Sand Creek Massacre

Colorado, that's part of our traditional homeland.

MAN: The seeds of conflict were planted as the cultures came into closer and closer and in more numerous contact.

They had to get rid of the vermin, and the vermin, you know, were my ancestors.

Sand Creek was probably the most horrific massacre that ever happened to the Native Americans.

WOMAN: It's really a sad history for America.

It's like a black eye.

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MAN: Was the homeland of the Cheyenne/Arapaho and other tribal people that traversed Colorado in the early 1800s, and we had a place that we felt comfort, practiced the ceremonies, raised our people, children, took care of our elders.

WOMAN: It was a good existence.

They were free people that could go where they wanted and camp where they wanted to camp and do what they wanted to do without no one telling them that they can't do this or that.

GAIL: When the discovery of gold, that was a turning point, when people moved westward.

In 1851, the tribes gathered at Ft. Laramie to make a treaty with the United States Government, along with all the plains tribes, and the result of that treaty was that the Cheyenne and Arapaho were recognized as the occupiers of most of eastern Colorado, parts of Wyoming -- what is now Wyoming -- and into what is now Kansas, a huge, huge tract of land.

It wasn't a reservation.

It was simply a recognition that that was the land claimed by the Cheyennes and Arapahos.

In exchange, they would allow white people access to the trails passing through their land and not to molest any forts that might pop up along the way, and this treaty was to last as long as the grass shall grow and the waters will flow -- forever -- and forever turned out to be ten years.

Because in 1859, came a great rush of people to the Rockies, the Pikes Peak Gold Rush.

MAN: Colorado was beginning to develop and you had gold discovered in the Pikes Peak area in the Rocky Mountains.

You had immigrant routes.

You had the Santa Fe Trail to the south, so you had more and more contact between cultures that were dramatically or drastically different than one another.

DAVID: 100,000 people traveled west disrupting everything.

You could imagine the trains that were coming out here, the wagon trains...endless.

You weren't out of sight of a wagon.

They just rolled on and on and on, disrupting the herds, the animals eating up the grass, it was like a super highway, but miles wide.

You know, all of these events that are kind of iconic for white people, like the Westward Movement, Manifest Destiny, settling the west...

When you look at it from the other side -- from the Cheyenne side and from the other Native Americans' side, all of those just meant a lot of dying for us.

It meant a lot of unsettling.

It meant a lot of displacement.

It meant a lot of losing our places, losing our land.

It's either starve or go past the people and hunt and so when we were getting in their way... or maybe they were in our way.

You know, we can't just sit back at this camp and all starve so when we go out and hunt, I believe we were in the right, and when they tried to stop us, then I believe it was their fault.

They should have let us go and get our food and come back home.

DAVID: Something had to be done.

The land that these miners were occupying was already spoken for so a new treaty was arranged in 1861 called the Treaty of Fort Wise.

That treaty was signed by a fraction of the chiefs, one of whom was Black Kettle, and it reduced that great tract of land to a small triangular piece of barren land anchored on the Arkansas River in southeastern Colorado.

Which was a big sand field with no food, no buffalo, no fishing, no nothing, so a lot of our conflicts started when we was out of our boundaries hunting.

So when Governor Evans arrived in Colorado, he arrived in, I guess you could say a hot bed, decisions had to be made, somebody had to take the reins and lead the territory towards statehood.

I imagine one might say Governor Evans' agenda was visionary.

It was expansionism.

Colorado become a state.

DAVID: John Evans, when he came as territorial governor in May of 1862, he had a fine reputation.

He was an entrepreneur, a builder, and a very prominent Methodist.

He was a strong abolitionist, very much against slavery.

Now remember that this is all occurring in the middle of a civil war.

Slaves, he understood but when it came to Indians, Evans believed that they didn't possess souls, that they were heathen savages, and they were infernal, all words that he used to describe Indian people.

CRAIG: They were an impediment to civilization and I think a lot of John Evans' motivations and a lot of John Evans' vision, it couldn't be fulfilled without the removal, for economic sake, for civilization's sake, of the tribes on the eastern plains.

