Ken Burns UNUM

This is the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, the 391st National Park Service unit. The first and only to include the word "massacre" in its title. There is a dangerous narrative that presents patriotism

as a false choice

to be patriotic, it claims, is to remember and celebrate only our nation's triumphs. To choose otherwise, to choose to remember our failings is anti-American. Patriotism is more complicated. I want to tell you the story of the tragic Sand Creek Massacre and why the National Park Service saw the importance of acknowledging a dark chapter in American history. (electronic music) When gold was discovered in the Southern Rocky Mountains in the late 1850s, an influx of white settlers arrived in Colorado territory and established businesses, ranches and towns on Indian land. Though the land was designated for the Cheyenne and Arapaho in the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty, the federal government did not enforce the boundaries. Violence escalated. In 1864, the governor of Colorado territory, John Evans, requested federal troops from Washington, but with the Civil War raging, there were none to spare. Instead, he recruited volunteers to "kill and destroy" hostile Indians. "Friendly" Indians, Governor Evans promised, could seek "places of safety," where the soldiers wouldn't attack them. The volunteer soldiers would be led by Union Colonel John Chivington, a Methodist minister with political ambitions. At dawn on November 29th, Chivington and 700 men attacked the peaceful village of Sand Creek. The massacre would last for hours. In the end, they killed more than 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho people. Most of them women, children, and the elderly. General Ulysses S. Grant himself called it nothing short of murder. Congress and the Army launched separate investigations, but Chivington had resigned before he could be court martialed. No one was ever charged. For decades, the massacre was recast as a "battle" in the collective memory of many white Americans and celebrated as a key event in Colorado's journey to statehood, inscribed in the Civil War Memorial in Denver, as one of the 22 battles Coloradans had heroically fought. This is why I wanted to tell you this story, because it is a powerful example of how our history can be mythologized, omitting shameful chapters, and reinforcing insidious narratives. This was not a battle. This was a cold-blooded massacre, committed by citizen soldiers, enabled by federal policy, and fueled by racism. (gavel tapping) The Senate will come to order. More than a century later, Republican Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, himself a Cheyenne chief, stood in front of Congress proposing a new national historic site. Mr. President, this description of the events cannot begin to describe the horror that must have taken place on that day. But this bill authorizes our government to preserve a significant piece of history that I believe is needed to remind us, not just of the horrible deeds that took place in this country, to many people in our history, but to the Native Americans, and to honor that memory. He faced opposition. Despite the undeniable historical record, some still held fast to the idea that it had been a battle. Others felt that the word "massacre" would cast a negative light on the military. But the bill passed, and on April 28th, 2007, the site opened to the public. In the years since, its visitors have included local residents, school children, and people from throughout the country and abroad, as well as Cheyennes and Arapahoes - even a combat brigade headed to Afghanistan. With the word "massacre" included in the name of the site, we are forced to openly confront a shameful moment in American history. And I believe, in doing so, we become a stronger nation. How we remember history is also a part of our history. To be patriotic is to understand that a truly great nation can openly acknowledge its wrongs and be better for it.