The Sand Creek Massacre (also known as Chivington Massacre , Battle of Sand Creek or The Cheyenne Indians Massacre ) is a massacre in American Indian Wars that occurred on November 29, 1864, when 675-man troops from the Colorado US Volunteer Cavalry under the command of US Army Colonel John Chivington attacked and destroyed Cheyenne and Arapaho villages in the southeastern Colorado Region, killing and mutilating about 70-500 inhabitants Native Americans, about two thirds of whom are women and children. Location has been established Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site and managed by the National Park Service.
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Under the terms of the 1851 Fort Laramie Agreement between the United States and seven Indian states, including Cheyenne and Arapaho, the United States recognizes that Cheyenne and Arapaho possess a vast territory which includes land between the North Platte River and the Arkansas River. , and eastward from the Rocky Mountains to western Kansas. These areas include southeastern Wyoming, southwestern Nebraska, most of eastern Colorado, and the westernmost part of Kansas.
However, in November 1858, the discovery of gold in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, which is part of the Kansas Territory, carries the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. The immigrants flooded the Cheyenne and Arapaho regions. They compete for resources, and some settlers try to stay. Colorado territorial officials pressured the federal authorities to redefine India's land area in the region, and in the autumn of 1860, A.B. Greenwood, the commissary of Indian Affairs, arrived at Bent's New Fort, along the Arkansas River, to negotiate a new deal.
On 18th February 1861, six South Cheyenne heads and four of Arapaho signed the Fort Wise Treaty with the United States, where they handed over most of the land directed at them by the Fort Laramie deal. Cheyenne leaders include Black Kettle, White Antelope (Vó'kaa'e OhvÃÆ'³'komaestse), Lean Bear, Little Wolf, and Tall Bear; Arapaho heads include Little Raven, Storm, Shave-Head, Big Mouth, and Niwot, or Left Hand.
The new reserves, less than 1/13 of the 1851 reserve size, are located in eastern Colorado, between the Arkansas River and Sand Creek. Most Cheyenne bands, including Dog Soldiers, a Cheyenne and Lakota military band that had evolved from the 1830s, were angry at the leaders who had signed the agreement. They reneged on the covenant - which never received the blessing of Council 44, the highest tribal authority - and refused to abide by its limitations. They continue to live and hunt in bison-rich land east of Colorado and western Kansas, and become increasingly violent against the wave of white migration across their lands. Tensions are high, especially in the country of the Smoky Hill River in Kansas, where white people have opened new trails to the gold fields. Cheyenne who opposed the agreement said that it had been signed by a small minority of leaders without the consent or consent of the remaining tribes, that the signatories did not understand what they were signing, and that they had been bribed to be signed by a great man. prize distribution. The white man, however, claimed the treaty was a "serious obligation". Officials take the position that Indians who refuse to obey it are hostile and plan for war.
The beginning of the American Civil War, in 1861, led to the organization of military forces in the Colorado Region. In March 1862, Colorado volunteers defeated the Confederate Army from Texas in the Battle of Glorieta Pass, New Mexico by destroying their supply carts, forcing them to retreat. The Confederate returned to Texas, and the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers returned to the Colorado Territory. They were then installed as house keepers under the command of Colonel John Chivington. Chivington and Colorado region governor John Evans adopted a hard line against the Indians, who the settlers were accused of stealing cattle. Without a declaration of war, in April 1864, Colorado troops began attacking and destroying a number of Cheyenne camps, the largest of which included about 70 huts, about 10% of the housing capacity of the entire Cheyenne nation. On May 16, 1864, a detachment under Lieutenant George S. Eayre crossed to Kansas and met Cheyenne at their summer buffalo hunt camp in Big Bushes, near the Smoky Hill River. Chief Cheyenne, Lean Bear and Star approached the soldiers to signal their peaceful intentions, but they were shot down by Eayre forces. This incident triggered a war of retaliation by Cheyenne in Kansas.
Damn anyone who sympathizes with the Indians!... I came to kill the Indians, and believe it is true and honorable to use all the means under God's skies to kill the Indians.... Kill and scalp everything, big and small; nits make lice.
As the conflict between the Indians and settlers and troops in Colorado continues, many of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, including bands under Cheyenne Black Kettle and White Antelope, who resigned to negotiate peace, despite pressure from soldiers and settlers. In July 1864, Colorado Governor John Evans sent a circular to the Lowland Indians, inviting the friendly to go to a safe place in Fort Lyon in the eastern plains, where their men would be given supplies and protection by US forces..
