A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling over the Memory of Sand Creek

by Ari Kelman

  39. “Sensationalism” from Gail Ridgely interview, July 29, 2003. “Hostility” from Ben Ridgely, Sand Creek representative, Northern Arapaho Tribe, interview by author, May 25, 2005, Denver, CO, tape recording, in author’s possession. All other quotes from Laird and Colleen Cometsevah, Southern Cheyenne Sand Creek descendants, interview by author, May 12, 2003, Denver, CO, tape recording, in author’s possession. See also Alexa Roberts interview, April 29, 2003.

  40. David Halaas interview, September 26, 2003. See also Tom Meier, “Arapahos at Sand Creek Per Written Record,” January 10, 2000, in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC; George Bent to George Hyde, April 30, 1913, Coe Collection, Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT (hereafter Coe Collection); Bent to Hyde, October 23, 1914, Coe Collection; Bent to Hyde, January 20, 1915, Coe Collection.

  41. “Shame is as big …” from Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Year 1865 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1865), 521. All other quotes from “Treaty with the Cheyenne and Arapaho, October 14, 1865,” in Charles J. Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, vol. 2 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1904), 887–891.

  42. Bliss Kelly, attorney for Sand Creek Descendants, Inc., to Professor Raymond Carey, University of Denver, August 30, 1965, in Carey Collection, Box 2, Folder 10, Special Collections, Penrose Library, University of Denver, Denver, CO (hereafter Carey Collection); James E. Officer, associate commissioner, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior, to Professor Raymond Carey, University of Denver, January 3, 1966, in Carey Collection, Box 2, Folder 10.

  43. Sam Dicke, Sand Creek Descendants, Inc., to Professor Raymond Carey, University of Denver, November 27, 1965, in Carey Collection, Box 2, Folder 10; Bliss Kelly to Professor Raymond Carey, July 30, 1965, in Carey Collection, Box 2, Folder 10; Bliss Kelly, to Professor Raymond Carey, August 23, 1965, in Carey Collection, Box 2, Folder 10; Rocky Mountain News, December 24, 1864; Ethel M. Arnold, “The Blanket of Chief White Antelope,” Art and Archaeology 28 (August 1929): 46; Roberts, “Sand Creek: Tragedy and Symbol,” 711–714.

  44. Dicke to Carey, November 27, 1965; Kelly to Carey, July 30, 1965; Kelly to Carey, August 23, 1965; Kelly to Carey, August 30, 1965; Nancy J. Arnold, chief clerk, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, to Professor Raymond Carey, University of Denver, July 16, 1965, in Carey Collection, Box 2, Folder 10; John Jarman, member of Congress, to Professor Raymond Carey, University of Denver, July 19, 1965, in Carey Collection, Box 2, Folder 10; Officer to Carey, January 3, 1966; Homer Flute and Robert Simpson, “Organization of Sand Creek Massacre Descendants’ Trust,” in author’s possession; Homer Flute and Robert Simpson, “Analysis of Southern Cheyenne-Arapaho Claims, Sand Creek Massacre,” in author’s possession; H.R. 1705, 83rd Cong., 1st Sess., 1953; H.R. 6178, 85th Cong., 1st Sess., 1957; H.R. 5513, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., 1965.

  45. Quote from Laird and Colleen Cometsevah interview, May 12, 2003. See also Roberts, “Sand Creek: Tragedy and Symbol,” 716–719.

  46. “Every time the …” from Laird and Colleen Cometsevah interview, May 12, 2003. “Our people didn’t …” from Steve Brady interview, August 29, 2004.

  47. Quotes from Steve Brady interview, August 29, 2004. See also Laird and Colleen Cometsevah interview, May 12, 2003.

  48. Quotes from Rick Frost, National Park Service project manager, Sand Creek Site Location Study, to the Honorable Ben Nighthorse Campbell, United States Senator, January 13, 2000, in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC. See also Rick Frost to Gail Ridgely, Northern Arapaho Sand Creek representative, January 20, 2000, in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC.

  49. Quotes from Ben Nighthorse Campbell, U.S. senator, interview by author, September 10, 2003, telephone, tape recording, in author’s possession. See also Alice Murray, Historical Memories of the Japanese American Internment and the Struggle for Redress (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007), 1–13, 333–381, 436–442; Mary Frances Berry, My Face Is Black Is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-slave Reparations (New York: Vintage, 2006), 3–74, 173–182, 230–241; Eric K. Yamamoto, “What’s Next? Japanese American Redress and African American Reparations,” in Michael T. Martin and Marilyn Yaquinto, eds., Redress for Historical Injustices in the United States: On Reparations for Slavery, Jim Crow, and Their Legacies (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007), 411–426; Adrienne D. Davis, “The Case for U.S. Reparations for African Americans,” in Martin and Yaquinto, Redress for Historical Injustices in the United States, 371–378; Charles P. Henry, “The Politics of Racial Reparations,” in Martin and Yaquinto, Redress for Historical Injustices in the United States, 353–370; Martha Biondi, “The Rise of the Reparations Movement,” in Martin and Yaquinto, Redress for Historical Injustices in the United States, 255–274; James Doyle interview, June 10, 2003.

