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On November 29, 1864, with the Civil War going full force in the East, territorial governors organized volunteer armies in an effort to defend and protect the settlers. An aura of greed and self-interest permeated the air that surrounded the brutality of the Sand Creek Massacre. This was an attack that came with no warnings or premonitions; the Indians were completely surprised and unprepared.
The massacre occurred when Colorado Volunteers, under the leadership of Colonel John Chivington, attacked a nonviolent tribe of Cheyenne Indians, led by Black Kettle, on the banks of Sand Creek. The Volunteers erratically and viciously slaughtered the Indians, including women and children, with an estimated death count nearing the five hundred mark. Many of the corpses were grotesquely mutilated, in a massacre that shocked the nation. However the most heinous part of this massive slaughter was the fact that the Indians were under the impression that they were residing in the protective custody of the US Government, under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. Their unjust eviction was a result of the 1861 gold rush in Colorado, which generated a massive population boom, forcing the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes into the desolate Sand Creek reservation in Southeastern Colorado. Even the U.S. Indian Commissioner admitted that "We have substantially taken possession of the country and deprived the Indians of their accustomed means of support."
Evicting the white settlers was not considered a viable option, yet the government needed to resolve the situation. Its solution was to demand that the Southern Cheyenne sign a new treaty relinquishing all of their lands except for the undersized Sand Creek reservation in southeastern Colorado. Black Kettle, afraid that overpowering U.S. military command might result in an even less equitable settlement, agreed to the treaty in 1861 and did what he could to see that the Cheyenne complied with its provisions.
Unfortunately, the Sand Creek reservation was not adequate to sustain the Indians who were forced to reside there. The land was in poor condition for agriculture, yet was a virtual breeding ground for epidemic diseases which swept like wildfire through the Cheyenne encampments. By 1862 there was not a herd of buffalo within two hundred miles. Many Cheyennes, especially young men, began to depart the reservation to prey upon the livestock and goods of nearby settlers and passing wagon trains. One such raid in the spring of 1864 incensed white Coloradoans so strongly that they dispatched their militia, which opened fire on the first band of Cheyenne they happened to meet. None of the Indians in this band had participated in the raids.
When the white settlers continued to infiltrate the Sand Creek territory, the Indians became unrelenting in their attacks on the stage coach lines to Denver, as well as other reprehensible acts, all in the name of “self-defense”. Regardless, the US Government officially wanted peace with these tribes and had ordered the military to take no action against them. As Colonel Chivington approached the peaceful ridge on the morning of November 29th, adhering to this request was the last thing on his mind.
Chivington and his troops had been unsuccessful in finding a Cheyenne band to fight, so when he learned that Black Kettle had returned to Sand Creek, he made plans to attack the unsuspecting encampment. As he surveyed the situation below him, trying to determine the best method in which to dispatch his 750 Colorado Volunteers, he spotted scores of tepees of Southern Cheyenne and their Arapaho allies, which spread across nearly a mile of land stretching along the bend of Big Sandy Creek in southeastern Colorado. Once the slaughter was complete, Chivington's men sexually desecrated, physically mutilated and scalped many of the dead, later exhibiting their trophies to cheering crowds in Denver.
Miraculously, Black Kettle managed to escape the Sand Creek Massacre physically unharmed, even after returning to the scene to rescue his critically injured wife. Also under the heading of miraculous was that Black Kettle continued to advocate peace when the Cheyenne attempted to strike back. By October 1865, he and other Indian leaders had approved a rough truce on the plains, signing a new treaty that exchanged the Sand Creek reservation for reservations in southwestern Kansas, but ultimately dispossessed the Cheyenne of access to the majority of their coveted Kansas hunting grounds.
The era of the Indian trader in Colorado came to an end with the Sand Creek Massacre. The dominance of the Cheyenne and Arapaho to the land east of the mountains was broken, and years of bloody battles with the plains tribes ensued.
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