Maps Sand Creek massacre
Attack
Black Kettle, the main leader of about 163 Southern Cheyenne, has led his band, joined several Arapahos under Chief Niwot, to Fort Lyon in accordance with the terms of a peace parish held in Denver in September 1864. After a while, Native Americans were asked to move to Big Sandy Creek, less than 40 miles northwest of Fort Lyon, under the threat of their safety. The Dogs, who are responsible for many attacks and attacks against whites, are not part of this camp.
Most tribal fighters stood on their land, refusing to leave their homes under the guise of threats, leaving only about 75 men, plus all the women and children in the village. The remaining people are mostly too old or too young to hunt. Black Kettle flew the US flag, with a white flag tied beneath it, above the cabin, when the commander of Fort Lyon advised him. This is to show him friendly and prevent any attacks by the Colorado army.
Meanwhile, Chivington and 425 people from the 3rd Colorado Cavalry drove Fort Lyon arrived on November 28, 1864. Arriving at the Citadel, Chivington took command of 250 people from the 1st Colorado Cavalry and possibly as many as 12 people from the 1st New Mexico Regiment Volunteer Infantry then heads to Black Kettle camp. James Beckwourth, frontiersman noted, acted as a guide to Chivington. The next morning, Chivington gave the order to attack. Two officers, Captain Silas Soule and Lieutenant Joseph Cramer, who led D Company and Company K of the First Colorado Cavalry, refused to obey and told their men to extinguish the fire.
However, other Chivington people immediately attacked the village. Ignoring the US flag and the white flag that was held shortly after the attack began, they killed as many Indians as possible.
I saw the bodies of the people lying there cut into pieces, the more severe mutilated than I had ever seen before; the women cut everything... with a knife; skinning; their brains are eliminated; children aged two or three months; all ages lie there, from sucking babies to soldiers... By whom they are mutilated? By US forces...
I saw a squaw lying in the bank, whose leg was broken. A soldier approached him with a pulled sword. He raised his arm to protect himself; he hit, broke his arm. He rolled over, and lifted his other arm; he hit, broke it, and then left it without killing him. I saw a squaw cut, with an unborn baby lying next to her.
There was one little boy, maybe three years old, big enough to walk in the sand. The Indians had advanced, and this little boy was behind, following them. The little boy was completely naked, walking in the sand. I saw a man coming down from his horse at a distance of about seventy-five meters and composing his rifle and fire. She missed the child. Another man came and said, 'Let me try a b-son. I can hit him. 'He gets off his horse, kneels, and shoots at the little boy, but he misses him. A third man appeared, and made the same comment, and fired, and the little boy fell.
Fingers and ears are cut from the body for the jewelry they carry. White Antelope's body, lying solitary in the bottom of the river, is the main target. In addition to frightening him, the soldiers cut off his nose, ears, and his balls - the last one for a tobacco pouch...
I have to think of the dog Chivington and his dirty dogs, up at Sand Creek. His men shot down, and blew the brains of innocent little children. You call the Christian sich soldiers, do not you? And the wild Indians? What do you mean our Heavenly Father, who made them and us, thinking about these things? I tell you what, I do not like red skin that is more hostile than you do. And when they are enemies, I have fought them, as hard as anyone. But I have never draw a bead on a squaw or papoose, and I hate the person who will do it.
The indigenous people, who had no artillery, were unable to make much resistance. Some of the natives cut the horses from the camps and fled to Sand Creek or to the Cheyenne camp near the headwaters of the Smoky Hill River. Others, including merchant George Bent, fled upstream and dug a hole in the sand beneath the banks of the river. They were chased by troops and fired on, but many survived. Cheyenne Morning Star fighters say that most of the Indians were killed by gunfire, especially those who shot from the south bank of the river in people who retreated to the creeks.
In testimony before a Congressional committee investigating the massacre, Chivington claims that as many as 500-600 Indian soldiers were killed. Historian Alan Brinkley wrote that 133 Indians were killed, 105 of whom were women and children. The white eyewitness John S. Smith reports that 70-80 Indians were killed, including 20-30 soldiers, who agreed with Brinkley's figure for the number of people killed. George Bent, son of American William Bent and Cheyenne's mother, who was in the village when the attack came and was wounded by soldiers, gave two different reports about the loss of the indigenous population. On March 15, 1889, he wrote to Samuel F. Tappan that 137 people were killed: 28 men and 109 women and children. However, on April 30, 1913, when he was very old, he wrote that "about 53 men" and "110 women and children" were killed and many people were injured.