[marching footsteps] DAVID: A war was going on.

Colorado troops consistently, repeatedly, attacked peaceful villages, and in May, they attacked the village of Black Kettle and another chief named Lean Bear.

When the troops appeared, Lean Bear, who had just been to Washington and had received a peace medal from Abraham Lincoln rode out to meet the troops and to say, "Hey, we're okay, we don't want to fight."

But when he got within shooting distance, he was shot down.

Another chief that was with him named Star was shot down and then the troops rode over their bodies and shot them again.

Meanwhile, Black Kettle was telling the warriors not to fight.

WOMAN: Black Kettle was a peace chief that didn't want war.

He wanted his band to live peacefully on the allotted land the government placed them on.

Some of the other chiefs didn't like it because they wanted to continue the war and him to live in peace... it was maybe like a clash.

The Dark Soldier Clan is the warriors of our people, of the Cheyennes.

MILDRED: They weren't going to put up with being attacked in the middle of the night.

They were gonna be ready or they were gonna be aggressive in defending.

DAVID: The warriors started striking wagontrains, ranches.

A full-blown war was now raging.

[Native American prayer chant] On June 11th, 1864, there was a family killed... and not just killed but I would guess murdered would be more of the word, southeast of Denver and their name was Hungate.

Well, the brutality of their murders and the nature of what happened, the press, of course, got a hold of it, their bodies were taken at some point into Denver and displayed for the public to see.

It kind of ignited the flame of the Colorado population to seek revenge.

Governor Evans had issued a circular to the "Friendly Indians of the Plains" warning them that there was an imminent war, an attack against them was imminent, and that if they didn't want to take part, they should report to places of safety which he named as their agencies.

You issue a proclamation written in English, how is that going to be circulated to 2500 or 3,000 Chey/Arapaho people that are scattered from the panhandle of Oklahoma, northeastern New Mexico, clear up onto the northern plains of Montana and the Dakotas and everywhere in between.

Who's going to take that information to them and how are they going to decipher it and understand it?

So as we look back, it's no wonder that the situation was so out of hand and that the stage was being set for the Sand Creek Massacre.

DAVID: And by August, Denver was cut off.

All mail stopped, wagontrains with supplies couldn't get through, so Denver was facing real famine.

At this point, John Evans called for authorization for the War Department to create the Third Colorado Regiment.

He had heard rumors that the Cheyenne and the Arapaho were going to unite with the other Plains Indians to wipe out the Colorado settlements and he began a campaign to get troops to Colorado to defend the settlements from annihilation.

Efforts began immediately to raise this Third Regiment, but only for 100 days.

They were known as 100-dayers.

CRAIG: John Chivington was an ordained Methodist minister so his job was to preach and that's what he did.

DAVID: Chivington had become a hero in Colorado for the role he played at the -- it's called the Gettysburg of the West, Glorieta Pass -- and therefore, Chivington was given command of the Colorado Military District.

Governor Evans issued a second proclamation saying that all good citizens, patriotic citizens, were authorized to go out and kill Indians on sight and as pay, they could take whatever property they could seize -- horses, camp equipment, whatever.

Then came something that was unbelievable... Black Kettle learned about the first proclamation for the "friendlies" -- and I use that in quotations -- to report to Fort Lyon, and so, Black Kettle and the chiefs dictated a letter and then the letter was sent to Wynkoop, the commander at Fort Lyon, and it said, "We want peace."

And, "Can we talk about it?

We're willing to do that."

In the letter, besides wanting peace, Black Kettle said, we have prisoners, white prisoners, that we will give to you, return.

These had come to the Cheyennes through other tribes.

CRAIG: The content of the letters, which mentioned white captives that were being held by the tribes, spurred Wynkoop into action and he ended up taking a force of slightly over 100 men north toward the Smokey Hill River, where in early September of 1864 he was surrounded by what he called "warriors snarling like wolves," and he feared for his entire command, and almost like out of a novel appeared Black Kettle.

He kind of saved the day.

He talked down the situation.

