by Enss, Chris
Blanche White Shield
What they describe as the ravines . . . when the first attack came everyone scattered, the old ones and the women. Throughout the first day and maybe even the second day, there were riders who were going to the trouble of hunting down the wounded and finishing them off. I even heard that the next day they were tracking them down. There was obviously a lot going on in every direction, I don’t know how many soldiers there were but they were spending a lot of time in the creek bed area. Others, like outriders, were to the different directions. When I see what’s there it seems that you’d only need horseback to the south and west, because it seems like other directions are within sight. There’s nowhere to hide, it’s flat to the east of the site with terrain to the south and the west of the site. To the north, I guess that’s where there’s a question about the pits. I know you all have thought about it but if you’ve ever been under gunfire, you’re not gonna want to run two or three miles. I can tell you for a fact you’re not going to run very far under gunfire. Unless you have complete disregard for your own safety, then you might run a quarter of a mile or a few hundred yards, but with that many guns, you’re not going to run very far. I can’t imagine they’re going to run two or three miles. If you’ve been under gunfire you know what I’m talking about. Maybe one lucky person could get even a quarter of a mile, because they’re going to get you one way or another. The pits had to be nearby. Besides, you can’t dig into that hard terrain, not with the kind of tools they would have had. Back in those days they had big caliber guns. I’ve heard about these pits, I would call them foxholes, but they’d have to be within a very short distance of the site. I heard they were on the run from the initial attack, they scattered and the army did a mop-up. Those that scattered—a lot of wounded and elderly looking for their children and the next day the soldiers were riding up and down the ravines picking them off. I’m sure under the cover of darkness some of them got away too.
Arleigh Rhodes
The soldiers mutilated the dead. Some of them didn’t die immediately. They were wounded and the soldiers stayed there and finished killing them the next day. I’ve heard different stories from different families. One was from a family about a little girl whose mother got a horse and was able to grab the little girl by the arm and pull her up and they got away. And then this lady, Mrs. Starr, told me that her great-great-grandmother was a little girl and she was covered up in a hole, covered with sand and leaves, and she survived. Then Laird had a story about two small children whose father managed to catch a horse and put his two small children on the horse and got them out of there and told them to keep going. The kids kept switching the horse and they ran and ran till the horse died of exhaustion.
Colleen Cometsevah
My grandpa told the story about Standing Elk getting killed at Sand Creek. A government soldier was shooting at him and that’s how he got killed. He fought back with bows and arrows. He wasn’t married then. My grandpa Morning Star also got away from Sand Creek. He also went to Lame Deer. So many people on that side have stories about Sand Creek. So many Chiefs got away from Sand Creek, at least three. But they’re not my kinfolk, they’re on the other side. Morning Star was one of my great grandpas. Black Kettle got away too, but he got killed at Washita by Custer.
Jesse Howling Water
Everything at Sand Creek—horses, tepees, wagons—everything was destroyed. Set on fire. My relatives there were Greasy Nose and Black Bear. Their descendants are the White Turtles. There is only three White Turtles left. Even little babies, they shot them dead. This one old man he was standing on a hill, it was solid rock, straight down. He was calling to the people [in Cheyenne], saying “this way, this way” as people ran. There was an old lady, she had a baby and she was running (or riding?) to a man. But somebody shot her in the back of the head and she dropped the baby. But a man came by and scooped the baby up. Don’t know what became of that baby.
Roger White Turtle
Their grandmother was a little girl at the time and her mother tried to run with her but she couldn’t keep up. So she tried to carry her but the mother gave out as they were running up Sand Creek she just scooped out the sand and put her little girl there and told her not to move and that she’d be back for her. She covered her with sand and brush and leaves and ran off. When she came back two days later the little girl was still alive. The little girl suffered through that cold, with no cover, no food or water. Another one told me that their grandmother was running ahead of her mother and the mother managed to get hold of one of the horses. The little girl turned around and saw her and the little girl held out her arm and her mother reached down and scooped her up and they both got away.
Colleen Cometsevah
My father’s parents were present at Sand Creek. This Sand Creek, to begin with, was a creek with pools of water, but no running water at the time of the massacre. At that time there was an accumulation of light snow in places. In the early morning hours, you can just begin to see in the morning light. Some young men’s duties were to watch the horses, on both sides of Sand Creek. These horses were scattered on both sides of the creek. They didn’t group their horses all together, they grouped them according to clan groups. These two young men, Little Bear and Kingfisher, were the first to see this long line of soldiers coming from the south, moving along Sand Creek like a snake. They first thought it was buffalo, then realized it was an army group of some kind. The soldiers divided into two groups, like a horseshoe, to head off the horse herds on either side of the creek. Then Chivington’s soldiers were walking in the center, and they were headed towards Black Kettle’s camp. The 44 Cheyenne Chiefs Society, orphans, widows, and the elderly were in this encampment. This is the group they brought down from Smokey Hill to Fort Lyon. They were told to go back to Sand Creek. They were glad and led to believe they would be under military protection. They were told to raise the American flag—Black Kettle was to raise it with the white flag of truce beneath it to indicate that they were peaceful.
