# Niwot Living History > A community-led platform in Niwot, Colorado dedicated to historical truth-telling, tribal relationship building, and collaborative cultural projects honoring Chief Nowoo3 (Left Hand) and the Arapaho and Cheyenne peoples. Source: https://niwotlivinghistory.org Curator: Phillip Yates Authorship and accountability: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/authorship License: Content for educational and research use with attribution to Niwot Living History. This site documents current community work in Niwot around truthful history, Indigenous art, cultural programming, and relationship building with Arapaho and Cheyenne partners. It is curated by Phillip Yates. Boundary: NiwotLivingHistory.org does not speak for, represent, or initiate consultation with any Tribal Nation. Contemporary perspectives are attributed to named speakers and public sources; historical synthesis is the curator's independent work. ## Home URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/ _Homepage for Niwot Living History, centered on honoring Chief Nowoo3 (Left Hand) through truthful local history, Indigenous cultural work, and ongoing community relationships._ Introduces the site's major public themes: truthful shared history, relationship building with Arapaho and Cheyenne partners, the Niwot Native Art Market, the Niwot Film Festival, the Cottonwood Square murals, and the Eddie Running Wolf tree carvings. Frames Niwot as a community trying to move beyond symbolic acknowledgment toward visible, place-based work in the Boulder Valley. --- ## About URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/about _About page for NiwotLivingHistory.org, explaining the site's purpose, grassroots origins, and collaborative framework._ Describes the project as a living archive curated by Phillip Yates and rooted in historical truth-telling, tribal relationship building, and civic cultural programming. Highlights current initiatives including relationship building with visiting Elders, the Native Art Market, the Film Festival, and support for public art preservation in Niwot. --- ## Building Relationships URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/relationships _A long-form page documenting community relationship building in Niwot through truthful storytelling, tribal guidance, and practical collaboration._ Covers the March 2025 Niwot gathering with Southern Arapaho Elder Fred Mosqueda and Southern Cheyenne Elder Chester Whiteman, including their guidance on respect, healing, and long-term partnership. Connects current relationship-building work to civic outcomes, educational efforts, and a broader commitment to telling the truth about local and regional history. --- ## Arapaho and Cheyenne Perspectives URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/arapaho-cheyenne-perspectives _Dedicated page gathering publicly shared Arapaho and Cheyenne perspectives connected to Niwot and the Boulder Valley, drawn from community events, public reports, videos, and educational resources._ Includes excerpts from the City of Boulder's 2026 Tribal Nation ethnographic-education report and the City of Denver's We Are the Land historic context study. Centers public statements by Southern Arapaho Elder Fred Mosqueda and Southern Cheyenne Elder Chester Whiteman during the March 2025 Niwot relationship-building event. Includes a clear boundary statement that NiwotLivingHistory.org does not speak for, represent, or initiate consultation with any Tribal Nation. --- ## Niwot, Boulder County, and the Road to Sand Creek URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/history _An independently curated settler-record timeline of the actions, institutions, rhetoric, and local participation that helped create the conditions for the Sand Creek Massacre._ Scope: settler records and public historical sources from 1858 through 1864; this page is distinct from the contemporary Arapaho and Cheyenne perspectives page. Covers Boulder Valley settlement, treaty pressure, territorial policy, Fort Chambers, Company D of the Third Colorado Cavalry, Buffalo Springs, Camp Weld, Fort Lyon, and Sand Creek. Author and curator: Phillip Yates. Read alongside /arapaho-cheyenne-perspectives for attributed contemporary perspectives from public reports, events, and educational resources. --- ## Authorship and Accountability URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/authorship _The authorship and accountability statement for this independently curated public-history project._ NiwotLivingHistory.org does not speak for, represent, or initiate consultation with any Tribal Nation. Historical synthesis is built from public archives, municipal records, institutional reports, and attributed public statements. The site does not publish sensitive Indigenous knowledge, ceremonial practices, or sacred-site locations shared in confidence. --- ## Elder Conversations and Oral History Videos URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/elder-conversations-videos _A video collection covering Chief Nowoo3, Sand Creek, language, traditional knowledge, public memory, and relationship-building._ Each entry links to its original YouTube video and identifies the speakers and recording context. Related transcripts and event context are available on the Building Relationships page. --- ## Principles of Authentic Tribal Consultation URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/principles-authentic-tribal-consultation _A detailed practitioner guide to authentic tribal consultation and the responsibilities of local institutions working with Tribal Nations._ Explains why consultation must begin from the reality of tribal sovereignty rather than from symbolic or performative outreach. Offers concrete principles for municipalities, nonprofits, schools, and community groups seeking durable, reciprocal, accountable relationships with Tribal Nations. --- ## Principles — Source Record & Press Archive URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/principles-source-record _Technical archive and press record for the Principles article: legal and constitutional frameworks, Boulder city-tribal consultation milestones (2019–2026), Fort Chambers documentation, and media references._ Kept on a separate URL so that search snippets for the main Principles article focus on the principles themselves rather than archival citations. Includes Otak Insights (May 2026), Keystone Policy Center / Living Heritage Anthropology MOU record, and Boulder Daily Camera press references from 2019 through 2023. --- ## Library URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/library _Research and teaching library for readers who want to go deeper into Arapaho and Cheyenne history, living culture, and regional context._ Includes video resources, museums and exhibits, official tribal nation websites, books, and regional historical references. Serves educators, community members, and researchers looking for a starting point beyond the site's narrative pages. --- ## Niwot Native Art Market URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/art-market _Public event page for the Niwot Native Art Market, an artist-first Indigenous marketplace in Niwot, Colorado._ Highlights the June 27, 2026 event, its organizers, media coverage, and its purpose as a welcoming civic space for Native artists and community members. Positions the market as both cultural programming and practical economic support for Indigenous artists. --- ## Feature Article: 100% Native-Made, 100% Artist-First URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/art-market-article _In-depth article on the Niwot Native Art Market returning June 27, 2026, covering Tom Myer's zero-fee artist-first model and connections to Chief Nowoo3 and ongoing relationship-building with Arapaho and Cheyenne Nations._ Quotes Tom Myer, Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand, Dustin Wolf, Chester Whiteman, and Fred Mosqueda. Explains the zero booth fee, 100% to artists model, and the market's contemporary Indigenous art focus. --- ## Cottonwood Square Murals URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/murals _Public art page documenting the Cottonwood Square mural corridor and the artists behind it._ Profiles Danielle SeeWalker, JayCee Beyale, Brent Learned, and George Curtis Levi, along with the history and meaning of each mural. Shows how public art in Niwot is being used to reframe local memory, visibility, and accountability. --- ## Tree Carvings URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/tree-carvings _Preservation and fundraising page for the Niwot tree carvings originally created by Eddie Running Wolf and restored by Dustin Wolf._ Explains the cultural meaning of the sculptures, their elder-guided origins, and the current effort to give them a permanent