When Wynkoop went to meet with Black Kettle, he had two Cheyenne men go pick him up and ride back with him and people were afraid that they would kill Wynkoop because he alone was to go there, and they, the Cheyenne men, told him, "Well, we keep our word, we gave you our word, and if they hurt you, then we kill ourselves."

CRAIG: It prompted Major Wynkoop to later note that he felt himself in the essence of beings that he had heretofore thought as something less than him.

At that point he said, I now get a sense that Black Kettle was a superior being, that he believed, and some of his command also believed, some of his officers, that at that moment they owed their lives to the influence of Black Kettle.

DAVID: The chiefs agreed to accompany Wynkoop to Denver to meet with John Evans and other officials.

CRAIG: Upon his arrival with the chiefs in Denver, upon learning about that, Governor Evans was not pleased.

Apparently he said, "What am I to do with the Third Regiment, which was a regiment of cavalry that Colorado had recently raised.

Well, what will Washington think of me after all I've been writing and I've just gotten the authorization for the creation of the Third?

They're going to think, you know, I've gone off my head.

Evans was more concerned with what people would think about him than he was about the possibility of peace.

And finally, and reluctantly, he agreed to meet with them at Camp Weld and on September 28th, 1864, for a day they met.

The Cheyenne and Arapaho people came and met up here in Denver with Wynkoop and other designated military people.

In some way they were given assurances that they'd be okay down in Sand Creek.

DAVID: Black Kettle opened up the conference by saying that he had come through fire to be in Denver and that he wanted peace and that he was willing to bring his people and surrender to Fort Lyon.

The other chief said the same thing.

White Antelope, a great peace chief, had first gone to Washington in 1851 to meet with the President.

He was frightened to be away from his people because they might be attacked while he was there in Denver.

And instead of talking peace, Evans was like a schoolmaster demanding answers, and he said, "You know, you've come to me too late.

You are at war and now you're in the hands of the military.

I can't make peace with you.

You'll have to make peace with them."

Well, things went on like that and finally, Chivington, who was there, spoke up and they asked him, "What can we do?"

And he said, "Well, my rule of fighting is that when the enemy gives up its arms and submits to military authority, then we can talk about peace."

"Well, that's what we want to do, we'll do that," said the chiefs.

"And if you do that, go to Fort Lyon because you're closer to Fort Lyon than you are to Denver and report to Major Wynkoop."

So the chiefs came away from that meeting absolutely relieved.

They felt that by going to Fort Lyon, there would be peace.

You know, this Manifest Destiny, somebody made it up and they agreed with it because they wanted our land, you know, and it was all good because they didn't have anything, but over here on this side, we speak with truth.

We don't lie.

When somebody tells you something, that's it, that's the way it is.

They told them, hey, go camp over there, we'll give you this flag.

They're peaceful, they're a peaceful camp.

CRAIG: Fort Lyon in 1864 was the site of the Indian Agency for the Cheyenne/Arapaho.

That's where they were issued their annuities.

One of the results of the Council of Camp Weld was that they were told to report to Major Wynkoop at Fort Lyon.

Colonel Chivington said that.

When you're ready to lay down your arms and submit to authority, you go to him at Fort Lyon.

So it's no wonder that heading into the fall of 1864, there were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Cheyennes and Arapahos camped near Fort Lyon.

There in the month of October and early in November, Wynkoop provided them with food.

They were allowed to camp just outside the fort.

There was interaction going on.

Black Kettle actually went to a place called Sand Creek, about 40 miles from the fort, but he was often at the fort talking with Wynkoop.

Word got back to Wynkoop's superiors at Fort Riley that he was disobeying orders that he was not to feed any Indians regardless of whether they surrendered or not, and so, they called him to report and replaced him with a new commander.

The new commander, after he saw what was going on, started feeding them too, and he told Black Kettle finally after some weeks, "Look, I'm not going to feed you anymore.

Go back to Sand Creek and when I receive word, orders, what to do with you, I'll come out and tell you, but remain there."

Chivington, now an officer, he had tremendous influence, tremendous power in Colorado.

Both Colonel John M. Chivington and John Evans were ambitious.

They had a passion for advancement.

