather
II.

Congressional Testimony of Mr. John S. Smith

Washington, March 14, 1865

Mr. John S. Smith sworn and examined.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Where is your place of residence?

Answer. Fort Lyon, Colorado

Question. What is your occupation?

Answer. United States Indian interpreter and special Indian agent.

Question. Will you state to the committee all that you know in relation to the attack of Colonel Chivington upon the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians in November last?

Answer. Major Anthony was in command at Fort Lyon at the time. Those Indians had been induced to remain in the vicinity of Fort Lyon, and were promised protection by the commanding officer at Fort Lyon. The commanding officer saw proper to keep them some thirty or forty miles distant from the fort, for fear of some conflict between them and the soldiers or the traveling population, for Fort Lyon is on a great thoroughfare. He advised them to go out on what is called Sand creek, about forty miles, a little east of north from Fort Lyon. Some days after they had left Fort Lyon when I had just recovered from a long spell of sickness, I was called on by Major S.G. Colley, who asked me if I was able and willing to go out and pay a visit to these Indians, ascertain their numbers, their general disposition toward the whites, and the points where other bands might be located in the interior.

Question. What was the necessity for obtaining that information?

Answer. Because there were different bands which were supposed to be at war; in fact, we knew at the time that they were at war with the white population in that country; but this band had been in and left the post perfectly satisfied. I left to go to this village of Indians on the 26th of November last. I arrived there on the 27th and remained there the 28th. On the morning of the 29th, between daylight and sunrise - nearer sunrise than daybreak - a large number of troops were discovered from three-quarters of a mile to a mile below the village. The Indians, who discovered them, ran to my camp, called me out, and wanted to me to go and see what troops they were, and what they wanted. The head chief of the nation, Black Kettle, and head chief of the Cheyennes, was encamped there with us. Some years previous he had been presented with a fine American flag by Colonel Greenwood, a commissioner, who had been sent out there. Black Kettle ran this American flag up to the top of his lodge, with a small white flag tied right under it, as he had been advised to do in case he should meet with any troops out on the prairies. I then left my own camp and started for that portion of the troops that was nearest the village, supposing I could go up to the m. I did not know but they might be strange troops, and thought my presence and explanations could reconcile matters. Lieutenant Wilson was in command of the detachment to which I tried to make my approach; but they fired several volleys at me, and I returned back to my camp and entered my lodge.

Question. Did these troops know you to be a white man?

Answer. Yes, sir; and the troops that went there knew I was in the village.

Question. Did you see Lieutenant Wilson or were you seen by him?

Answer. I cannot say I was seen by him; but his troops were the first to fire at me.

Question. Did they know you to be a white man?

Answer. They could not help knowing it. I had on pants, a soldier's overcoat, and a hat such as I am wearing now. I was dressed differently from any Indian in the country. On my return I entered my lodge, not expecting to get out of it alive. I had two other men there with me: one was David Louderbach, a soldier, belonging to company G, lst Colorado cavalry; the other, a man by the name of Watson, who was a hired hand of Mr. DD Coolly, the son of Major Coolly, the agent.

After I had left my lodge to go out and see what was going on, Colonel Chivington rode up to within fifty or sixty yards of where I was camped; he recognized me at once. They all call me Uncle John in that country. He said, "Run here, Uncle John; you are all right." I went to him as fast as I could. He told me to get in between him and his troops, who were then coming up very fast; I did so; directly another officer who knew me - Lieutenant Baldwin, in command of a battery - tried to assist me to get a horse; but there was no loose horse there at the time. He said, "Catch hold of the caisson, and keep up with us."

By this time the Indians had fled; had scattered in every direction. The troops were some on one side of the river and some on the other, following up the Indians. We had been encamped on the north side of the river; I followed along, holding on the caisson, sometimes running, sometimes walking. Finally, about a mile above the village, the troops had got a parcel of the Indians hemmed in under the bank of the river; as soon as the troops overtook them, they commenced firing on them; some troops had got above them, so that they were completely surrounded. There were probably a hundred Indians hemmed in there, men, women, and children; the most of the men in the village escaped.

By the time I got up with the battery to the place where these Indians were surrounded there had been some considerable firing. Four or five soldiers had been killed, some with arrows and some with bullets. The soldiers continued firing on these Indians, who numbered about a hundred, until they had almost completely destroyed them. I think I saw altogether some seventy dead bodies lying there; the greater portion women and children. There may have been thirty warriors, old and young; the rest were women and small children of different ages and sizes.