protected home. Includes sculpture profiles and a donation path supporting the restoration and relocation project. --- ## Film Festival URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/film-festival _Overview of the Niwot Film Festival concept and its role in the site's broader cultural and relationship-building work._ Frames the festival as a community-led cinema effort focused on access, Indigenous storytelling, newcomer stories, and the next generation of Colorado filmmakers. Links the project to a separate festival site while keeping its purpose connected to Niwot's public history and relationship-building goals. --- ## Sand Creek Massacre: 150 Year Remembrance — Video Archive URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/sand-creek-videos _Public video archive page collecting all 17 segments of the Sand Creek Massacre: 150 Year Remembrance symposium recorded at the Rasmuson Theater of the NMAI on October 9, 2014._ Groups the videos by program theme: Welcome & Opening, Causes and Consequences, Multigenerational Impacts, Memorialization and Healing, and Closing Remarks. Features descendants and scholars including Henrietta Mann, Gary L. Roberts, David Halaas, Jeff Campbell, Karen Little Coyote, Gail Ridgely, Norma Gourneau, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Ari Kelman, and Otis Halfmoon, with a two-sentence overview of each segment. --- ## Historical Record and Contemporary Perspectives — Scope Guide Settler-record history: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/history This source-based timeline documents white settlement, territorial policy, newspaper rhetoric, local militia activity, and Boulder County participation from 1858 through 1864. It is independently researched and curated by Phillip Yates. ### — Ancestral Migration, Horses, and the Cheyenne–Arapaho Alliance Before 1800 - Archaeological evidence and oral histories place Indigenous people in the Boulder area for more than thirteen thousand years. In Arapaho, Boulder and Boulder Valley are remembered as Heet3iixoobee' — "Where it gets steep" — and Heet3iiookuu — "Where it goes up." Arapaho ancestors migrated west from the Red River region of present-day Minnesota onto the plains. By the late 1700s, Arapaho and Cheyenne people had acquired horses, formed a lasting alliance in the Black Hills, and expanded their seasonal use of the central plains, including winter encampments in Boulder Valley. - PREHISTORY · BOULDER VALLEY & MINNESOTA: Early Occupation and Migration — Archaeological evidence indicated human occupation in the Boulder area for over thirteen thousand years (City of Boulder Ethnographic Education Report, 2023). According to Arapaho oral history recounted by Fred Mosqueda, early ancestors crossed a vast expanse of ice during a whiteout and followed the sound of Sandhill cranes to navigate the terrain (City of Boulder Ethnographic Education Report, 2023). Between A.D. 1100 and 1300, the Algonquian ancestors of the Arapahos resided near the Red River—in present-day Minnesota (Trenholm, 1970). - 1700s · THE MISSOURI RIVER & THE PLAINS: Westward Movement and the Acquisition of Horses — Prior to 1700, the ancestors of the Arapahos initiated a westward migration from Minnesota toward the Missouri River (Trenholm, 1970). During this period, the Cheyennes occupied earth-lodge villages in Minnesota and eastern North Dakota, where they planted crops before migrating westward (Berthrong, 1963). During the eighteenth century, the Arapahos separated from the Gros Ventres and continued their migration southward onto the plains (Trenholm, 1970). Sometime after 1750, the Cheyennes acquired horses, abandoned their permanent earth lodges on the Missouri River, and transitioned to a nomadic economy dependent upon the buffalo (Berthrong, 1963; West, 1998). - LATE 1700s – 1800s · THE CENTRAL PLAINS & COLORADO: The Alliance and Boulder Valley Settlement — In the late eighteenth century, the Arapahos and Cheyennes encountered one another in the Black Hills and formed a permanent alliance (Trenholm, 1970). According to Arapaho representative Fred Mosqueda, the two allied tribes spoke different languages but maintained a close relationship (City of Boulder Ethnographic Education Report, 2023). By the 1800s, the Cheyennes established their territory between the Missouri and North Platte Rivers, and the allied tribes utilized their horse herds to expand their hunting ranges southward into eastern Colorado and the Rocky Mountains (Berthrong, 1963; NPS Timeline, 2024; Trenholm, 1970). The Arapahos established winter encampments in the Boulder Valley—known in Arapaho as Heet3iixoobee' (Where it gets steep) or Heet3iiookuu (Where it goes up) (City of Boulder Ethnographic Education Report, 2023). According to Cheyenne representative Chester Whiteman, the Cheyennes maintained their main winter camp just north of Sand Creek and traversed the Boulder area during their seasonal movements (City of Boulder Ethnographic Education Report, 2023). ### — Treaties, Trade, and Cheyenne and Arapaho Homelands Before the Colorado Gold Rush, the United States entered treaty and trade relationships with Plains Native Nations, including the Cheyenne, and later designated western lands as Indian country. In 1851, the Treaty of Fort Laramie recognized Cheyenne and Arapaho territory between the North Platte and Arkansas Rivers. - EARLY 1820s · CENTRAL PLAINS: Left Hand Is Born — In the early 1820s, a Southern Arapaho woman gave birth to Left Hand—on the central plains of present-day eastern Colorado (Coel, 1981). At the time of his birth, his sister MaHom, also known as Snake Woman, was approximately six years old, and he also had an older brother named Neva (Coel, 1981). - JULY 1825 · MOUTH OF THE TETON RIVER: Treaty of Friendship with the Cheyenne — On July 6, 1825, fifteen Cheyenne leaders, including Wolf-with-the-High-Back and Little Moon, signed a treaty of friendship and trade with General Henry Atkinson at the mouth of the Teton River—in present-day South Dakota (Berthrong, 1963). The agreement established the first formal government-to-government relationship between the Cheyenne and the United States and officially acknowledged federal trade regulations (Berthrong, 1963). The treaty secured the Cheyenne access to American trade networks and goods, including firearms and ammunition (Berthrong, 1963). - 1833 · SOUTHERN ARAPAHO VILLAGES: MaHom Marries John Poisal — In 1833, Left Hand's sister MaHom (also known as Snake Woman) married John Poisal, a twenty-four-year-old white trader from Kentucky who worked for William Bent (Coel, 1981; Trenholm, 1970). Following the marriage, Poisal tutored his young brothers-in-law in the English language; Left Hand learned to speak English fluently, and Neva gained the ability to understand and speak the language to some extent (Coel, 1981). Poisal and Snake Woman had several children together, including a daughter named Margaret, whom Poisal later sent to a school in St. Louis, Missouri, to become a recognized interpreter for her mother's people (Trenholm, 1970). - JUNE 1834 · U.S. CONGRESS: The Indian Trade and Intercourse Act — In June 1834, the United States Congress—in Washington, D.C.—enacted the Indian Trade and Intercourse Act to regulate commerce and legally designate territories west of the Mississippi River as Indian country (Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission of Colorado [TREC], 2023). Section 11 of the act prohibited white settlement, surveying, and the marking of boundaries on lands secured by Indigenous nations through treaties (TREC, 2023). The law stipulated that violators were subject to a one thousand dollar fine and immediate removal by federal military force (TREC, 2023). - 1840 · SOUTHERN ARAPAHO TERRITORY: Left Hand Joins the Fox Men — Around 1840, Left Hand reached the age of seventeen and joined the Fox Men, the first of the Southern Arapaho age societies (Coel, 1981). During this same period, Little Raven acted as an intermediary to establish a lasting peace treaty between the Southern Arapahos, Cheyennes, Kiowas, Comanches, and Kiowa-Apaches at a site near Bent's Fort—in present-day southeastern Colorado (Coel, 1981). - JUNE 1846 – 1848 · THE PLAINS & THE SOUTHWEST: The Mexican War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo — In June 1846, Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny mobilized the Army of the West—consisting of over 1,600 troops, 1,556 wagons, and 20,000 animals—and marched from Fort Leavenworth down the Santa Fe Trail to invade New Mexico, Arizona, and California during the Mexican War (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Hyde, 1968). The army assembled at a camp below Bent's Fort on the Arkansas River—in present-day southeastern Colorado—and its passage depleted resources across Cheyenne and Arapaho hunting