Evans wanted to be a U.S.

Senator.

Colonel Chivington, who was a former Methodist preacher, wanted either to become a brigadier general or a representative, U.S. Representative for the state of Colorado, and it was those two men and their ambition that led to the horrific Sand Creek Massacre.

Chivington knows that the term of enlistments for his 100-day men is running out and it had been a joke that the Third was bloodless, they had done no fighting.

So in late November, Chivington suddenly got a fire under his feet, organized and began to march down to Fort Lyon.

[marching bootsteps] It was well known, even by Governor Evans, that the Indians around Fort Lyon were peaceful, but on November 28th, 1864, Chivington arrived at the Fort in complete surprise.

In fact, he put pickets around the Fort so that nobody could get out.

He went up to the officers and said, "Where are they?"

And the officers of the First Regiment who were at the fort told him, "Well, they're on Sand Creek, but they're there under the protection of the flag," and Chivington said, "Damn any man who's in sympathy with Indians!"

CRAIG: There were two regiments of Colorado soldiers at Sand Creek -- there was the First Colorado Cavalry, and then there was the 100-dayers, that was the Third Colorado Regiment.

And in nearly every instance, the 100-dayers were not experienced.

They were poorly outfitted, poorly trained.

The majority had put down their occupation as "miner."

GAIL: The soldiers marched all night long.

A lot of them were under the influence of alcohol because some of them were volunteers and some were regular cavalry.

They marched all night and at daybreak, shortly after daybreak, the attack happened.

My grandfather, that morning, they went to use the bathroom.

It was early, it was like dawn and there was this woman there.

They thought it was a buffalo herd, and they were saying, "There's a buffalo herd coming."

[hooves pounding] She said, "That's cavalry."

[hooves thumping] [horses neighing] [cavalry bugle sounds] At sunrise on November 29th, 1864, Colonel John Chivington's command begins to arrive near the village of Chief Black Kettle and the other leaders, maybe as many as 600 people.

130, 140 teepees, or lodges, camped in a bend of Sand Creek.

By sunrise, the command has split up, detachments -- or companies of men -- have gone to either side of the valley.

Cheyenne people have noticed certainly the approach and have heard the approach of 600 plus horses and men rattling, clanging along, so word spreads quickly throughout the camp.

The thing to remember about that village is it was a chiefs village.

There were over 20 chiefs in that one village.

It was mostly women and children and the elderly.

The men that were able to ride a horse and hunt were gone.

They'd go out for days and then they'd come back with game.

Sometimes they'd have to go to the Rockies to find it and they were gone that day, so that took advantage of them.

And the villagers of Lefthand, the Arapaho -- and Black Kettle, the Cheyenne -- at first didn't know what to do.

They had a flag flying over Black Kettle's lodge.

Black Kettle then put up a white flag, that he had been told to do.

Black Kettle was a peace chief that abided by the army's request.

He's the one that had the flag, United States of America flag, in front of his camp with the white flag of truce to show that they were living in peace.

But that was ignored and they were shot first, first people to be shot.

People just started dropping around him, people fled from the village, and then... all hell broke loose.

[gunshots] [chaotic battle sounds] [gunshots] [battle sounds continue] [gunfire continues] GAIL: Now this goes on into the morning.

Later in the day, the cannons or the Howitzers are out of ammunition so the people were chased by mounted troops crisscrossing the valley, firing from all directions.

[gunshots] To me, that's... that's really.... that's really atrocious to do that, when universally, a white flag meant either surrender or that you were at peace.

And he killed a lot of old people and babies and women and there was not that much opposition.

I mean, there was, but the surprise and how well the cavalry was armed was too overwhelming for them.

My grandfather had just got with his wife and she was pregnant and so there was a horse herd, they were trying to cut off a horse herd and my grandfather whistled for his horse and the horse came and he threw that buffalo robe on that horse and he put her on there and those horses, they took off and she rode off with those horses, and he took off.

And he seen a little boy, a little boy.

They taught the kids, you know, they don't cry, but he was shot, so he picked up that little boy and he ran with him and there was this woman walking, she was... her scalp was gone and she was holding her face on.