  50. Steve Brady interview, August 29, 2004; Laird and Colleen Cometsevah interview, May 12, 2003; National Park Service, Special Resource Study, 20.

  51. “Fraud” from Laird Cometsevah interview, May 12, 2003. All other quotes from Homer Flute, president, Sand Creek Descendants Trust, interview by author, December 20, 2004, Anadarko, OK, tape recording, in author’s possession. See also Flute and Simpson, “Organization of Sand Creek Massacre Descendants’ Trust.”

  52. “So he talked to …” from Steve Brady interview, September 12, 2003. See also Homer Flute interview, December 20, 2004.

  53. “It was big” and “seemed like …” from Steve Chestnut interview, February 6, 2004. “We showed …” from Joe Big Medicine interview, July 8, 2003.

  54. Quotes from Laird Cometsevah, chief, Southern Cheyenne Tribe, to Rick Frost, project director, Sand Creek Massacre Project, National Park Service, April 25, 2000, in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC. See also National Park Service, Special Resource Study, 20.

  55. Quote from National Park Service, Special Resource Study, 121. See also pp. 117–122.

  56. Ibid., 122–127.

  57. Ibid., 125–130.

  58. Joe Big Medicine interview, July 8, 2003; Alexa Roberts interview, April 29, 2004; National Park Service, Special Resource Study, 21.

  59. National Park Service, Site Location Study; National Park Service, Special Resource Study.

  60. Christine Whitacre interview, May 27, 2003.

  61. Quotes from National Park Service, Site Location Study, 287–288 (emphasis added), 291, 291–292.

  62. “Throughout this …,” “they believe …,” “there also are …,” and “Consultation associated …” from National Park Service, Special Resource Study, 14, 16. “I honestly …” from Laird Cometsevah interview, May 12, 2003.

  63. National Park Service, Special Resource Study, 41–132.

  64. Ibid., 41–42.

  65. Hyde, Life of George Bent, 64–67, 168–197; Major Scott J. Anthony to Major B. S. Henning, December 15, 1864, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, XLI, Pt. 1, 952; Major B. S. Henning to Lieutenant J. E. Tappan, December 14, 1864, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, XLI, Pt. 4, 852; George Bird Grinnell, The Fighting Cheyennes (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1915), 181–190; Colonel R. R. Livingston to General R. B. Mitchell, January 8, 1865, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, XLVII, Pt. 1, 463; Eugene F. Ware, The Indian War of 1864 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1960), 340–397; Leroy R. Hafen, The Overland Mail, 1849–1869 (Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark, 1926), 261–267.

  66. Quotes from Major General John Pope to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, February 6, 1864, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, XXXIV, Pt. 2, 259–264. See also Richard N. Ellis, General Pope and U.S. Indian Policy (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1970), 26–74.

  67. Grenville Mellon Dodge, The Indian Campaign of Winter 1864–1865 (Denver: Colorado Commandery of the Loyal Legion of the United States of America, 1907), 1–20; Stanley P. Hirchson, Grenville M. Dodge: Soldier, Politician, Railroad Pioneer (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967), 115–118; Dee Brown
, The Galvanized Yankees (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1963), 12–47, 112–155; Donald J. Berthrong, The Southern Cheyenne (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), 207–240; Robert M. Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848–1865 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991), 281–340; Bent to Hyde, March 24, 1905, Coe Collection; Bent to Hyde, March 4, 1906, Coe Collection; Bent to Hyde, November 5, 1913, Coe Collection; Hyde, Life of George Bent, 192–211.

  68. Quote from Senator James Doolittle to Secretary of the Interior James Harlan, May 31, 1865, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, XLVIII, Pt. 2, 868–869. See also Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, 309–320; General Alexander M. McCook to Major General John Pope, May 31, 1865, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, XLVIII, Pt. 2, 707.

  69. Commissioner of Indian Affairs William Dole to Secretary of the Interior James Harlan, July 6, 1865, Letters Received, Secretary of the Interior, Indian Division, National Archives, Record Group 48, Washington, DC; Secretary of the Interior James Harlan to Major General John Pope, July 6, 1865, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, XLVIII, Pt. 2, 1056–1057; Secretary of the Interior James Harlan to Commissioner of Indian Affairs Dennis N. Cooley, July 11, 1865, Letters Sent, Secretary of the Interior, Indian Division, Vol. 5, 283, National Archives, Record Group 48.