The troops at that time were very much scattered. There were not over two hundred troops in the main fight, engaged in killing this body of Indians under the bank. The balance of the troops were scattered in different directions, running after small parties of Indians who were trying to make their escape. I did not go so see how many they might have killed outside of this party under the bank of the river. Being still quite weak from my last sickness, I returned with the first body of troops that went back to the camp.

The Indians had left their lodges and property; everything they owned. I do not think more than one-half of the Indians left their lodges with their arms. I think there were between 800 and l,000 men in this command of United States troops. There was a part of three companies of the lst Colorado, and the balance were what were called 100 days men of the 3rd regiment. I am not able to say which party did the most execution on the Indians, because it was very much mixed up at the time.

We remained there that day after the fight. By 11 o'clock, I think, the entire number of soldiers had returned back to the camp where Colonel Chivington had returned. On their return, he ordered the soldiers to destroy all the Indian property there, which they did, with the exception of what plunder they took away with them, which was considerable.

Question. How many Indians were there there?

Answer. There were 100 families of Cheyennes, and some six or eight lodges of Arapahoes.

Question. How many persons in all, should you say?

Answer. About 500 we estimate them at five to a lodge.

Question. 500 men, women and children?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Do you know the reason for that attack on the Indians?

Answer. I do not know any exact reason. I have heard a great many reasons given. I have heard that that whole Indian war had been brought on for selfish purposes. Colonel Chivington was running for Congress in Colorado, and there were other things of that kind; and last spring a year ago he was looking for an order to go to the front, and I understand he had this Indian war in view to retain himself and his troops in that country, to carry out his electioneering purposes.

Question. In what way did this attack on the Indians further the purpose of Colonel Chivington?

Answer. It was said - I did not hear him say it myself, but it was said that he would do something; he had this regiment of three-months men, and did not want them to go out without doing some service. Now he had been told repeatedly by different persons - by myself, as well as others - where he could find the hostile bands.

The same chiefs who were killed in this village of Cheyennes had been up to see Colonel Chivington in Denver but a short time previous to this attack. He himself told them that he had no power to treat with them; that he had received telegrams from General Curtis directing him to fight all Indians he met with in that country. Still he would advise them, if they wanted any assistance from the whites, to go to their nearest military post in their country, give up their arms and the stolen property, if they had any, and then they would receive directions in what way to act. This was told them by Colonel Chivington and by Governor Evans, of Colorado. I myself interpreted for them and for the Indians.

Question. Did Colonel Chivington hold any communciation with these Indians, or any of them, before making the attack upon them?

Answer. No, sir, not then. He had some time previously held a council with them at Denver city. When we first recovered the white prisoners from the Indians, we invited some of the chiefs to go to Denver, inasmuch as they had sued for peace, and were willing to give up these white prisoners. We promised to take the chiefs to Denver, where they had an interview with men who had more power than Major Wynkoop had, who was the officer in command of the detachment that went out to recover these white prisoners. Governor Evans and Colonel Chivington were in Denver, and were present at this council. They told the Indians to return with Major Wynkoop, and whatever he agreed on doing with them would be recognized by them.

I returned with the Indians to Fort Lyon. There we let them go out to their villages to bring in their families, as they had been invited through the proclamation or circular of the governor during the month of June, I think. They were gone some twelve or fifteen days from Fort Lyon, and then they returned with their families. Major Wynkoop had made them one or two issues of provisions previous to the arrival of Major Anthony there to assume command. Then Major Wynkoop, who is now in command at Fort Lyon, was ordered to Fort Leavenworth on some business with General Curtis, I think.

Then Major Anthony, through me, told the Indians that he did not have it in his power to issue rations to them, as Major Wynkoop had done. He said that he had assumed command at Fort Lyon, and his orders were positive from headquarters to fight the Indians in the vicinity of Fort Lyon, or at any other point in the Territory where they could find them. He said that he had understood that they had been behaving very badly. But on seeing Major Wynkoop and others there at Fort Lyon, he was happy to say that things were not as had been presented, and he could not pursue any other course than that of Major Wynkoop except the issuing rations to them. He then advised them to out to some near point, where there was buffalo, not too far from Fort Lyon or they might meet with troops from the Platte, who would not know them from the hostile bands. This was the southern band of Cheyennes; there is another band called the northern band. They had no apprehensions in the world of any trouble with the whites at the time this attack was made.

Question. Had there been, to your knowledge, any hostile act or demonstration on the part of these Indians or any of them?