There was a lady in Watonga that had survived Sand Creek.

Her name was Yellow Woman and she had a bullet hole in her thigh that the soldiers had shot her when she was six years old at Sand Creek, and she grew up, she grew up very old.

And she showed everybody that black bullet hole that the bullet went straight through.

We had an ancestor at Sand Creek.

Her name was Red Dress Woman.

Her mother had her run and dig a place in the sand, in the sand of the banks of the river, they dug a hole.

And there was growth, overgrowth that kind of went over the bank, so they went in there and they dug and that's where she hid, Red Dress Woman hid during the massacre and her mother had instructed her to stay in there no matter what she heard, what happened, she told her not to come out.

The people that were fleeing tried to hide their children, burrow them in the dirt or the sand, and also tried to hide them in like any hollow trees they came across, but it was a futile attempt to save their lives.

An elderly woman running and as she was running she knew she wasn't going to be able to keep up and the one thing she said was, "Don't ever forget us," and that's all she could holler out before she passed on, before they killed her.

WOMAN: White Antelope put up the treaty flag and tried to show a piece of paper that was given to him and probably his medal to show that he was one of the peace chiefs and did not want war.

And he sang a song before he died, "Nothing Lives Long."

It was his death song.

He sang it as they were killing him.

He was shot, he was killed.

His body was mutilated.

CRAIG: There was a lot of violence at Sand Creek.

People were not just killed and left to lay or left alone.

In many cases, bodies were cut up for souvenirs.

Fingers were cut off bodies, ears were cut off bodies, scalps, sometimes many scalps were taken from the same head.

It was a terrible, grotesque situation.

These young soldiers acted out their worst human ways on the bodies of these people.

Some would say I saw so-and-so shoot at point-blank range, women and children as they were on their hands and knees begging for mercy.

Others would say, I drew the line at killing women and children, or, I drew the line at mutilating.

We don't know how many of the troops, but there were a fair number that did engage in dismembering the dead, and again, taking human body parts and other belongings.

The soldiers went through that camp, they took what they wanted, pillaged all the chiefs and all of the medicine and all their medicine pipes, articles were taken, piled up on heaps of leftover buffalo robes, teepees, belongings, piled up in those piles and set afire.

They were burned.

[fire crackling] About 200 were killed at Sand Creek, another 200 were wounded, and it's hard to tell how many of those died.

And so they returned to Denver as heroes and their parade through Denver was about two miles long.

They had a big parade here in front of the State Capitol.

Marching body parts -- "picture parade" they call it -- marching body parts of tribal people, Cheyenne/Arapahos.

Back in those days, our people had been displayed as trophies.

The companies of the First Colorado that were involved, two of those companies, at least 100 men refused to fire and they kept their formations together, but they drew off.

And those companies were led by Captain Silas S. Soule, and Lieutenant Cramer, Joseph Cramer.

Cheyennes and Arapahos today revere those two men because had they not stood down, the descendants probably wouldn't be alive today.

LORRAINE: They were so honorable and so strong, but I felt like they were alone and sometimes when you want to do the right thing, the people that want to do the right thing suffer... even today.

CRAIG: These were the officers that had met the adversary face to face, that had seen them maybe as human beings rather than just objects.

They wrote letters describing some of the brutalities of what they saw and experienced at Sand Creek.

DAVID: They wrote that pregnant women were killed and their babies ripped out and scalped, that people were coming to them on their knees asking for mercy and shot down.

Two women, as the soldiers approached shooting all the time, hugged each other.

One woman committed suicide.

A little boy of six or seven was used as target practice and his body then shoved on a wagon.

These crimes were detailed by Cramer and Soule.

The letters are obscene.

CRAIG: Captain Soule, of course, was called forth in April of 1865 by the military commission that was investigating Sand Creek.

The first witness for the army hearing was Silas Soule, and the second witness was Joseph Cramer.

Silas Soule's testimony was devastating and so was Cramer's.

Sand Creek became the most investigated event of the Civil War.

WOMAN: The warriors were not happy with Black Kettle because he did not want to stand and fight.