Although initial reports indicate 10 soldiers were killed and 38 wounded, the last count was 4 dead and 21 wounded in Colorado Colorado 1 and 20 were killed or seriously injured and 31 others wounded in the 3rd Colorado Cavalry; adding up to 24 dead and 52 injured. Dee Brown wrote that some Chivington were drunk and that many of the soldiers' casualties were due to friendly fire but none of these claims were endorsed by Gregory F. Michno or Stan Hoig in their books devoted to the massacre.
Before Chivington and his men left the area, they looted the teepees and took the horses. After the smoke disappears, the Chivington people return and kill many injured people. They also bring together many victims, regardless of whether they are women, children or infants. Chivington and his men wore their weapons, hats and equipment with scalp and other body parts, including human and male and female genitalia. They also openly display this battle trophy in Denver's Apollo Theater and the saloons area. Three Indians living in the village are known to have survived the massacre: George Bent's brother, Charlie Bent, and two Cheyenne ladies who were later handed over to William Bent.
According to western writer and historian Larry McMurtry, Chitington's son John Smith (by an Indian mother) was in the camp, survived the attack and "executed" afterwards.
Aftermath
The Sand Creek Massacre resulted in many casualties, mostly among women and children of Cheyenne and Arapaho. The most hit by massacre is Wutapai, the band Black Kettle. Maybe half of Hevhaitaniu disappeared, including the head of Yellow Wolf and Big Man. Oivimana, led by War Bonnet, lost about half of their total. There was a huge loss to Hisiometanio (Ridge Men) under the White Antelope. Chief One Eye was also killed, along with many bands. The Suhtai clan and the Heviqxnipahis clan under the head of Sand Hill suffered relatively few losses. The Dogs and Mascarrians, who at that time were allied, were absent from the Sand Creek. From about ten Arapaho huts under the Head Left Hand, representing about fifty or sixty people, only a few who fled their lives.
After hiding all day above the camp, in the holes dug beneath the edge of Sand Creek, the survivors there, many of whom were wounded, climbed into the river and spent the night in the meadow. The trip was made to the camp site but very few survivors were found there. After a cold night without shelter, the survivors headed for Cheyenne camp in the upstream of the Smoky Hill River. They soon meet survivors who flee with parts of a herd of horses, some returning from Smoky Hill camp where they fled during the attack. They then went on to the camp, where they received help.
The massacre disrupted the traditional Cheyenne power structure, due to the death of eight members of the Council of the Forty-Four. White Antelope, One Eye, Yellow Wolf, Big Man, Bear Man, War Bonnet, Spotted Crow, and Bear Robe were all killed, as did the heads of some of the Cheyenne military community. Among the leaders killed were most of those who had advocated peace with white settlers and the US government. The net effect of the ensuing killings and subsequent weakening of the peace faction exacerbated the growing social and political fractures. The head of the traditional council, a grown man seeking consensus and seeing the future of their people, and their followers, is opposed by younger and more militaristic Dog Soldiers.
Beginning in the 1830s, the Dog Soldiers have evolved from the Cheyenne military community by the name of being a separate group of Cheyenne and Lakota fighters. They take their territory as a region around the headwaters of the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers in southern Nebraska, northern Kansas, and the northeastern Colorado region. In the 1860s, as the conflict between Indians and whites entered the more intensive, the Dog Warriors and military societies in other Cheyenne groups responded to the influence of the traditional council of Forty Four Heads which, as more men mature, taking a bigger and more likely view to supporting peace with whites. For Dog Warriors, the Sand Creek massacre illustrates the ignorance of the peace chief's policy to accommodate whites through agreements such as the Fort Laramie First Agreement and the Fort Wise Agreement. They believe their militant position against the white man is justified by the massacre.
The events at Sand Creek provide a fatal blow to the traditional Cheyenne clan system and the authority of its Chief Council. It has been weakened by many deaths because of the cholera epidemic of 1849, which killed perhaps half the population of Southern Cheyenne, especially the Masikota and Oktoguna bands. This is further undermined by the emergence of separate Dog Soldiers groups.
