Many have heard of the unjust slaughter of Indian men, women and children at Wounded Knee, but few know of the equally unjust slaughter of men, women and children at Sand Creek. The Sand Creek Massacre took place the dawn of November 29, 1864 on the Sand Creek reservation in South Eastern Colorado. More than two hundred Cheyenne men, women and children were killed on a reservation where they were told they would be safe.

1851--The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, guaranteed the Cheyenne a large area of Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado.

In 1859 Gold was discovered in Boulder Colorado, beginning the Pike's Peak gold rush. The discovery of gold brought an estimated 100,000 gold seekers to the to the Rockies. This led to serious white encroachments on Cheyenne lands.

Rather than protect the Cheyenne from the whites as the Fort Larmie Treaty of 1851 said it would do, the Government sought to resolve the problem by demanding that the Cheyenne give up all of their lands with the exception of the small Sand Creek Reservation.

A small band Southern Cheyenne of about three hundred were sectioned into an area known as the Sand Creek Reservation. Located in Southeastern Colorado. This band of Southern Cheyenne were led by their chief Black Kettle.

Black Kettle believed that white and red could co-exist with each other. Though many broken promises and attacks on his life, he still believed that his tribe could obtain peace with honor and co-exist with the white man.

In 1861 fearing that overwhelming U.S. military power might result in an even less favorable settlement, Black Kettle agreed to a new treaty and did what he could to see that the Cheyenne obeyed its provisions.

The lands given as the Sand Creek reservation could not feed and clothe the tribe. The barren land was unsuitable for growing crops or supporting enough wildlife to feed the tribe. It was a breeding ground for epidemic diseases which soon swept through the Cheyenne encampments.

By 1862 the nearest herd of Buffalo was over 200 miles away. Many of the young men began leaving the reservation, looking for a way to care for their families. They began to prey upon cattle of local settlers and passing wagon trains.

One such raid so angered the Whites that they sent the Military to investigate and patrol the area. A hunting party of Cheyenne saw the military approaching and rode up to meet them when the military opened fire on the band of Cheyenne. None of the Indians in this band had participated in the raid.

This incident touched off an uncoordinated Indian uprising across the Great Plains, as Indian tribes from the Comanche in the South to the Lakota in the North took advantage of the army's involvement in the Civil War by striking back at those who had settled upon their lands. Black Kettle, however, understood white military too well to support the cause of war. He spoke with the local military commander at Fort Weld in Colorado and believed he had secured a promise of safety in exchange for leading his band back to the Sand Creek reservation.

On the morning of November 29, 1864 Colonel John Chivington, leader of the Third Colorado Volunteers discouraged by the fact that his troops had been unsuccessful in finding a Cheyenne band to fight, learned that Black Kettle had returned to Sand Creek. He attacked the unsuspecting encampment while the peaceful tribe slept..

Over two hundred Cheyenne died in the ensuing massacre, many of them women and children, and after the slaughter, Chivington's men sexually mutilated and scalped many of the dead, later exhibiting their trophies to cheering crowds in Denver.

Black Kettle survived the raid, even after returning to rescue his seriously injured wife. He still believed peace was possible between the white man and his people.

In 1868 almost 4 years to the day of the Sand Creek Massacre three columns of troops met to launch a winter campaign against the Cheyenne. With the Seventh Calvary, commanded by George Armstrong Custer selected to led the attack. Custer following the tracks of a small hunting party through the snow located an encampment of Cheyenne, and attacked at dawn.

This encampment was Black Kettle's village. Setting well within the Cheyenne reservation boundaries and with a white flag flying from his teepee. On November 27, 1868 Custer's troop charged the village, women and children running for their lives.

Black Kettle along with his wife fell near the rivers edge their bodies riddled with bullets, and the 7th Calvary rode right over top of their bodies, pausing long enough to take the scalp of the man who always preached peace and believed that white and red could live together.

Fort Larmie Treaty of 1851

The United States and representatives of the Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, Arikara, Assiniboin, Mandan, Gros Ventre and other tribes sign the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, intended to insure peace on the plains. The treaty comes as increasing numbers of whites -- gold seekers, settlers and traders -- make the way westward, and as Native American Indians react to this invasion by attacking wagon trains and, more often, warring against one another for territorial advantage.

The treaty divides the plains into separate tracts assigned to each tribe, who agree to remain on their own land, to cease their attacks on each other and on white migrants and to recognize the right of the United States to establish roads and military outposts within their territories. In return, the United States pledges that each tribe will retain possession of its assigned lands forever, that they will be protected by U.S. troops from white intruders and that they will each receive $50,000 in supplies and provisions annually for the next fifty years.
Both sides agree to settle any future disputes, whether between tribes or between Indians and whites, through restitution.

Unfortunately, the chiefs who sign the Fort Laramie Treaty do not have the authority over their tribes that the United States negotiators assume, and the negotiators themselves cannot deliver the protections and fair treatment they promise.