grounds (Berthrong, 1963; Hyde, 1968). In 1848, the United States and Mexico concluded the war and transferred Mexican land claims to the United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ceded the western territories but omitted mention of the existing Indian land claims within those boundaries (Berthrong, 1963). - 1848 – 1849 · THE OVERLAND TRAILS: The California Gold Rush and the Cholera Epidemic — Following the 1848 discovery of gold in California, forty thousand white prospectors traveled across the central plains in 1849 (Coel, 1981). The emigrants moved up the Platte River valley and the Arkansas River route, consumed the prairie grasses, felled the cottonwood groves, and depleted the buffalo herds (Hyde, 1968). During the spring and summer of 1849, the wagon trains introduced cholera to the Plains Indians; the epidemic killed over one thousand Pawnees, hundreds of Arapahoes, and over half of the Southern Cheyenne tribe (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Hyde, 1968). Following the outbreak, trader Ceran St. Vrain recorded that he had never seen a worse state of affairs on the plains (Coel, 1981). - NOVEMBER 1849 · SOUTHERN ARAPAHO TERRITORY: Margaret Poisal Marries Thomas Fitzpatrick — In November 1849, United States Indian Agent Thomas Fitzpatrick married Margaret Poisal, the educated, teenaged daughter of John Poisal and Snake Woman (Coel, 1981; Trenholm, 1970). Following the marriage, Fitzpatrick wrote a will designating Margaret and any future children as his sole heirs (Coel, 1981). - SEPTEMBER 1851 · HORSE CREEK: The Treaty of Fort Laramie — In September 1851, following overland emigration that depleted bison herds, consumed grasses, and destroyed timber, federal officials convened a council of ten thousand Native people at Horse Creek near Fort Laramie—near the present-day Wyoming-Nebraska border (Trenholm, 1970). Left Hand, his wife, and their infant daughter traveled to the council, where Left Hand sat behind Little Raven and John Poisal; Poisal served as an official interpreter, and Margaret Poisal attended with Thomas Fitzpatrick and their infant son, Andrew Jackson (Coel, 1981; Trenholm, 1970). The resulting Treaty of Fort Laramie recognized Cheyenne and Arapaho territorial boundaries between the North Platte and Arkansas Rivers—encompassing present-day Boulder County and Niwot—and the tribes agreed to allow the safe passage of American emigrants and the construction of roads and military posts upon their lands (Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). Following the conclusion of the council, Left Hand and his village moved downstream toward the buffalo ranges (Coel, 1981). ### — Gold Rush Settlement Enters Cheyenne and Arapaho Treaty Lands Gold discoveries in present-day Colorado brought large numbers of prospectors into lands recognized under the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie as Cheyenne and Arapaho territory. In Boulder Valley, Chief Nowoo3 (Left Hand) and other Arapaho people confronted gold seekers and warned that settlement would damage game, timber, and grasslands. - EARLY 1858 · EASTWARD JOURNEY: Chief Nowoo3 Studies White Agriculture — Before the gold rush accelerated, Southern Arapaho Chief Nowoo3 (Left Hand) traveled east to the Missouri River settlements as far as Council Bluffs, Iowa, to personally study white agricultural practices by working on local farms. He traveled in a wagon with his wife and children along the heavily emigrated Platte Road, leaving his brother Neva to manage the band's affairs at Beaver Creek (near present-day Brush, Colorado). After observing the labor, Nowoo3 concluded that farming was ill-suited to his people and resolved to ask the federal government for help transitioning to the cattle business (Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - JULY 1858 · DRY CREEK: Gold Discovery on Treaty Lands — A prospecting party led by William Green Russell discovered gold at Dry Creek, in present-day Englewood, Colorado, on a Southern Arapaho wintering ground recognized under the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. The strike triggered the Pikes Peak gold rush, sent tens of thousands of prospectors onto the plains, and severely depleted timber, water, and bison herds. As History Colorado's exhibit on Sand Creek notes, Native people experienced this influx as an invasion that destroyed their economy and brought devastating diseases (History Colorado, 2022; TREC, 2023; West, 1998). - JULY 1858 · PAWNEE FORK: Agricultural Requests and Diplomatic Overtures — Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders met with Federal Indian Agent Robert C. Miller at Pawnee Fork, near present-day Larned, Kansas, to request a protected home and agricultural instruction. Because overland emigration was already destroying the plains buffalo herds, the chiefs sought government assistance to transition their economy and secure their people's future (Berthrong, 1963; Roberts, 1984). - SEPTEMBER–NOVEMBER 1858 · CHERRY CREEK: The Founding of Denver City — Prospectors began staking permanent claims and organizing town companies—including Auraria and Denver City—directly on unceded Arapaho wintering grounds along Cherry Creek. As documented by the Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission (TREC), these permanent settlements directly violated the 1834 Indian Trade and Intercourse Act and the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. Indigenous leaders including Little Raven and Nowoo3 responded by initiating diplomatic councils with the settlers (Berthrong, 1963; Roberts, 1984; Smiley, 1901; TREC, 2023). - LATE OCTOBER 1858 · BEAVER CREEK: Nowoo3 and Neva Welcome Marshall Cook — Returning west, Chief Nowoo3 traveled across the plains alongside a pioneer wagon train led by Marshall Cook. Reaching the Southern Arapaho village at Beaver Creek, Nowoo3 invited the party to a feast and, in fluent English, toasted to their health and offered them safe passage. His brother Neva also spoke in English to express the tribe's growing apprehensions about the wagon influx and the impending arrival of the "great steam horse." The account survives only in Marshall Cook's unpublished manuscript and is not otherwise corroborated, though Colorado historian LeRoy R. Hafen accepted it at face value (Coel, 1981). - LATE AUTUMN 1858 · ARKANSAS RIVER: Tribal Leaders Seek Federal Intervention — A delegation of Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs met with trader William Bent at his home on the Arkansas River, near present-day Lamar, Colorado, to question the sudden influx of prospectors onto their treaty lands. The chiefs formally requested that Bent contact federal authorities and intervene to halt the unregulated encroachment (Roberts, 1984). - NOVEMBER 1858 · BOULDER VALLEY: Aikins's Party Arrives and the Pioneer Narrative Evolves — Thomas Aikins and a party of Nebraska gold seekers arrived at the mouth of Boulder Canyon, in present-day Boulder, where Chief Nowoo3 (Left Hand) and other Arapaho leaders ordered the intruders to leave, warning that the prospectors would kill the game, burn the timber, and destroy the grass. Bayard Taylor's 1866 account and subsequent retellings in the Boulder County News (1873, 1876) and Amos Bixby's 1880 county history progressively reshaped the encounter into a romanticized "Curse of Left Hand." Modern Arapaho representatives, including Fred Mosqueda, reject that legend as a tourism fabrication, noting that Nowoo3—fluent in English and aware of the 1851 Treaty—would simply have told the trespassers they were violating the treaty and had to leave (Bixby, 1880; City of Boulder, 2023; Meier, 1993; Taylor, 1867). - FALL–WINTER 1858 · KANSAS TERRITORY AND WASHINGTON D.C.: Lobbying to Extinguish Treaty Rights — To assert political control over the diggings, Kansas Governor James W. Denver authorized the establishment of "Arapahoe County" covering present-day eastern Colorado, on land legally guaranteed to the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Speculators and politicians lobbied Congress to extinguish Indigenous land titles, arguing that a new treaty was the only way to prevent inevitable conflict (Roberts, 1984; TREC, 2023; West, 1998). - DECEMBER 1858 · UPPER ARKANSAS AGENCY: William Bent Warns of Indigenous Unrest — As the gold rush accelerated, veteran trader William Bent—acting as a trusted intermediary before his formal appointment as Indian Agent—warned federal authorities about the sudden settlements on the Arkansas and South Platte rivers. Bent reported that the Cheyenne and Southern Arapaho were "uneasy and restless" about the invasion of their principal hunting grounds, noting that they did not understand the towns being built and had "never been treated with for it" (Coel, 1981). - DECEMBER 1858 – JANUARY 1859 · AURARIA