Retaliation
After the brutal massacre of those who supported the peace, many of the Cheyenne, including the great Roman Nose warriors, and many Arapaho joined the Dog Soldiers. They sought revenge on settlers throughout the Platte valley, including the 1865 assault on what became Fort Caspar, Wyoming.
After the massacre, survivors reached the Cheyenne camp in Smokey Hill and the Republican River. The pipe was sucked and moved from camp to camp among Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho fighters in the area. In January 1865, they planned and attacked 1,000 soldiers at stage stations and fortresses, then called Camp Rankin, in present-day Julesburg, Colorado. This was followed by various attacks along the South Platte, east and west of Julesburg, and the second attack in the city of Julesburg in early February. The bands captured many loot and murdered many white settlers, including women and children. Most Indians then moved north to Nebraska on their way to the Black Hills and Powder River Country.
Black Kettle continues to speak for peace and not join in a second attack or on the way to the Powder River state. He left the camp and returned with 80 residences to the Arkansas River to seek peace with the Colorado people.
Official investigation
Initially, the Sand Creek engagement was reported as a triumph against brave and numerous foes. However, within a few weeks, witnesses and victims began to tell stories about the possible massacre. Several investigations were conducted - two by the military, and one by the Joint Committee on War Behavior. The panel states:
Regarding Colonel Chivington, your committee finds it difficult to find the right term to describe his behavior. Wearing a United States uniform, which should be a symbol of justice and humanity; holds the position of military district commander, and therefore has the honor of the government so far in his care, he deliberately planned and carried out a cruel and vicious massacre that would embarrass the savage of the savage among the victims of his cruelty. Having full knowledge of their friendly character, since he himself has been instrumental in putting them in their crush security position, he takes advantage of the conditions of those who do not understand and are powerless to satisfy the worst desires that once cursed the human heart.
Whatever the effect this has on Colonel Chivington, the truth is that he was shocked and killed, with cold blood, unsuspecting men, women, and children at Sand creek, who had many reasons to believe they were under the protection of the United States. authority, and then returned to Denver and boasted of the courageous deeds that he and the men under his command had done.
In conclusion, your committee is of the opinion that for the purpose of justifying the cause of justice and upholding national dignity, prompt and energetic action must be taken immediately to remove from their post that has polluted the government with whom they are employed, and to punish, because of their worthy crimes, those who have guilty of this brutal and cowardice action.
The statements taken by Major Edward W. Wynkoop and his aides justify recent reports of survivors. These statements are filed with the report and can be found in the Official War of Insurgency , the copy is submitted as evidence in the Combined Committee on Behavior of War and in separate sessions. done by the military in Denver. Lieutenant James D. Cannon described the mutilation of the human genitals by the soldiers, "men, women, and children came out.I heard one person say that he had cut off a woman's private parts and asked them to be exhibited on a stick. heard an example of a child, a few months, thrown into a cart cart, and after being taken away far away, left on the ground to perish I also heard many examples where people have cut off the private parts of women and spread it on a sad bow them, and some of them on their hats. "
During this investigation, many witnesses proceeded with aggravating testimony, almost all supported by other witnesses. A witness, Captain Silas Soule, who had ordered the men under his command not to fire their weapons, was killed in Denver just weeks after offering his testimony. However, despite the Joint Committee on the Implementation of Wars' recommendation, no allegations were made against those who committed the massacre. Chivington is out of the reach of military justice because he has resigned from his commission. The closest thing to the punishment he suffered was the effective end of his political aspirations.
In his autobiography Memory of a Lifetime at Pike's Peak Region, Irving Howbert, an 18-year-old cavalry who later co-founded Colorado Springs, defended Chivington, having claimed that Indian women and children were not attacked, although some who did not leave the camp were killed when the battle began. He insisted that the number of soldiers in the village was equal to the strength of the Colorado cavalry. Chivington, claimed Howbert, retaliated against India's railroad and railroad attacks in Colorado and for torture and killing of residents for the previous three years. Howbert said the evidence of previous Indian attacks on settlers was shown by their seizure of "more than a dozen white scalp, some of them coming from the heads of women and children." Howbert claims that the story of the battle to the United States Congress made by Lieutenant Colonel Samuel F. Tappan is inaccurate, accusing Tappan of giving false views about the battle because Tappan and Chivington are military rivals.