When they were at Fort Lyon, they were also told to surrender all their weapons including pistols, rifles, bows and arrows. They hunted anything they could: deer, antelope, and sometimes buffalo.
When the troops were attacking Black Kettle’s camp consisting of children, women, elders, widows, and orphans and the 44 Chiefs Societies, the women, children and elders ran toward the bluff on the west end of the encampment. Some were killed there. Others ran upstream, but didn’t get far. Soldiers on horseback caught up with them and they had to dig pits for protections. These last pits were about one mile north of the southwest corner of South Bend of the Dawson’s property.
By tribal law, the 44 Chiefs Societies must protect their people and give their lives so their people can escape. That is why so many of the chiefs were killed. My great-grandfather was a young chief at the time and he ran to where Black Kettle raised the flag. White Antelope and others were there also. The troops opened fire on them. They said the troops came like a horseshoe from the east part of the camp area where it turns back south downstream to the Arkansas River. They came from that direction like a horseshoe and went upstream. The chiefs stood their ground and the troops concentrated their gunfire on the lodges. Later, people said the bullets sounded like hail hitting the lodges. They fired directly into the lodges knowing that people would still be asleep, especially the elders and young children. As the chiefs held the soldiers off, the chiefs slowly moved back. I was told that these young men’s duty was watching the horses. Kingfisher and Little Bear, who had gone after their horses early, these two ran back to the camp and warned everyone as best they could that the soldiers were coming. But when the troops got to the east end of where the bend goes back south to the Arkansas river, the camp was attacked horseshoe fashion. When George Bent saw this, he ran west to the high bluff by where the marker is now. He saw that a group of young men was standing there trying to decide what to do. At that point, George Bent mentioned it was about one hundred yards from the
encampment. So it meant to me that they were camped all the way over by the bluff by where the marker is and back east. At this bluff the women and children dug what they call sandpits or rifle pits, but I call them survival pits. They dug in at the middle of the channel. From there the chiefs stood their ground. My great-grandfather said when the troops quit shooting at them the sun was straight up. Somewhere between the bluff and the first sandpit George Bent got shot in the hip, but he survived in the sandpit.
Cheyenne they all belong to family clans, clan groups where all their relatives camped together and each one of them has a name. They each belong to one of these four military societies: Bowstring, Elk, Kit Fox, [and] Dog Soldier . . . the Chief Society being the governing body of the Cheyenne. All the other societies are subordinate to the chiefs, the governing system of 44 Cheyenne chiefs. They are the ones that make all the decisions for the Cheyenne Tribe. Whatever is decided is enforced by the Bowstring Society. They can tear down your lodge, destroy your belongings and kill your horses and dogs, they enforce what the chiefs decide and dictate.
Laird Cometsevah
This photograph is of the only child saved out of the Sand Creek Massacre.
The Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, Z-1513
This story starts with the morning attack by the troops of Chivington. It happened real early in the morning and my grandfather had just gotten up, hadn’t even started the fire. First thing he thought of was his rawhide rope. He was more concerned about his wife who was pregnant at that time with my oldest uncle. My grandfather ran out of the tepee and it happened that the horses were running by the tepee so he roped one of the horses, he stopped it, brought it to his tepee, and told my grandmother to get ready, she was going for a ride out of the battle. My grandmother got ready while he was fixing the horse, got her on a horse and [he] told her to go back the direction where the horse went and she did. She caught up to the horses and this is how she got through the lines in the midst of these horses going through the battle. And my grandfather went back into the tepee, grabbed his weapon, bows and arrows and maybe rifle that he had which he didn’t tell me, but anyway he came out, starting to fight his way out of the battle. And one main thing he tells about, the incident that happened while he was fighting his way out, there was a blind man with a medicine pouch, carrying it in the back, and the old man was blind, and a little kid was guiding him to safety. And my grandfather stopped by to care for the old man and he got wounded while doing this, got hit in the elbow. But then he had to get away because he was bleeding, and left the old man. He didn’t know if he was killed or what but he left the old man there and fought his way out of the battle with a wounded arm, and he got away.