AND DENVER CITY: Arapaho Diplomacy and the Christmas Festivities — A delegation of Cheyenne and Arapaho people visited the new settlements along Cherry Creek to trade, wager on horse races, and attend large Christmas and New Year feasts hosted by the miners. Prominent Arapaho leaders like Little Raven and Nowoo3 worked to maintain peace, mingling with settlers and sharing meals of roasted oxen, even as younger warriors such as Heap of Whips grew furious at the occupation and opposed any compromise (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; West, 1998). ### — Boulder City, Gold Hill, and the Fifty-Niner Influx In 1859, an estimated 100,000 "Fifty-Niners" flooded the central plains and the Front Range. Prospectors organized mining districts at Gold Hill, founded the Boulder City Town Company, and built extralegal land-claim associations across Boulder Valley, while Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders pressed federal authorities to recognize their rights and warned of impending starvation. - LATE 1859 · UPPER ARKANSAS AGENCY: Bent Demands a Comprehensive Treaty Council — Recognizing the escalating land crisis, Agent William Bent pushed for a major treaty council to formally define Cheyenne and Arapaho borders. He advised federal authorities that any successful negotiation required the presence and agreement of both the Northern and Southern bands, but the federal government instead pursued separate negotiations with isolated bands (Roberts, 1984). - LATE 1859 · WASHINGTON: Politicians Lobby to Extinguish Tribal Land Claims — Territorial politicians and town-company speculators actively lobbied Congress to extinguish all Cheyenne and Arapaho land titles, recognizing that their settlements violated the 1834 Indian Trade and Intercourse Act. Promoters argued that extinguishing Indian title and enacting a new treaty was the only way to avert conflict between arriving miners and the Native inhabitants (Roberts, 1984; Smiley, 1901). - JANUARY 16, 1859 · GOLD RUN AND GOLD HILL: Prospectors Discover Gold in the Mountains — Prospectors James Aikins, Charles Clouser, I. S. Bull, William Huey, W. W. Jones, and David Wooley discovered surface gold in a creek bed between Sunshine and Four Mile Canyons and named the site Gold Run. By spring, more than a thousand miners had arrived and established the Gold Hill camp. On March 7, 1859, the miners formally organized Mountain District Number One, Gold Hill, Nebraska—the region's first extralegal mining district government on unceded Indigenous land (Bixby, 1880; Gladden, 1982; Smith, 1981). - FEBRUARY 10, 1859 · BOULDER VALLEY: The Boulder City Town Company — Fifty-six prospectors formally organized the Boulder City Town Company, surveyed and platted 1,240 acres of traditional Arapaho wintering grounds into 4,044 commercial lots priced at $1,000 each, and elected A. A. Brookfield first president. As TREC notes, these permanent structures directly violated the 1834 Indian Trade and Intercourse Act and the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie (Bixby, 1880; Coel, 1981; Perrigo, 1946; TREC, 2023). - SPRING–SUMMER 1859 · CHERRY CREEK SETTLEMENTS: The Marginalization of Snake Woman and John Poisal — Early arrivals at the Cherry Creek settlements relied on veteran trader John Poisal and his Arapaho wife, Snake Woman (Nowoo3's sister), for protection and trade through tribal kinship. As the rush rapidly expanded the white population, the new pioneer society discarded these interracial families and derisively dismissed men like Poisal as "squaw men" (West, 1998). - SPRING–SUMMER 1859 · FRONT RANGE: The Fifty-Niners and Ecological Collapse — An estimated 100,000 "Fifty-Niners" flooded across the central plains and into the Front Range. Emigrants' livestock consumed river-valley grasses, settlers cut down vital cottonwood groves for cabins and fuel, and the bison economy collapsed. Disease and starvation swept the camps (Berthrong, 1963; Crifasi, 2015; History Colorado, 2022; West, 1998). - SPRING–SUMMER 1859 · BOULDER AREA: Extralegal Claim Clubs and Mountain Districts — White settlers formed extralegal organizations—the Jackson Land Claim Association near Boulder, the St. Vrain Claim Club along St. Vrain Creek (from present-day Lyons to Longmont), and Mountain District No. 1 at Gold Hill—to survey, record, and claim acreage without valid federal title. Valley settlers misused the federal Preemption Act of 1841 to claim 160-acre tracts, despite the law's explicit prohibition against settlement on Indian lands. The Great Western Land Claim Association began recording these unauthorized deeds in July 1859 and was later renamed the Jackson Land Claim Association (Carson, n.d.; Crifasi, 2015; Gillespie, 1994; Gladden, 1982; Perrigo, 1946; TREC, 2023). - SPRING 1859 · SOUTH PLATTE RIVER: Nowoo3 Faces Militant Opposition from Younger Warriors — As the gold rush depleted plains resources, political divisions hardened within Cheyenne and Arapaho camps along the South Platte. Peace chiefs like Nowoo3 and Little Raven faced intense opposition from younger warriors—such as the Arapaho leader Heap of Whips—who argued that compromise was futile and demanded the miners be driven out or killed (Berthrong, 1963; West, 1998). - APRIL 23, 1859 · DENVER CITY: The Establishment of the Rocky Mountain News — William N. Byers published the first edition of the Rocky Mountain News, establishing the territory's first printing press. In his opening editorials, Byers framed the region as a place where "wild beasts and wilder Indians held undisturbed possession," celebrating the "resistless rush of Yankee enterprise" pushing aside the "poor Indian" (Rocky Mountain News, April 23, 1859). - MAY 1859 · DENVER CITY: Arapaho Leaders Visit the Press and Seek Diplomatic Aid — Little Raven and Chief Nowoo3 (Left Hand) visited the new Denver settlements to inspect the printing press and hold formal diplomatic councils. In a public meeting covered by the Rocky Mountain News, Little Raven asserted that "all the land around here belonged to him and his children," pragmatically offered to share the gold, and asked settlers to be patient with his starving tribe—noting that only the federal government could ultimately purchase their lands (Rocky Mountain News, May 14, 1859). - JUNE 1859 · DENVER CITY: Nowoo3 Translates for Visiting Journalists — Chief Nowoo3 used his English fluency to act as a diplomatic intermediary during an interview with Eastern journalists Horace Greeley and Albert D. Richardson. When Greeley proposed the tribe abandon their hunting grounds for a 200-acre farm, Nowoo3 rejected the idea as unworkable and reiterated his intention to ask the federal government to help his people transition to the cattle business (Roberts, 1984). - SUMMER 1859 · UPPER ARKANSAS AGENCY: Arapaho and Cheyenne Restraint Amid the Rush — Despite the gold-rush influx, Cheyenne and Arapaho leadership sought to accommodate the emigrants. Newly appointed Indian Agent William Bent reported that the tribes had "behaved themselves exceedingly well" and that the chiefs repeatedly pressed authorities to define their legal rights and set aside a protected homeland (Roberts, 1984). - SEPTEMBER 1859 · CACHE LA POUDRE AND LARAMIE RIVERS: Agent Twiss Negotiates Unratified Treaties — Federal Indian Agent Thomas W. Twiss negotiated unratified agreements with the Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho bands of the Upper Platte agency, proposing reservations on the Cache la Poudre and Laramie rivers. Because the Plains tribes still regarded themselves as unified peoples, they viewed these separate, uncoordinated agreements as divisive and favored joint negotiations (Berthrong, 1963; Roberts, 1984). - SEPTEMBER 1859 · BENT'S FORT: Tribal Leaders Agree to Fixed Residence and Request Aid — A delegation of Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs convened at Bent's Fort to negotiate a survival strategy with Agent William Bent. The chiefs formally agreed to assume a fixed residence and requested government aid to transition to farming. Bent asked the Indian Office to ship implements immediately, but federal bureaucrats delayed action (Berthrong, 1963; Roberts, 1984). - SEPTEMBER 1859 · DENVER CITY: The Push for Statehood and Electoral Defeat — White settlers held conventions to form an independent "State of Jefferson"—an extralegal action operating entirely on unceded treaty lands. A September election defeated the proposed constitution 2,007 to 1,649, forcing pioneer leaders to pivot from statehood to a provisional territorial government (Rocky Mountain News, September 17, 1859; Smiley, 1901; TREC, 2023). - OCTOBER–NOVEMBER 1859 · GOLD HILL: Mining Camp Conflicts with the Utes — On October 21, 1859, a band of Ute Indians approached the Gold Hill settlement, drove off several horses, and wounded