A monument installed in the Colorado State Capitol field in 1909 included Sand Creek as one of the "battles and engagements" championed by Colorado forces in the American Civil War. In 2002, the Colorado Historical Society (now Colorado History), endorsed by the Colorado General Assembly, added an additional plaque to the monument, stating that the original designers of Sand Creek's "mischaracterized" monument called it a battle.
Little Arkansas Treaty
After the actual details of the massacre became widely known, the US federal government sent a blue ribbon commission whose members were respected by the Indians, and the Little Arkansas Treaty was signed in 1865. It promised free access to land in India. south of the Arkansas River, ruled them out of the Arkansas River north to the Platte River, and promised land and cash reparations to survivors of Sand Creek survivors.
However, the treaty was canceled by Washington less than two years later, all major provisions were ignored, and the Treaty of Drug Agreement reduced the reservation reserves by 90%, located in less desirable places in Oklahoma. Then the government's actions further reduced the size of the reservation.
Remembrance
This site, at Big Sandy Creek in Kiowa County, is now preserved by the National Park Service. The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site was presented on April 28, 2007, almost 142 years after the massacre. The American Battlefield Trust and its partners have protected 640 acres of Sand Creek and submitted it to the national historic site.
The Sand Creek Massacre Trail in Wyoming follows the North Arapaho and Cheyenne paths in the years after the massacre. This traces them to their supposed winter at the Wind River Indian Reservation near Riverton in the center of Wyoming, where Arapaho remains today. Trail past Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper, and Riverton en route to Ethete in Fremont County on a reservation. In recent years, Arapaho youth have taken a long way as a resilience test to bring healing to their country. Alexa Roberts, supervisor of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, said the trail is a living part of the history of both tribes.
An exhibit on Sand Creek, titled Collision: The Sand Creek Massacre 1860s-Today, opened in 2012 with a new Colorado Springs Center in Denver. The exhibition soon attracted criticism from members of the North Cheyenne tribe. In April 2013, History Colorado agreed to close the exhibit to the public while consultations were conducted with Northern Cheyenne.
On December 3, 2014, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper formally apologized to the descendants of Sand Creek massacre victims who gathered in Denver to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the event. Hickenlooper stated, "We need not be afraid to criticize and condemn what is unforgivable... On behalf of the State of Colorado, I want to apologize, we will not run away from this history."
By 2015, the construction of a memorial memorial to Sand Creek massacre victims begins in the Colorado Capitol field.
In popular culture
The slaughter on the Sand River has been described or referenced in several works, covering various media.
Comics
The massacre is described in Nemesis the Warlock in 2000 AD # 504 (1986).
Movies
The massacre has been described in several western films, including Tomahawk (1951); Massacre in Sand Creek (1956); The Guns of Fort Petticoat (1957); Soldier Blue (1970); The Last Warrior (1970); Young Guns (1988); Last Dogmen (1995); and The Last Samurai (2003). The massacre is referred to by Trevor Slattery at Iron Man 3 (2013).
Literature
The event has also been written about literary works like The Massacre at Sand Creek (1995) by Bruce Cutler; A Very Small Remnant (1963) by Michael Straight; "Young Sherlock Holmes: Fire Storm" by Andrew Lane, 2011 Centennial (1974) by James Michener; From Sand Creek (1981) by Simon Ortiz; Bury My Heart and Wounded Knee (1971) by Dee Brown and Choke Creek (2009) by Lauren Small. Flight (2007) by Sherman Alexie describes the fictional version of the event.
Music
Songs about Sand Creek include the "Black Kettle's Ballad" Crazy, Five Iron Frenzy's "Banner Year", and Fabrizio De AndrÃÆ' Â © 's "Fiume Sand Creek".
- Peter La Farge's song "The Crimson Parson" is about the Sand Creek massacre. The song
- Fabrizio De AndrÃÆ'¨ "Fiume Sand Creek" is about the slaughter at Sand Creek.
Television
According to IMDB.com, on March 27, 1957, the episode of "Goodyear Playhouse", entitled "The Chivington Raid", described the attack. The players include Steve McQueen, who made his television debut. In the episode "Old Jake" (1957) of the ABC/Desilu series, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Francis McDonald acts as Jake Caster, a former buffalo hunter who kills a soldier who has become a participant in the massacre and who was responsible for the slaughter of Indian Caster's wife and son; Carol Thurston plays the confused widow of the soldier, who faces Caster.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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