November 29, 1864, a 675-man force of the Third Colorado
Cavalry under the command of Colonel John Chivington attacked
and destroyed a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho people in
southeastern Colorado Territory. The village had no warriors but was full of
elderly, sick, women and children. The Southern Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle and
several other chiefs had gathered along the Big Sandy Creek 40 miles north of
Fort Lyon hoping for peace and at the behest of Colorado Territorial Governor John
Evans while he and other negotiated with the chiefs regarding sacred grounds
and hunting and settlement peace.
On this morning Chivington had circled the camp of Black
Kettle even though he no orders to leave Denver at the time and it was known to
scouts that this particular camp was not for war or battle. They began their
attack and in
the next eight hours the American troops killed around 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho
people composed mostly of women, children, and the elderly. During the
afternoon and following day, the soldiers wandered over the field committing
atrocities on the dead before departing the scene on December First.
Chivington and his men dressed their weapons, hats, and gear
with scalps and other body parts, including human fetuses and male
and female genitalia. They also publicly displayed these battle trophies
in Denver's Apollo Theater and area saloons. Three Indians who
remained in the village are known to have survived the massacre: George Bent's
brother Charlie Bent, and two Cheyenne women who were later turned over to
William Bent.
Chivington and the majority of his men talked up their massacre
as a battle with a very hard-won victory. All his reports were written to make
this clear. However, the few survivors started talking and then witnesses did.
Among them Silas Soule who was a captain with the Colorado Volunteers under Chivington.
Soule was an abolitionist from Kansas whose family had a long been aligned with
individual like John Brown and Walt Whitman. On the morning of the massacre
Soule refused to order his men to attack
Soule wrote to Major Edward Wynkoop telling what he had
witnessed that day and the number of Arapaho and Cheyenne who had approached
his command on their knees surrendering. Soule was murdered after testifying to
the Joint Committee of the Conduct of the War. The Joint Committee held multiple hearings and made a report
that Chivington and others who participated in the massacre be prosecuted
however neither Evans nor the army followed these, largely in part because
Chivington had resigned his commission and was beyond their reach as a civilian.
The report and the press with it did destroy Chivington’s political ambitions.
After the massacre of non-combatants many of the Cheyenne,
including the great war chief Roman Nose, and many Arapaho joined the Dog
Soldiers and sought revenge on settlers throughout the Platte valley.
The war pipe was smoked and passed from camp to camp among the Sioux, Cheyenne,
and Arapaho warriors in the area. In January 1865, they planned attacked with
1,000 warriors on the stage station and fort, then called Camp Rankin, at
present-day Julesburg, Colorado. The associated bands captured much loot
and killed many white settlers, including men, women and children.
Image: Black Kettle and Wife, Medicine Woman escaping by Andy Thomas
Sources:
https://www.northwestern.edu/magazine/fall2014/campuslife/john-evans-and-the-sand-creek-massacre.html
https://www.nps.gov/sand/learn/historyculture/index.htm