a prospector named Barker. Thirty miners pursued over the Snowy Range but turned back. The Rocky Mountain News published accounts of the clash, demanding to know how long the federal government would permit Indigenous peoples to go unpunished for property theft (Rocky Mountain News, November 3, 1859). - OCTOBER 1859 · DENVER CITY: The Provisional Territory of Jefferson — Delegates reconvened to draft an organic act establishing the provisional "Territory of Jefferson." Settlers held an unauthorized election, choosing Robert W. Steele as governor and Beverly D. Williams as congressional delegate. The self-created government operated as an illegal "squatter sovereignty" while settlers actively trespassed on unceded Indian lands (Crifasi, 2015; Rocky Mountain News, October 20, 1859; Smiley, 1901). - OCTOBER 28, 1859 · BOULDER AREA: Settlers Plan Permanent Road Infrastructure — White citizens held a public meeting to coordinate the construction of a free wagon road connecting the St. Vrain settlement to the mountain mines via Boulder City. The attendees appointed a committee to solicit labor and monetary subscriptions from local residents to fund the infrastructure project (Rocky Mountain News, November 3, 1859). - NOVEMBER 1859 · DENVER CITY: The Jefferson Legislature Convenes — The extralegal General Assembly of Jefferson Territory convened. Governor Steele urged the rapid establishment of counties, courts, and a taxation system to protect pioneer property. The assembly enacted early legislation granting settlers the right to divert water for irrigation and laid the bureaucratic groundwork that endured until the federal creation of Colorado Territory in 1861 (Crifasi, 2015; Rocky Mountain News, November 10, 1859; Smiley, 1901). - DECEMBER 1859 · UPPER ARKANSAS AGENCY: Bent Warns of an Impending War of Starvation — Observing the extreme poverty of the bands along the Arkansas River, Indian Agent William Bent sent an official warning to Washington declaring that a "desperate war of starvation and extinction is imminent and inevitable" unless the federal government provided immediate assistance. Despite tribal requests for survival tools and an economic transition, government authorities delayed action while the tribes' resource base vanished (Berthrong, 1963; Roberts, 1984). - DECEMBER 1859 · DENVER CITY: The Press Retracts a False Report of an Indian Murder — The Rocky Mountain News issued a brief retraction acknowledging that a story published three weeks earlier about a man being killed by Indians was entirely false. The paper admitted the fabricated rumor had grown out of localized difficulties from months prior (Rocky Mountain News, December 8, 1859). ### — Settlement Expands Along Left Hand Creek By 1860, white settlers were establishing agricultural claims along Left Hand Creek and near Haystack Mountain, organizing Jackson County under the unauthorized Provisional Territory of Jefferson, and conducting the last large communal antelope harvest in Boulder Valley. Federal officials pressed for new treaty negotiations at Fort Wise while Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders maintained restraint amid mounting starvation. - EARLY 1860 · WARD DISTRICT: Gold Discovery and the Ward Mining Camp — Prospector Calvin W. Ward discovered the gold-bearing Ward lode in the mountains roughly eighteen miles northwest of Boulder City. This strike, together with Cyrus W. Deardoff's subsequent discovery of the Columbia lode, drew numerous miners to the high-altitude region. The miners formally organized the Ward Mining District on September 12, 1860, eventually establishing a permanent town with ore-reduction stamp mills (Bixby, 1880; Smith, 1981). - EARLY 1860s · HAYSTACK MOUNTAIN: Settlers Build Cabins Near Haystack Mountain — Pioneers including William C. Arbuthnot and Jacob Affolter arrived in the area around Haystack Mountain. Affolter built a log cabin at the southwest base of the mountain near the Arbuthnot family cabin. These early structures served as gathering places for the Left Hand Creek settlers and hosted community weddings and funerals (Koehler, 2025; Lange, 1984). - 1860 · BOULDER COUNTY: Extralegal Citizens' Courts and Frontier Justice — Before the formal establishment of Colorado Territory, law enforcement in the Boulder Valley was administered through extralegal miners' and citizens' courts. Operating without official federal jurisdiction, these localized tribunals utilized pioneer juries to adjudicate disputes. Common punishments for convicted offenders included having half of their head closely shaved, receiving twenty-five public lashes on the bare back, and being banished from the settlement (Bixby, 1880; Gladden, 1982; Smith, 1981). - 1860 · LEFT HAND CREEK: Porter T. Hinman Settles in the Valley — Porter T. Hinman returned to the territory eleven years after passing through during the 1849 California gold rush. He homesteaded and purchased 320 acres along Left Hand Creek, in the present-day Niwot area. He and his sons built agricultural operations on the property and remained permanent settlers in the valley (Bixby, 1880; Dyni, 1994; Koehler, 2025). - 1860 · BOULDER COUNTY: Pioneer Sawmills and Gristmills — To provide building materials, pioneer entrepreneurs established the first local sawmills, including a water-powered mill built by Tarbox and Donnelly at the mouth of Boulder Canyon. The availability of manufactured lumber facilitated the construction of frame structures to replace temporary log cabins. The following year, Andrew Douty erected the county's first gristmill on South Boulder Creek (Bixby, 1880). - WINTER 1860 · THE PLAINS: Tribes Wander Hungry as Winter Storms Descend — Following the unresolved treaty council at Fort Wise, the Cheyenne and Arapaho bands dispersed across the plains in a desperate search for remaining buffalo herds. Because white town companies and ranches now firmly occupied the natural, sheltered wintering sanctuaries along the Front Range river valleys, the tribes were forced to endure the winter exposed on the open prairie, exacerbating tensions that would soon culminate in the disastrous 1861 Treaty of Fort Wise (Berthrong, 1963; Crifasi, 2015; Grinnell, 1915; Roberts, 1984). - FEBRUARY–MARCH 1860 · UTILLA CREEK (LEFT HAND CREEK): The Founding and Promotion of Altona — White settlers laid out the new village of Altona at the point where Utilla Creek (Left Hand Creek) entered the plains, eight miles north of Boulder City. Town promoters marketed the settlement in the territorial press, boasting of a newly opened, level wagon road into the mountain mining districts and highlighting farming land, timber, and quarries for slate and limestone (Rocky Mountain News, February 29, 1860; Rocky Mountain News, March 28, 1860). - FEBRUARY–SEPTEMBER 1860 · BOULDER VALLEY: The Jackson Land Claim Association and Property Courts — Settlers operating on unceded Indigenous lands renamed their extralegal property organization the Jackson Land Claim Association. The association functioned as an interim recorder of deeds and convened unauthorized land-claims courts—such as the August 1860 case of Robert McFarland vs. Edward Donnelly. McFarland later joined Company D of the Third Colorado Cavalry and was killed during the Sand Creek Massacre. The association dissolved in September 1860 after establishing the property lines settlers would later patent under United States law (Bixby, 1880; Crifasi, 2015; Gillespie, 1994; Gladden, 1982). - MARCH–JULY 1860 · WASHINGTON D.C.: Congress Appropriates Funds to Extinguish Tribal Titles — Miners and territorial politicians sent a memorial to President James Buchanan demanding a permanent settlement of the land question. The territorial press pressed the issue throughout the spring, and in July, Congress appropriated $35,000 to fund negotiations for a new treaty with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations (Grinnell, 1915; Roberts, 1984; Rocky Mountain News, March 14, 1860). - SPRING–SUMMER 1860 · THE PLAINS: A New Wave of Immigration and Starvation — Another wave of white emigration flooded across the plains, further disrupting the bison herds and increasing the threat of starvation among the Native camps. As resources vanished, Kiowa and Comanche bands began raiding emigrant wagon trains along the Arkansas River route. Despite the depletion, Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho peace chiefs restrained the majority of their young warriors, awaiting a formal treaty settlement (Berthrong, 1963; Grinnell, 1915; Roberts, 1984). - APRIL–SUMMER 1860 · DENVER CITY: Settlers Establish Civil and Political Machinery — Citizens voted to consolidate the rival camps of Auraria and Denver City into a single municipality. The extralegal "Territory of Jefferson" continued to operate local courts and legislatures to