  70. “The history …” from New York Times, July 29, 1865. “Rested with …” from Commissioner Samuel Tappan to Senator Charles Sumner, April 10, 1865, Letters Received, Office of Indian Affairs, Colorado Superintendency, National Archives, Record Group 75. See also Senate Ex. Doc. No. 94, 40th Cong., 2nd Sess., Message from the President of the United States Transmitting Report of the Indian Peace Commission (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1868), 4–19.

  71. National Park Service, Special Resource Study, 43.

  72. “A little bit …” and “anything to …” from Ben Nighthorse Campbell interview, September 10, 2003. “Let’s take …” and “if you …” from Alyssa Fisher, “A Sight Which Can Never Be Forgotten,” Archaeology (September 16, 2003), http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/massacre/index.html.

  73. Gary L. Roberts and David Fridtjof Halaas, “Written in Blood: The Soule-Cramer Sand Creek Massacre Letters,” Colorado Heritage (Winter 2001): 29; Percy Ednalino, “Sand Creek Letters Go to Senate,” Denver Post, September 16, 2000, B-9; Dick Kreck, “Historians Skirmishing over Sand Creek Letters,” Denver Post, September 20, 2000, A-2.

  74. Quotes from Roberts and Halaas, “Written in Blood,” 29, 25.

  75. Quotes from Steve Brady interview, August 29, 2003. See also “Programs,” in Sand Creek Massacre Healing Runs, 2001–2008, Northern Cheyenne Sand Creek Office, Lame Deer, MT.

  76. Colonel Edward Wynkoop to General James Ford, January 16, 1865, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, XLI, Pt. 1, 959–962; Colonel Edward Wynkoop to Lieutenant J. E. Tappan, January 15, 1865, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, XLI, Pt. 1, 959–961; Major General Samuel P. Curtis to Governor John Evans, January 12, 1865, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, XLVIII, Pt. 1, 504; Major General Samuel P. Curtis to Colonel Thomas Moonlight, January 12, 1865, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, XLVIII, Pt. 1, 511; Major General Samuel P. Curtis to Major General Henry Halleck, January 12, 1865, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, XLVIII, Pt. 1, 502; Roberts and Halaas, “Written in Blood,” 29–32; Roberts, “Sand Creek: Tragedy and Symbol,” 457–459, 471.

  77. Quote appears in Roberts, “Sand Creek: Tragedy and Symbol,” 492. See also Rocky Mountain News, April 24, 25, and 27, 1865.

  78. Rocky Mountain News, October 11, 25, November 1, 22, December 8, 1865. See also Roberts, “Sand Creek: Tragedy and Symbol,” 495–498.

  79. Quotes from Hearing before the Subcommittee on National Parks, Historic Preservation, and Recreation of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, 106 Congress, 2 Session, September 14, 2000 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2001), 3, 5. See also Steve Brady interview, August 29, 2003.

  80. Quotes from Hearing before the Subcommittee on National Parks, 19. See also pp. 9, 19, and 26 and Bill MacAllister, “Memorial at Sand Creek OK’d,” Denver Post, October 24, 2000, A-1.

  81. “More of a confirmation …” from Ednalino, “Sand Creek Letters Go to Senate,” B-4. “Everything that came later” and “dazzling” from Kreck, “Historians Skirmishing over Sand Creek Letters,” A-2. See also “Dark Side of Sand Creek,” Denver Post, September 16, 2000, B-7; Bob Scott, “There’s More to Sand Creek Letters Than Meets Eye,” Rocky Mountain News, September 22, 2000, A-54.

  82. Quotes from Public Law 106-465. See also Acting Director, National Park Service, to Regional Director, Intermountain Region, National Park Service, November 21, 2000, “Activation: P.L. 106-465, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site Establishment Act of 2000,” in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC.

  83. Quotes from Public Law 106-465. See also Acting Director to Regional Director, November 21, 2000.

  5. INDELIBLE INFAMY

  1. Details of the powwow at Lame Deer from Norma Gorneau, member, Northern Cheyenne Tribe Sand Creek Massacre Descendants Committee, interview by author, July 1, 2004, Lame Deer, MT, tape recording, in author’s possession. “Like we had accomplished …” from Otto Braided Hair, director, Northern Cheyenne Sand Creek Office, interview by author, May 11, 2007, telephone, notes in author’s possession. “The spirits can finally rest” from Gail Ridgely, Sand Creek representative, Northern Arapaho Tribe, interview by author, July 29, 2003, Denver, CO, tape recording, in author’s possession. “Generations will die out …” from Laird Cometsevah, chief, Southern Cheyenne Tribe, interview by author, May 12, 2003, Denver, CO, tape recording, in author’s possession. See also Jim Hughes, “Tribe Fetes Sand Creek Designation,” Denver Post, November 12, 2000, A-1.

