Sand Creek massacre

Commander of the U.S. Army troops at the Sand Creek Massacre

The morning of the 29th day of November, 1864, finds us before the village of the Indian foe. The first shot is fired by them. The first man who falls is white. No white flag is raised.

Black Kettle raised an American flag given to him by the U.S. Indian agent to the Cheyennes a few years before and a small white flag on a lodge pole as instructed.

The 1st Colorado veterans under Captain Soule and Lieutenant Cramer did their best to keep clear of the slaughter.

According to testimony, Colonel Chivington instructed the troops to take no prisoners.

Chivington later reported hundreds of warriors had been killed among a population of over a thousand in the village. His staff would concur, reporting numbers from 300 to 800 killed. Other soldiers counted only a hundred to as many as 150 bodies.

Reports ignored, downplayed, or denied that women, children, and elderly noncombatants had also been killed.

they would be under the protection of the military

In the camp were an estimated 700 to 750 people led by 20 chiefs or headmen.

The largest number of Cheyenne and Arapaho killed were noncombatants-murdered in the pits upstream from the village.

Records show at least 16 were killed and/or died of their wounds and as many as 78 were wounded.

the imposing force of about 675 United States Volunteers

George Bent reported years later that White Antelope began singing his death song, "Nothing Lives long only the earth and the mountains," and continued until he was shot down.

the United States condemns and repudiates "the gross and wanton outrages perpetrated against certain bands of Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians" at Sand Creek.

by committing to compensate those who lost property at Sand Creek.

Reparations to many other descendants have never been paid.

United States officials persuade a handful of Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs to meet on the Little Arkansas River in Kansas and negotiate and sign a new treaty in October 1865.

The Treaty of the Little Arkansas proclaims the events at Sand Creek a massacre.

The treaty also removes Colorado from Cheyenne and Arapaho treaty lands.

Article 6 of the treaty promises the payment of reparations to survivors, but these promised reparations are never paid.

The Hungate Family is found murdered 25 miles southeast of Denver.

attack the village of Cheyenne Chief Lean Bear. The chief, who is wearing the peace medal given to him by President Lincoln in 1863, is shot and killed by the soldiers.

The soldiers murder/massacre over 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho, including about 150 women, children, and elderly. They mutilate many of the bodies.