Answer. Not in this band. But the northern band, the band known by the name of Dog soldiers of Cheyennes, had committed many depredations on the Platte.

Question. Do you know whether or not Colonel Chivington knew the friendly character of these Indians before he made the attack upon them?

Answer. It is my opinion that he did.

Question. On what is that opinion based?

Answer. On this fact, that he stopped all persons from going on ahead of him. He stopped the mail, and would not allow any person to go on ahead of him at the time he was on his way from Denver city to Fort Lyon. He placed a guard around old Colonel Bent, the former agent there; he stopped a Mr. Hagues and many men who were on their way to Fort Lyon. He took the fort by surprise, and as soon as he got there he posted pickets all around the fort, and then left at 8 o'clock that night for this Indian camp.

Question. Was that anything more than the exercise of ordinary precaution in following Indians?

Answer. Well, sir, he was told that there were no Indians in the vicinity of Fort Lyon, except Black Kettle's band of Cheyennes and Left Hand's band of Arapahoes.

Question. How do you know that?

Answer. I was told so.

By Mr. Buckalew:

Question. Do you know it of your own knowledge?

Answer. I cannot say I do.

Question. You did not talk with him about it before the attack?

Answer. No, sir.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. When you went out to him, you had no opportunity to hold intercourse with him?

Answer. None whatever; he had just commenced his fire against the Indians.

Question. Did you have any communication with him at any time while there?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. What was it?

Answer. He asked me many questions about a son of mine, who was killed there afterwards. He asked me what Indians were there, what chiefs; and I told him as fully as I knew.

By Mr. Buckalew:

Question. When did you talk with him?

Answer. On the day of the attack. He asked me many questions about the chiefs who were there, and if I could recognize them if I saw them. I told him it was possible I might recollect the principal chiefs. They were terribly mutilated, lying there in the water and sand; most of them in the bed of the creek, dead and dying, making many struggles. They were so badly mutilated and covered with sand and water that it was very hard for me to tell one from another. However, I recognized some of them - among them the chief One Eye, who was employed by our government at $125 a month and rations to remain in the village as a spy. There was another called War Bonnet, who was here two years ago with me. There was another by the name of Standing-in-the-Water, and I supposed Black Kettle was among them, but it was not Black Kettle. There was one there of his size and dimensions in every way, but so tremendously mutilated that I was mistaken in him. I went out with Lieutenant Colonel Bowen, to see how many I could recognize.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question: Did you tell Colonel Chivington the character and disposition of these Indians at any time during your interviews on this day?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. What did he say in reply?

Answer. He said he could not help it; that his orders were positive to attack the Indians.

Question. From whom did he receive these orders?

Answer. I do not know; I presume from General Curtis.

Question. Did he tell you?

Answer. Not to my recollection.

Question. Were the women and children slaughtered indiscriminately, or only so far as they were with the warriors?

Answer. Indiscriminately.

Question. Were there any acts of barbarity perpetrated there that came under your own observation?

Answer. Yes, sir; I saw the bodies of those lying there cut all to pieces, worse mutilated than any I ever saw before; the women cut all to pieces.

By Mr. Buckalew:

Question. How cut?

Answer. With knives; scalped; their brains knocked out; children two or three months old; all ages lying there, from sucking infants up to warriors.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Did you see it done?

Answer. Yes, sir; I saw them fall.

Question. Fall when they were killed?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Did you see them when they were mutilated?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. By whom were they mutilated?

Answer. By the United States troops.

Question. Do you know whether or not it was done by the direction or consent of any of the officers.

Answer. I do not; I hardly think it was.

By Mr. Buckalew:

Question. What was the date of that massacre?

Answer. On the 29th of November last.

Question. Did you speak of these barbarities to Colonel Chivington?

Answer. No sir; I had nothing at all to say about it, because at that time they were hostile towards me, from the fact of my being there. They probably supposed that I might be compromised with them in some way or other.

Question. Who called on you to designate the bodies of those who were killed?

Answer. Colonel Chivington himself asked me if I would ride out with Lieutenant Colonel Bowen, and see how many chiefs or principal men I could recognize.

Question. Can you state how many Indians were killed - how many women and how many children?

Answer. Perhaps one-half were men, and the balance were women and children. I do not think that I saw more than 70 lying dead then, as far as I went. But I saw parties of men scattered in every direction, pursuing little bands of Indians.

Question. What time of day or night was this attack made?