  2. “We now have …” from J. Sebastian Sinisi, “Senator: Preserve Sad, Painful Sites,” Denver Post, February 2, 2001, B-4. “After years …” from “Sand Creek Memorial a Go,” Denver Post, November 10, 2000, B-8. “America’s increasing …” and “monuments can …” from “Sand Creek Now Belongs to All,” Omaha World-Herald, October 31, 2000, A-14. See also Bill McKallister, “Memorial at Sand Creek OK’d,” Denver Post, October 24, 2000, A-1.

  3. “Delighted” from William Dawson, interview by author, June 18, 2003, Eads, CO, tape recording, in author’s possession. See also Public Law 106-465.

  4. “I thought …” and “fought tooth …” from William Dawson interview, June 18, 2003.

  5. Quotes from William Dawson interview, June 18, 2003. See also Lysa Wegman-French and Christine Whitacre, “Interim Report No. 2 Historical Research on the Sand Creek Massacre Site,” 8–9, 35, in uncataloged files of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site (FSCMNHS), currently held by National Park Service, Western Archeological and Conservation Center (NPS-WACC), Tucson, AZ; Wilbur F. Stone, ed., History of Colorado, vol. 4 (Chicago: S. J. Clark, 1918), 239–240.

  6. Quotes from Douglas Scott, chief archeologist, National Park Service Midwest Archeological Center, interview by author, October 3, 2003, telephone, tape recording, in author’s possession. See also Jerome Greene, research historian, National Park Service, interview by author, May 27, 2003, Denver, CO, tape recording, in author’s possession; William Dawson interview, June 18, 2003; Laird Cometsevah interview, May 12, 2003; Steve Brady, headman, Crazy Dogs Society, Northern Cheyenne Tribe, interview by author, August 29, 2004, Lame Deer, MT, tape recording, in author’s possession.

  7. Quote from William Dawson interview, June 18, 2003. See also National Park Service, Intermountain Region, Sand Creek Massacre Project, vol. 2: Special Resource Study (Denver: National Park Service, Intermountain Region, 2000), 85, 115; “Briefing Statement, National Park Service, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, February 5, 2001,” in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC; “Weekly List of Actions T
aken on Properties: September 23, 2001–September 30, 2001,” National Register of Historic Places, http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/listings/20011005.htm.

  8. “No such thing …” from “Notes, National Park Service, Consultation Meeting, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, Las Animas, Colorado, January 24, 2002,” in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC. “Inflexibility infuriating” and “negotiating ploy” from William Dawson interview, June 18, 2003. See also Laird Cometsevah, Cheyenne traditional chief, to Robert Tabor, chairman, 33rd Business Committee, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, March 16, 2002, Clinton, OK, in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC; “Notes, National Park Service, Consultation Meeting, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, Denver, Colorado, February 27, 2001,” in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC; “Notes, National Park Service, Consultation Meeting, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, Lame Deer, Montana, June 6, 2001,” in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC; “Notes, National Park Service, Consultation Meeting, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, Eads, Colorado, February 28, 2001,” in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC; “National Park Service, Director’s Order # 25: Land Protection,” January 19, 2001, http://www.nps.gov/policy/DOrders/DOrder25.html.

  9. “Dedicated to advancing …” from “Who We Are,” Conservation Fund, http://www.conservationfund.org/who_we_are. “We are pleased …” from “Briefing Statement, National Park Service, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, October 21, 2002,” in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC. See also Ben Nighthorse Campbell, U.S. senator, to Karen Wade, regional director, National Park Service, January 7, 2002, in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC; “Contract Made to Buy 240 Acres for Sand Creek Massacre Site,” Watonga Republican, January 16, 2002, B-12; Kit Miniclier, “Sand Creek Site Parcel on Block,” Denver Post, March 8, 2002, B-1; Joe Big Medicine, “Sand Creek Massacre Site Land Acquisition in Progress,” Watonga Republican, August 8, 2001, n.p., in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC; “Briefing Statement, National Park Service, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, March 6, 2002,” in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC; Conservation Fund to Tribal Representatives, December 14, 2001, in FSCMNHS, now at NPS-WACC; Conservation Fund, http://www.conservationfund.org/search/node/sand+creek; William Dawson interview, June 18, 2003.