He was more worried about saving the people.

He was kind of...I don't want to say disowned, but they made sure that he was away from most of the people.

His encampment was mostly the old, the people that were handicapped, mostly women and children and orphans.

In the aftermath of Sand Creek, Governor Evans lost his governorship, or resigned from his governorship of Colorado because of the Sand Creek Massacre and the fallout.

He remained in Colorado, of course, as a leading citizen and leading politician.

John Evans never said I'm sorry for Sand Creek, or that Sand Creek was a mistake, or that Sand Creek shouldn't have happened.

He sidestepped the issue as much as he could.

John Chivington never apologized for Sand Creek.

In fact, in one of his last public appearances, part of his speech was, "I stand by Sand Creek."

DAVID: Chivington had resigned and so he could not be punished by military law.

He was still a hero in Colorado, not in the east, but in Colorado, Chivington was worshipped.

Well, not long after Silas Soule gave his testimony, he was in Denver, he was the Provost Marshal, he had just gotten married, and that night, he was coming out of a theatre and he heard some shots and he ran to investigate and then was shot down by two assassins, and it was instantly recognized that he was killed because of his testimony.

Why did they have to go kill that Silas in a cowardly way?

I felt really proud of him.

I was really glad there was somebody there that had a heart, that he wouldn't allow them to shoot us.

DAVID: Chivington had claimed to solve the Indian problem, but instead the war really came in retaliation for Sand Creek and again, Denver was shut off from all outside supplies, again faced famine, over 200 white people were killed.

8,000 soldiers had to be diverted from the Civil War, and millions of dollars, the cost of this was.

The killing had stopped.

The killing had stopped in the late 1800s, the act of killing of Native American people, but in a way, the genocide has continued, genocide of our customs, genocide of our languages.

I think we're still recovering from that and once we do recover from that mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, we're going to be very strong people, but I think the trauma of the experience then is still with us today.

You know, Sand Creek, it's not a dead history to the Cheyenne people, Cheyenne/Arapaho people.

In a way, as we take it as tribal people, the blood is still on the ground.

MILDRED: It's very touching to me when I go to Sand Creek because you can just stand there and look out on the creek bed and just imagine in your own mind what happened on that day.

VANESSA: If you're Cheyenne and you're Arapaho, you need to go to this place and you need to do some healing because I feel like people don't realize that we carry this, we carry that tragedy within us.

JOE: I've been a Sand Creek representative for 22 years since day one when they came to our place at the Cheyenne Arrow Keeper's residence and said, the government lost Sand Creek, would you come help us find it?

We helped convey it forever to the National Park Service because of the money they had to use to spend on it, to make it a national historical site.

LORRAINE: I'm glad there's a place that we can go and then we can see it and can touch the ground, can pray, and it's protected.

JOE: The healing will go on forever.

We'll never forget Sand Creek.

All the information, all the films, will still tell the story over and over and over to the next generations and to the next generations.

Personally, I can't be mad of what happened there because if I have any anger or if I'm mad about what happened, I can't heal from that, I can't move on, I can't help the tribe's younger generations move on.

The Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run is an event organized and coordinated by tribal members.

We start from the massacre site and run on the trail which would've been the military trail back to Denver, and the trail which our ancestors' body parts were taken on.

VANESSA: Being there and honoring them every year annually with the Healing Run has definitely brought some great healing to my life and I feel like it is something that needs to happen with all of the descendants.

2014 marks the 150th year anniversary since that morning of the Sand Creek Massacre and I feel like even though it has already been 150 years later, I feel like it's still really important that we continue to honor and remember our ancestors and continue the education.

We don't want to forget where we came from, who we are, and what we're about.

Maintain our spiritual beliefs, maintain our spiritual ceremonies, and culture, heritage.

That's what makes us a whole person, you know?

As bad as things, our history has been, the way things have turned out in our history, we are still here today.

I am very proud of my heritage, of my ancestors, of Red Dress Woman that survived, and we're here today to talk about it, to let people know, educate people that it was a massacre.

