Sand Creek Massacre
29 November 1864Sand Creek, Big Sandy Creek valley, Kiowa County, CO
Colorado volunteer cavalry attacked a Cheyenne and Arapaho village flying a United States flag, killing some 230 people, most of them women, children and elders.
Note: Describes the killing and mutilation of children and elders.
In November 1864 a Cheyenne and Arapaho village of several hundred people was camped on Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado Territory, where the army had told them to settle. Chief Black Kettle flew a United States flag and a white flag over his lodge, as he had been instructed to do to show the camp was at peace.
At dawn on 29 November, about 675 men of the Colorado volunteer cavalry under Colonel John Chivington attacked with howitzers and rifles. Roughly 230 people were killed; the great majority were women, children and old men, because most of the camp's men were away hunting. Soldiers mutilated the dead and carried body parts back to Denver, where they were displayed to crowds.
Three federal investigations followed within two years. A joint congressional committee called it a massacre and condemned Chivington in the strongest terms; no one was ever punished. The attack destroyed the possibility of peace on the central plains and is now preserved as the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, administered with the Cheyenne and Arapaho nations.
Sources
- Sand Creek Massacre National Historic SiteNational Park Servicenps.gov
- Report on the Condition of the Indian Tribes, Joint Special CommitteeUnited States Congress (1867)One of three federal investigations; it concluded the attack was a massacre of people at peace.