Answer. The attack commenced about sunrise, and lasted until between 10 and 11 o'clock.

Question. How large a body of troops?

Answer. I think that probably there may have been about 60 or 70 warriors who were armed and stood their ground and fought. Those that were unarmed got out of the way as they best could.

Question. How many of our troops were killed and how many wounded?

Answer. There were ten killed on the ground, and thirty-eight wounded; four of the wounded died at Fort Lyon before I came on east.

Question. Were there any other barbarities or atrocities committed there other than those you have mentioned, that you saw?

Answer. Yes, sir; I had a half-breed son there, who gave himself up. He started at the time the Indians fled; being a half-breed he had but little hope of being spared, and seeing them fire at me, he ran away with the Indians for the distance of about a mile. During the fight up there he walked back to my camp and went into the lodge. It was surrounded by soldiers at the time. He came in quietly and sat down; he remained there that day, that night, and the next day in the afternoon; about four o'clock in the evening, as I was sitting inside the camp, a soldier came up outside of the lodge and called me by name. I got up and went out; he took me by the arm and walked towards Colonel Chivington's camp, which was about sixty yards from my camp. Said he, "I am sorry to tell you, but they are going to kill your son Jack." I knew the feeling towards the whole camp of Indians, and that there was no use to make any resistance. I said, "I can't help it." I then walked on towards where Colonel Chivington was standing by his camp-fire; when I had got within a few feet of him I heard a gun fired, and saw a crowd run to my lodge, and they told me that Jack was dead.

Question. What action did Colonel Chivington take in regard to that matter?

Answer. Major Anthony, who was present, told Colonel Chivington that he had heard some remarks made, indicating that they were desirous of killing Jack; and that he (Colonel Chivington) had it in his power to save him, and that by saving him he might make him a very useful man, as he was well acquainted with all the Cheyenne and Arapahoe country, and he could be used as a guide or interpreter. Colonel Chivington replied to Major Anthony, as the Major himself told me, that he had no orders to receive and no advice to give. Major Anthony is now in this city.

By Mr. Buckalew:

Question. Did Chivington say anything to you, or you to him about the firing?

Answer. Nothing directly; there were a number of officers sitting around the fire, with the most of whom I was acquainted.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Were there any other Indians or half-breeds there at that time?

Answer. Yes, sir; Mr. Bent had three sons there; one employed as a guide for these troops at the time, and two others living there in the village with the Indians; and a Mr. Gerry had a son there.

Question. Were there any other murders after the first day's massacre?

Answer. There was none, except of my son.

Question. Were there any other atrocities which you have no mentioned?

Answer. None that I saw myself. There were two women that white men had families by ; they were saved from the fact of being in my lodge at the time. One ran to my lodge; the other was taken prisoner by a soldier who knew her and brought her to my lodge for safety. They both had children. There were some small children, six or seven years old, who were taken prisoners near the camp. I think there were three of them taken to Denver with these troops.

Question. Were the women and children that were killed, killed during the fight with the Indians?

Answer. During the fight, or during the time of the attack.

Question. Did you see any women or children killed after the fight was over?

Answer. None.

Question. Did you see any Indians killed after the fight was over?

Answer. No, sir.

By Mr. Buckalew:

Question. Were the warriors and women and children all huddled together when they were attacked?

Answer. They started and left the village altogether, in a body, trying to escape.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Do you know anything as to the amount of property that those Indians had there?

Answer. Nothing more than their horses. They were supposed to own ten horses and mules to a lodge; that would make about a thousand head of horses and mules in that camp. The soldiers drove off about six hundred head.

Question. Had they any money?

Answer. I understood that some of the soldiers found some money, but I did not see it. Mr. D. D. Colley had some provisions and goods in the village at the time, and Mr. Louderback and Mr. Watson were employed by him to trade there. I was to interpret for them, direct them, and see that they were cared for in the village. They had traded for one hundred and four buffalo robes, one fine mule, and two horses. This was all taken away from them. Colonel Chivington came to me and told me that I might rest assured that he would see the goods paid for. He had confiscated these buffalo robes for the dead and wounded; and there was also some sugar and coffee and tea taken for the same purpose.