The good lesson, I think, is that we can look back and reflect on the times that our ancestors struggled to survive and yet, they passed on a legacy to the younger generation that we might also adapt and survive.

No matter what happened back then, we're still here and we're going to be here and that's the legacy I think of, you know, we have Arapahos here in Oklahoma, we have Arapahos in Wyoming, we have Cheyennes in Montana, and we have Cheyennes in Oklahoma, I mean, they're spread out all over the place, but we're still here.

You need to know where you came from in life to know where you're going and to appreciate what they have gone through, to appreciate what you have and not take anything for granted because to not remember, you're doing a dishonor to your ancestors.

LORRAINE: Well, to me, the importance of it is remembering who you are.

Those people who've died, the blood that flows in their veins is also flowing in ours, and you have a connection to those people.

KAREN: I encourage all of our tribal members, our descendants, to learn about Sand Creek, to know what happened, how they survived, and how we're still here as descendants.

I think it's very important to talk about it, to remember it, to honor them, and always be proud to be a Cheyenne.

I would say (Native American) the ones that are already gone, the ones that passed away at Sand Creek... let's never forget them and when we go to honor them, when we go to commemorate them, let's do it in a respectful way.

All of these different things that happened, that bloodshed, unnecessary, senseless, it needs to be told so that people can heal.

Get the book, read the stories, listen to these films, watch these films.

Get educated about our Healing Run.

Be involved in our people.

The American people -- and I say all American people, Native Americans included -- should read their history and see what the country has really done.

That this has happened to Native American people, or just the fact that it's happened to Native American people, that we can be glossed over.

It's a good thing we got some of our bodies back and our bones and stuff, but all this land out there, Central Great Plains, was our land and we had ceremonies out there.

Our people were born out there and they died out there and their spirits are still out there and we're stuck here in Oklahoma or Wyoming or Montana.

They wanted to conquer the land.

They wanted to get at the resources.

They wanted to develop Manifest Destiny.

Let's move these Cheyennes out of the way, let's move all the Native Americans out of the way, and at the time, had they really looked at us as people and really looked at our value systems and really looked at how we were able to continue to live off the land in such a way that it wasn't destructive, in such a way that it was respectful of our Mother Earth, I think our world would be a lot different today.

What kind of mitigates the hurt for me is that maybe eventually pictures like this are going to help our younger generation remember what happened, how it happened, and maybe they can prevent it ever happening again.

BOBBIE: I think if you learn to keep an open mind and look at another person with a good heart and a good mind, I think that would not solve all the problems in the world, but it would sure help.

[speaking Native American language] Only speak and talk about people and things in a good way and only talk about the good things.

Even in today's dominant society, we feel we have to work in both worlds.

We have to make everything work in both worlds, in the Cheyenne world and in the dominant society's world and we have to do our best.

We're all human beings, we're all pretty much the same.

We've just got a little different skin tone, but we have one creator.

That's the way I see it, you know, and we can learn that we all need to just try to get along for the benefit not only to the Cheyenne or the Caucasian or the Mexican race or whoever, we all need to just get along as humans.

I think our biggest goal as Indian peoples today is trying to find forgiveness in our hearts for this individual and these people and trying to move past the ignorance of who we are and our differences, if you will.

VANESSA: I'm very, very thankful to Silas Soule and Cramer.

I think that there's that hope on humankind.

It gives me hope on people.

LORRAINE: And if the men back then, Chivington and John Evans had that belief, maybe we wouldn't have had Sand Creek.

You know, who knows?

We can't rewrite history, but we can sure learn from it.

We were camped along the Big Sandy In that winter of '64 The chiefs and handsmen met at Camp Weld To try to bring an end to the war Tired of being hunted Nowhere left to run Clinging to a shattered dream While staring down the soldiers' guns His name was John Chivington And his eyes were cold as steel A minister of the cloth... This program was funded by the University of Denver, celebrating 150 years.

History Colorado.

Inspiring generations to find wonder and meaning in our past and to engage in creating a better Colorado.

The Colorado Office of Film, Television, and Media; with support provided by Sandy Elliot, in memory of John T. Wright.