Ray Brady
When that incident came, when the army attacked the village, [it] probably ignored the flag and they tried to stop them and said we are peaceful Indians, we are the peaceful tribe. We do not wish to fight. But still, they insist to fight them. Whatever they had was to defend themselves, but it’s not enough. The army was too heavily armed to try to defend themselves. They were slaughtered. A lot of kids were killed trying to run for cover. They could not make it to the edge of the bank where it’s close by the camp; they all got caught. But somehow my grandmother’s great-grandmother was six years old. I cannot remember the name she had. She managed to run and made it to the creek bottom. As she hid on the side of the bank where a lot of this grass was hanging over the edge, sat there and according to her story, she listened till she heard the last cry of the last wounded person gasping for life until finally there was silence. There were still people there suffering in agony from the soldiers, from their bullets, from their swords. I don’t know how long she was there, but she finally managed to leave in the dark. Because she wanted to go back and see who all was killed; but, according to her story, when she looked back, everything was destroyed. The tepees were burned. Kids all were laying scattered, butchered, scalped, so she ran and ran. I don’t know how many days she ran, how she got to Red Cloud Agency.
Donlin Many Bad Horses
Our old folks told us about the massacre. It’s sad that our people had to struggle to live. They were industrious, good workers, knew how to survive. They were buffalo hunters and moved after the buffalo and got their supply of food. Also berries and digging for vegetables. . . . When they had this massacre, they had to defend themselves. They had to hunt. The women tanned hides and took care of the children while the men were out getting food. If fences weren’t up you could go anywhere and dig medicine.
The U.S. Army settled and had a camp there after the treaty. The government broke the treaty. If we could get the place in Colorado back, that was our home place, but they had that massacre because of the silver and gold—the minerals.
You know that Shoshone and Arapaho massacre [happened] because they broke the treaty. My grandfather was there. In one night they just killed . . . Chief Black Coal, he was there. He had one finger missing. He signed a treaty with Chief Washakie. They saw he was a Flathead, but he was married into Shoshone. Broken Hand had his hand shot in the massacre. My dad was shot in the massacre. He was shot in the heart and died. Elmer Iron. That was my maiden name. His Arapaho name meant iron, or steel, or money, I don’t know.
They used to tie the horses on the alert. Didn’t trust, you know. My mother’s brother got shot and killed right there. He broke his back. They shot him. He jumped on his horse and my grandmother just ran and hid with her little ones. [They] just crawled in the bush.
Cleone Thunder
I said a prayer for the spirits that are still at Sand Creek because of the genocide that was forced upon them. The treaty they made with the Cheyenne and other tribes in 1851 included Denver, Wyoming, and other areas. But, when gold was discovered they needed to move the Indians out of the way, so in 1861 they moved the Cheyenne and Arapahos to the Sand Creek area. When the massacre occurred on November 29, 1864, the Cheyenne were on the reservation the U.S. government had given them, and the government condoned this action resulting in the killing of these innocent people.
Laird Cometsevah
Each evening my grandmother would start telling us the story about Sand Creek. I was just a little girl then and I didn’t hardly catch all of it, but I’ll tell what I can remember. She used to say that when they got attacked the men tried to protect them and told the women to take off, children and old men, and my grandfather was one of the protectors trying to protect them. And when my grandfather was still there waiting for all of them to get away my grandfather was using a bow and arrow trying to keep them soldiers back and he got wounded—I don’t remember if it was the right or left arm—and afterwards they took off. He started taking off to follow the people, and there was a little boy walking around there that got left, he grabbed that little boy and took off with him. And when they were running they heard a whole bunch of horses coming, they thought the soldiers were catching up with them and here it was a stallion leading a whole bunch of horses. And it stopped for those people and those people went and grabbed whatever horses they wanted to get on. After they got on them horses that stallion took off again and led the horses and went like he went to hide them somewhere where they couldn’t find them.
Nellie Bear Tusk
The soldiers gathered us from our camp along with the Cheyenne; the soldier chief told us that we were to be moved to our new [reservation] campground which was to become our new and permanent campground [new reservation].
We had a big herd of horses along with the Cheyenne and it took us several days to make the move. When we came to the new campground, the soldier chief told us to put up a white flag with their [American] flag so that any other soldiers would know that we were a friendly tribe and that they would not attack us and would leave us alone.
On the morning of the massacre I was awakened with the camp crier telling us to wake up; his words were “Wake up, Arapaho, the soldiers are attacking, the soldiers are attacking us! Run, scatter, run, scatter, we will a
ll meet again in two moons where we had our last Sun Dance. We will all meet again where we had our last Sun Dance.”
Being a young woman [girl], I sat up from my bed and put on my moccasins. There was an awful lot of noise outside the teepee. As I went outside the teepee I saw people running in every direction and I saw people falling down and teepees falling apart. The people falling down were those that were getting killed, the teepees falling apart were those getting hit from the soldier’s big guns.
I started running toward the hills which were north of the camp. As I was running near some rocks I heard my name being called: “Singing Water, Singing Water.” I stopped running and looked around and could not see anyone, I was about to start running again when this voice called my name again, “Singing Water, look up to the rocks, we are behind them. Crawl up here and we will hide you with us.” I crawled up to the rocks where this voice came from, when I got to the rocks the man made an entrance for me. I had to stand up and climb over the rocks; behind the rocks were a man, woman, and a child. We stayed hidden behind the rocks for two days.