I would state that in his report Colonel Chivington states that after this raid on Sand creek against the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians he traveled northeast some eighty miles in the direction of some hostile bands of Sioux Indians. Now that is very incorrect, according to my knowledge of matters; I remained with Colonel Chivington's camp, and returned on his trail towards Fort Lyon from the camp where he made this raid. I went down with him to what is called the forks of the Sandy. He then took a due south course for the Arkansas river, and I went to Fort Lyon with the killed and wounded, and an escort to take us in. Colonel Chivington proceeded down the Arkansas river, and got within eleven miles of another band of Arapahoe Indians, but did not succeed in overtaking them. He then returned to Fort Lyon, re-equipped, and started immediately for Denver.

Question. Have you spent any considerable portion of your life with the Indians?

Answer. The most of it.

Question. How many years have you been with the Indians?

Answer. I have been twenty-seven successive years with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. Before that I was in the country as a trapper and hunter in the Rocky mountains.

Question. For how long time have you acted as Indian interpreter?

Answer. For some fifteen or eighteen years.

Question. By whom have you been so employed?

Answer. By Major Fitzpatrick, Colonel Bent, Major Colley, Colonel J.W. Whitfield, and a great deal of the time for the military as guide and interpreter.

By Mr. Buckalew:

Question. How many warriors were estimated in Colonel Chivington's report as having been in this Indian camp?

Answer. About nine hundred.

Question. How many were there?

Answer. About two hundred warriors; they average about two warriors to a lodge, and there were about one hundred lodges.

~~~

That this shall not be allowed again, we turn the Iraq gulag inside out.

Not able to go back in time to extract the appropriate weeks of screams out of Chivington, we turn to the current crop of monsters.

Clinton & Clinton, vowing to stop coddling the Butchers of Beijing, embraced them, taking their money, betraying our security.

PLA Gen. Xiong Guangkai ran the Strike Hard on Tiananmen June 4, 1989 killing--not hundreds--thousands (two to six in 130 locations), crushing students under tracked apc's, doping his troops to spray automatic weapons fire on unarmed students.

Clinton hosted Xiong January 24-26, 2000, in the White House to continue "military-to-military relations"--when it was Xiong who threatened to incinerate Los Angeles--after Clinton gave him the missile guidance and compact warheads with which to do it.

China has had many Sand Creeks in Tibet, and now Nepal.

Custer got his karma, and Chivington is getting his for eternity.

We continue as an organism, attacking infection with antibodies, returning to the task at hand.

For the continued success in a war on terror which is the continuation of the same war for freedom.

Pfc. Troy Tarazon, a medical technician with Task Force 163, immunizes a young Iraqi girl in Kirkuk, Iraq, Aug. 23, 2003. In an effort to support local communities, Coalition forces are assisting doctors during the nation's monthly immunization day. (DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Lee A Osberry Jr., U.S. Air Force) (Released)

93 posted on 08/31/2003 10:48:25 PM PDT by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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To: PhilDragoo
Evening PhilDragoo.

Cilling testimony by Mr Smith. Too bad the governemnet never saw fit to properly charge and punish Colonel Chivington. Although I'm sure he's paying the price now.

Religious fanatics have caused so much misery and suffering over history. From the Crusades and Spanish Inquisition to the Taliban and Hamas, the world never seems to learn.

94 posted on 08/31/2003 11:28:19 PM PDT by SAMWolf (Ahhhhhhhh, I forget what I was going to say.)
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To: PhilDragoo
Thanks Phil for the bump and the article.
95 posted on 09/01/2003 3:07:08 AM PDT by E.G.C.
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To: snippy_about_it
sand creek was just ONE of the massacres of my people; MANY were far worse.

BTW, have you ever noticed that when the bluebelly army SLAUGHTERED innocent Indian women & defenseless children, that it was styled as a GREAT VICTORY, but when we blanketa$$es won one it was a massacre????

free dixie,sw

96 posted on 09/01/2003 2:59:50 PM PDT by stand watie (Resistence to tyrants is obedience to God. -Thomas Jefferson)
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To: stand watie
Yep, I noticed. We can't win for losing according to the media.
97 posted on 09/01/2003 3:53:07 PM PDT by snippy_about_it (Pray for our troops)
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To: snippy_about_it
WELL SAID!

free dixie NOW,sw

98 posted on 09/01/2003 4:18:08 PM PDT by stand watie (Resistence to tyrants is obedience to God. -Thomas Jefferson)
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To: SAMWolf
In a short time we went from Colorado's proudest military moment, the victory at Glorietta Pass, to it's worst, the Sand Creek Massacre.

Strange the Chivington could be so passionate in opposition to black slavery but could not see Indians as children of God also.

99 posted on 09/02/2003 10:43:54 AM PDT by colorado tanker (Iron Horse)
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