protect expanding real estate claims, in violation of federal laws prohibiting settlement before Indian titles were formally extinguished (Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984; Smiley, 1901). - SPRING–SUMMER 1860 · BOULDER COUNTY: Directing Emigration to the Northern Settlements — To capitalize on the gold rush, regional newspapers published emigrant guides advising incoming prospectors to cross the Platte River at St. Vrain and travel directly to Altona or Boulder City. Local citizens built competing wagon roads that entered the mountains at both Boulder and Altona, and by mid-summer, large numbers of families and miners arrived to settle the agricultural valleys and mountain camps (Rocky Mountain News, May 2, 1860; Rocky Mountain News, July 4, 1860). - MAY 1860 · DENVER CITY: Chief Nowoo3 Returns from Ute Campaign — Chief Nowoo3 and his warriors returned to their South Platte campgrounds near Denver following a raid against their traditional Ute enemies. The village held a victory celebration with captured ponies and scalps. By directing his warriors against the Utes, Nowoo3 vented their mounting frustrations away from the white settlements and maintained his leadership over the young men (Coel, 1981; Rocky Mountain News, May 23, 1860). - MAY 1860 · ST. VRAIN VALLEY: The Settlement of Burlington — Pioneer A. N. Allen established a land claim and began constructing a log cabin at the confluence of the St. Vrain and Left Hand creeks, forming the nucleus of Burlington—the agricultural community that preceded modern Longmont. By December, residents formed the extralegal "Union District," electing officers to act as courts of law for local property disputes (Lange, n.d.). - SUMMER 1860 · REPUBLICAN RIVER: Military Skirmishes on the Plains — Ongoing conflicts erupted across the plains, including a running fight between Captain S. D. Sturgis's military expedition and allied Kiowa, Comanche, and Cheyenne warriors along the Republican River. These skirmishes kept the frontier in a state of high tension and complicated upcoming treaty negotiations (Berthrong, 1963). - JULY 20, 1860 · BENT'S FORT: Chiefs Oversee Annuity Distribution — Chief Nowoo3 and Little Raven traveled to Bent's Fort to oversee the orderly distribution of government annuities to their people. Although thousands of emigrant wagons traveled the plains that month, Agent William Bent reported that the Southern Arapaho leadership restrained their warriors and maintained peace along the transit routes (Coel, 1981). - LATE AUGUST 1860 · DENVER CITY AND PUEBLO: Nowoo3 Defends the Settlements — Chief Nowoo3 and interpreter John Poisal rode nearly two hundred miles to Indian Agent A. G. Boone's ranch to warn that reportedly hostile Kiowas were planning to attack white settlements. Days later in Denver City, he intervened to prevent a group of Arapahos from scalping a suspected Ute, personally waving off armed women and maintaining order in the streets (Coel, 1981; Rocky Mountain News, August 31, 1860). - SEPTEMBER 1860 · FORT WISE: Federal Commissioner Proposes a Reservation — Federal Indian Commissioner A. B. Greenwood arrived at Fort Wise to hold a council with Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders, including Black Kettle, White Antelope, Little Raven, and Chief Nowoo3. Greenwood informed the chiefs they must cede their hunting grounds to settle on a reservation bounded by the Arkansas River and Sand Creek. The chiefs verbally consented to the geographic boundaries but refused to sign a formal treaty without the presence and agreement of the northern bands (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984; TREC, 2023). - FALL 1860 · VALMONT BUTTE: The Last Communal Antelope Harvest in Boulder Valley — Approximately four hundred Arapaho and Cheyenne riders returned to the Boulder Valley to secure winter meat. The riders formed a massive circle to enclose and harvest a herd estimated at five hundred antelope in a hollow on the north side of Valmont Butte. This event served as the final major communal antelope harvest in the valley (Bixby, 1880; Burney & Scott, 2006; Crifasi, 2015). - FALL 1860 · GOLD HILL: The Gold Hill Mining Company — Following a sluicing season that yielded $10,000 for prospectors like Matthew McCaslin, settlers formally organized the Gold Hill Mining Company under president William R. Blore. The company sought to consolidate individual claims and expand hard-rock mining operations. Blore later served as a sergeant in Company D of the Third Colorado Cavalry and participated in the Sand Creek Massacre in November 1864 (Bennedict, 2002; Bixby, 1880; National Park Service, n.d.). - OCTOBER 18, 1860 · BOULDER CITY: Settlers Organize Jackson County — Local citizens held a public meeting at Boulder City to nominate officers for "Jackson County" under the unauthorized Provisional Territory of Jefferson. This extralegal government operated local courts until the federal government officially established Colorado Territory and Boulder County in 1861 (Gladden, 1982; Perrigo, 1946; Rocky Mountain News, October 23, 1860). ### — Colorado Territory and the Fort Wise Treaty In 1861, the United States created Colorado Territory and pressured a small faction of Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders to sign the Treaty of Fort Wise. The majority of the bands repudiated the agreement, the Civil War pulled regular army troops east, and Boulder County held its first authorized elections as settlers continued claiming land that the tribes had never legally ceded. - FEBRUARY 1861 · THE MOUNTAIN DISTRICTS: Settlers Propose "Ni Wot County" — Settlers in the mountain districts of Mt. Vernon, Bergen, and Junction convened to secede from the unauthorized Provisional Territory of Jefferson and formed a new extralegal jurisdiction they named "Ni Wot County," stating that the name was chosen to gain the goodwill of Southern Arapaho Chief Nowoo3 (Left Hand) (Rocky Mountain News, February 20, 1861). - FEBRUARY 18, 1861 · FORT WISE: The Treaty of Fort Wise — U.S. representatives and a small faction of Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho peace chiefs signed the Treaty of Fort Wise, which sought to reduce the borders established in 1851. The government used the threat of starvation to compel the chiefs into ceding their hunting grounds and relocating to a reservation bounded by the Arkansas River and Sand Creek. The proceedings used an interpreter who could not speak Arapaho. Chief Nowoo3 (Left Hand) was not present and repudiated the agreement, stating the other chiefs had been tricked while he was away. TREC concludes that because the U.S. never secured the required northern signatures under Article 6, the land north of the South Platte—including Boulder Valley and the present-day Niwot area—was never legally ceded and was taken illegally (Coel, 1981; Crifasi, 2015; Kelman, 2013; Roberts, 1984; TREC, 2023). - FEBRUARY 28, 1861 · WASHINGTON D.C.: Congress Creates Colorado Territory — Congress passed the organic act creating Colorado Territory, dissolving the Provisional Territory of Jefferson and bringing federal jurisdiction to the pioneer settlements. The organic act explicitly stated that it did not impair the rights of the Indians and that any lands not ceded by treaty were excepted from the boundaries and jurisdiction of the new territory. In May 1861, federal officials clarified that Indian title remained unextinguished—meaning the settlers who arrived during the gold rush were legally trespassers on unceded land (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Crifasi, 2015; Daily Mining Journal, September 30, 1864; Perrigo, 1946; Roberts, 1984). - SPRING 1861 · DENVER CITY: Nowoo3 Mediates Conflicts and Speaks for Peace — Chief Nowoo3 (Left Hand) mediated local conflicts and, on April 30, 1861, took the stage at the Apollo Theatre to pledge his people's peaceful intentions. Altercations with the white population soon forced the Arapahos to leave their camps near Denver (Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984; Rocky Mountain News, April 30, 1861). - APRIL 12, 1861 · FORT SUMTER: The Outbreak of the Civil War and the Western Empire — Confederate artillery fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter, initiating the American Civil War. Governor John Evans and Colonel John Chivington later alleged that Cheyenne and Arapaho bands conspired with the Confederacy. Historian Ari Kelman concluded that for Native peoples gazing from the banks of Sand Creek, the Civil War looked like a war of empire and a contest to control expansion into the West, and that the Sand Creek Massacre should be recalled as part of both the Civil War and the Indian Wars (Bixby, 1880; Coel, 1981; Kelman, 2013; Kelman, 2018). - MAY 18, 1861 · BOULDER CITY: Boulder Citizens Rally for the Union — Citizens of Boulder City held a public meeting, raised the United States flag, and passed resolutions to defend the Union. Following the meeting, men from Boulder County volunteered for the newly formed Colorado military units (Gladden, 1982; Rocky Mountain News, May 21, 1861). - MAY 19, 1861 · DENVER CITY: Arapaho Leaders at the Racetrack — Chief Nowoo3 and Little Raven spent a Sunday afternoon at the Denver racetrack. The Rocky Mountain News reported on a "scrub race" between the two chiefs' ponies (Coel, 1981; Rocky Mountain News, May 20, 1861). - MAY 27, 1861 · DENVER CITY: Governor William Gilpin Arrives — William Gilpin arrived in Denver to assume his duties as the first federally appointed governor of Colorado Territory. Gilpin carried instructions from President Lincoln to secure the territory and its gold resources for the Union, and upon his arrival initiated a military buildup and organized a standing territorial army (Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984; West, 1998). - JUNE 14, 1861 · DENVER CITY: Nowoo3 Defends the Tribe Against Rumors — Chief Nowoo3 visited the Rocky Mountain News office with interpreter John Poisal to contradict published reports that his people committed an outrage at A. B. Adams's ranch. Left Hand stated that Adams beat an Indian boy senseless with a club and that the Indians demanded payment for the injury according to their customs. Adams's wife provided flour and clothing as compensation, and the Indians left without further violence (Coel, 1981; Rocky Mountain News, June 14, 1861). - MID-JUNE 1861 · DENVER CITY: The Death of John Poisal — Interpreter John Poisal—a mountain man and the brother-in-law of Chief Nowoo3—died in his Denver cabin. Following his death, his wife MaHom and daughter Mary rejoined Chief Nowoo3's village (Coel, 1981). - SUMMER–FALL 1861 · FORT LYON: Bureaucratic Confusion Plagues Indian Agencies — Governor Gilpin appointed A. G. Boone as resident agent for the Southern tribes at Fort Lyon. The following month, federal Commissioner of Indian Affairs William P. Dole announced the appointment of his cousin, Samuel G. Colley, to the same post. Colley's appointment was confirmed in August but he did not arrive on the plains until November. In the interim, Boone continued acting as agent, and the tribes were confused over who held the authority to distribute annuities (Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - SUMMER 1861 · THE PLAINS: Regular Troops Withdraw and Rumors Spread — With the outbreak of the Civil War, many regular U.S. Army troops withdrew from the plains and went east to fight the Confederacy. As soldiers withdrew, rumors circulated among white settlers in Colorado that the Plains tribes plotted an uprising. Governor William Gilpin cited these fears, alongside threats of Confederate invasion, to organize a territorial military force (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Kelman, 2018). - LATE SUMMER 1861 · CAMP WELD: The First Colorado Regiment Is Mustered — Fearing Indian uprisings and a Confederate invasion, Governor Gilpin issued unauthorized drafts on the U.S. Treasury to recruit and equip the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers, including territorial figures John P. Slough, Samuel F. Tappan, and Edward Wynkoop. The volunteer forces began training at the newly constructed Camp Weld on the southwest outskirts of Denver (Coel, 1981). - AUGUST 1861 · WASHINGTON D.C.: The Senate Strikes Article XI from the Fort Wise Treaty — The U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Fort Wise but struck out Article XI, which would have allowed Denver residents to purchase the Denver townsite directly from the tribes for at least $1.25 per acre. The Senate removed the article because it likely violated the 1834 Indian Trade and Intercourse Act. Because the document was altered, federal agents had to secure new signatures from the Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders (Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984; TREC, 2023). - OCTOBER–NOVEMBER 1861 · FORT WISE: Agents Coerce Signatures for the Amended Treaty — After the Senate's removal of the Denver land-purchase clause, Agent Albert G. Boone sought to finalize the amended document. When he met with the tribes in late October and November, Cheyenne leaders initially stated they would never sign another treaty. Boone secured signatures from a group of Arapaho and Cheyenne representatives by withholding winter annuities and offering military uniforms and a trip to Washington. Despite these signatures, the promised federal annuities did not arrive for the winter (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - OCTOBER 1861 · THE PLAINS: Nowoo3 Receives Annuities and Relocates — After receiving annuities at Fort Wise, Chief Nowoo3 and the Southern Arapahos scattered across the plains to avoid white settlements and traffic. Because white traffic along the South Platte drove away the buffalo, hunting parties had to travel to the Solomon and Republican rivers to find food (Coel, 1981). - FALL 1861 · BOULDER CITY: Boulder Secures the State University — The Colorado Territorial Legislature passed an act providing that the state university should be located at Boulder City. Construction on the first building did not begin for another decade (Perrigo, 1946). - OCTOBER 8, 1861 · FORT WISE: Nowoo3 Refuses to Sign Treaty Amendment — When the Southern Arapahos and Cheyennes assembled at Fort Wise to receive government annuities, Agent A. G. Boone insisted that the chiefs sign an amendment to the 1861 Fort Wise Treaty before he would distribute the goods. Chief Nowoo3 refused to sign the document (Coel, 1981). - NOVEMBER 7, 1861 · COLORADO TERRITORY: The Incorporation of Altona — Operating under federal jurisdiction of Colorado Territory, the territorial legislature passed an act incorporating the "Altona Town Company." The action formalized the Utilla Creek (Left Hand Creek) settlement—located about three-quarters of a mile from the mouth of Left Hand Canyon near present-day Nelson Road and Foothills Highway—establishing permanent white infrastructure upon lands the Cheyenne and Arapaho had not legally ceded (Bennedict, 2002; Rocky Mountain News, November 13, 1861; TREC, 2023). - NOVEMBER 15, 1861 · BOULDER COUNTY: The First County Commissioners and Fort Chambers Land — The first Boulder County Commissioners—George W. Chambers, David P. Walling, and T. J. Graham—held their inaugural meeting. The board divided the county into eight voting townships and appointed citizens to serve as judges of election. The commissioners began granting franchise permits to toll-road and irrigation-ditch companies, while citizens paid taxes, recorded deeds, and applied for business licenses. In 1864, residents constructed an adobe military fortification named Fort Chambers upon land claimed by Commissioner George W. Chambers a short distance below Valmont. Men from across Boulder County later assembled at Fort Chambers before participating in the killing of ten Cheyenne people on October 10, 1864, and in the Sand Creek Massacre on November 29, 1864 (Berthrong, 1963; Bixby, 1880; Gladden, 1982; Kelman, 2018; Lange, 1984; Perrigo, 1946; Roberts, 1984; Rocky Mountain News, November 13, 1861). - DECEMBER 5, 1861 · BURLINGTON: Burlington Recognized as a Civic Precinct — Following the organization of Boulder County, the commissioners designated the Burlington area—located just south of St. Vrain Creek and west of present-day U.S. Highway 287—as part of voting Townships Four and Five. The local election results confirmed Roger S. Low as the first Justice of the Peace for the Burlington area (Lange, 1984). ### — Treaty Protests, Civil War Pressures, and a Militarized Plains In 1862, Confederate emissaries courted the Plains tribes, Governor John Evans arrived in Denver, and Congress passed the Homestead, Pacific Railway, and Morrill Acts—accelerating white settlement on lands the Arapaho and Cheyenne had never legally ceded. Neva confronted Evans over the deception of the Fort Wise Treaty, while Boulder County built its first county roads and irrigation ditches. - WINTER 1861 – SPRING 1862 · THE PLAINS: Confederate Emissaries and "Red Rebels" — Confederate General Albert Pike sent runners to the Kiowas, Comanches, Cheyennes, and Arapahos, urging them to ally and attack Union forts along the Arkansas. Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs reported these overtures to William Bent and refused, but in May 1862 Kiowa-Apache chief Poor Bear repeated the plans to the Union commandant at Fort Larned, in present-day central Kansas. The reports caused citizens in Colorado and Kansas to label the tribes "Red Rebels" and to expect a general uprising, and the Union army heavily garrisoned the Arkansas River posts with Colorado volunteer cavalry (Bent, 1968; Berthrong, 1963). - 1862 · UPPER ARKANSAS AGENCY: The Colley Family Exploits Tribal Annuities — Following his appointment as Indian Agent for the Upper Arkansas Agency, Samuel G. Colley faced accusations from William Bent and others that he embezzled federal annuities intended for the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Witnesses claimed Colley funneled government supplies to the Fort Lyon sutler's store on the Arkansas River near present-day Las Animas, where his wife sold the goods. Colley's son Dexter and interpreter John Smith later traded the diverted goods back to the tribes in exchange for buffalo robes (Coel, 1981; TREC, 2023). - JANUARY 29, 1862 · DENVER CITY: The Press Mocks the Chiefs' Wives — The Rocky Mountain News published an editorial discussing a $2,500 shawl gifted to First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln by a Broadway merchant. The newspaper suggested that territorial officials should instead secure a wagonload of beads and silver dollars for "Mrs. Left Hand and Mrs. Little Raven," stating those gifts would be more prized than silk (Rocky Mountain News, January 29, 1862). - FEBRUARY–MARCH 1862 · NEW MEXICO TERRITORY: The First Colorado Volunteers March South — The First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers marched out of Camp Weld to defend New Mexico Territory from a Confederate invasion. Under Colonel John P. Slough and Major John Chivington, the Colorado troops engaged Confederate forces at La Glorieta Pass in late March. On March 28, Chivington's detachment outflanked the Confederate position, destroyed the supply train, and killed hundreds of horses and mules, forcing the Confederates to retreat. Upon his return to Denver, Chivington was appointed commander of the Military District of Colorado (Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - SPRING 1862 · COLORADO TERRITORY: Tribes Protest "Lying John" Smith — Neva informed military surgeon John J. Saville that the Southern Arapahos had been treated badly during the Fort Wise Treaty negotiations and that his people refused to have John Smith—"Lying John"—as their interpreter, requesting William Bent instead. Despite these complaints, Governor Evans appointed Smith as the official interpreter for the tribes (Trenholm, 1970). - SPRING 1862 · FORT WISE: Smallpox and the Reservation — Chief Little Raven reported at Fort Wise that smallpox was spreading among Kiowa and Comanche camps twelve miles downriver. Fearing the disease would spread to the Arapahos, Little Raven asked Agent Colley when his village could move onto the Sand Creek reservation and requested agricultural tools and training. Colley informed the chief that the reservation was not yet prepared and told the tribes to remain elsewhere because there was no game in the designated area to feed them (Coel, 1981; Trenholm, 1970). - APRIL 10, 1862 · BOULDER COUNTY: The Commission Establishes the County Road System — The Boulder County Commissioners authorized the survey and establishment of the region's first thirteen public county roads. The board mandated that the wagon routes be constructed four rods wide to connect Boulder City, Altona, and the St. Vrain agricultural settlements with the mountain mining camps (Boulder County Commissioners Journal, 1862). - MAY–NOVEMBER 1862 · BOULDER VALLEY: The First Major Irrigation Ditches — On May 25, Lemuel McIntosh and neighboring settlers began digging the South Boulder and Bear Creek Ditch. On October 1, Jonathan A. Tourtellot and Jerome Thomas began work on the Farmers Ditch, a six-mile project designed to irrigate 3,000 acres north of Boulder. On November 1, the Boulder County Commissioners approved the organization of Tourtellot and Thomas's ditch company (Boulder County Commissioners Journal, 1862; Crifasi, 2015). - MAY 1862 · DENVER CITY: Governor John Evans Arrives — John Evans arrived in Denver to replace William Gilpin as territorial governor and ex-officio Superintendent of Indian Affairs. A businessman appointed by President Lincoln, Evans viewed the territory as a place to develop commerce and railroads. He advocated extending the Fort Wise Treaty to all Cheyenne and Arapaho bands and lectured the chiefs on the senselessness of their war with the Utes—an intervention some chiefs reluctantly accepted but viewed as unwarranted (Trenholm, 1970). - MAY 20, 1862 · WASHINGTON D.C.: Congress Passes the Homestead Act — Congress passed the Homestead Act, allowing white settlers to claim 160-acre tracts of public domain land. The act fulfilled a pillar of the Republican platform, and President Lincoln aligned his Indian policy with the legislation by focusing on making the West safe for advancing settlers. Because many prospectors had squatted on the plains before 1862, the act served to legitimate their settlements, and the federal government used the Public Land Survey System to organize the claims into a mapped grid (Crifasi, 2015; Roberts, 1984; TREC, 2023). - LATE MAY 1862 · DENVER CITY: Neva Confronts Governor Evans Over the Treaty — Saville brought Neva to meet with Governor John Evans to protest the Fort Wise Treaty. Neva told Evans that the Indians had been deceived, that they disliked John Smith, and that they wanted William Bent to interpret for them. Following the meeting, Evans appointed John Smith anyway as official interpreter for the tribes (Trenholm, 1970). - JULY 1862 · SOUTH PLATTE RIVER: Evans and the Military Disperse an Arapaho Camp — Reports of Indian raids circulated among the South Platte settlements, causing panic. Governor Evans sent a military detachment of twenty-five men with a six-pounder cannon, commanded by Colonel Jesse H. Leavenworth, to an encampment of seventy Arapaho lodges led by Cut Nose. The reports proved false. Following a council, the Arapahos hosted a feast and performed a Buffalo Dance for the governor and soldiers, and Evans convinced the chiefs to leave the area until the situation calmed. - JULY 1, 1862 · WASHINGTON D.C.: Congress Passes the Pacific Railway Act — Congress chartered the Union Pacific Railroad, granting a 200-foot right-of-way and 6,400 acres of public land for every mile of track. To facilitate construction, the act authorized the federal government to extinguish Indian land titles along the proposed routes. Mid-summer, Governor Evans presented a program to extinguish the land claims of various tribes but omitted the Cheyenne and Arapaho, assuming Fort Wise had already settled their claims. - JULY 2, 1862 · WASHINGTON D.C.: Congress Passes the Morrill Act — Congress passed the Morrill Act, donating public domain land to states and territories to fund agricultural and mechanical colleges. The legislation allotted thirty thousand acres per congressional representative, and Colorado later used the proceeds from these land sales to establish and fund Colorado State University (TREC, 2023). - LATE SUMMER–FALL 1862 · THE PLAINS: Nowoo3 Maintains Peace During the Minnesota Uprising — Santee Sioux warriors launched attacks on white settlements in Minnesota in August 1862. Word of the uprising reached Colorado in early September, prompting Governor Evans to travel east to plead for more federal troops. Although the First Colorado Volunteers had not yet returned from New Mexico and the territory's defenses were limited, the Southern Arapahos and Cheyennes maintained peace on the central plains, with Chief Nowoo3 and other leaders restraining their warriors (Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - AUGUST 1862 · FORT LYON: Nowoo3 Complies with Military Demands — Chief Nowoo3 and about one hundred Arapaho warriors encamped near Fort Lyon to prepare for an expedition against the Utes. Colonel Jesse H. Leavenworth demanded the warriors discontinue their campaign and promised military protection if they complied. Nowoo3 agreed to abandon the expedition and relocated his people to the hunting grounds along the Smoky Hill and Republican rivers (Berthrong, 1963; Rocky Mountain News, 1862; Trenholm, 1970). - AUGUST 1862 · CHICAGO: Evans Lobbies the Union Pacific Railroad — Governor Evans attended a board of directors meeting for the newly chartered Union Pacific Railroad in Chicago, lobbying to route the transcontinental railroad through Colorado. As a board member, Evans believed that securing statehood and attracting the railroad required the removal of the Plains tribes and the clearing of Indigenous land claims from the territory (Roberts, 1984; TREC, 2023). - SEPTEMBER 3, 1862 · BURLINGTON: The Overland Stage Reroutes Through Boulder County — Following Indian disturbances along the North Platte and the receipt of a new territorial charter, Ben Holladay rerouted his Overland Stage Line southward through Colorado Territory. Holladay instructed his agents to change the stagecoach course to run via Denver to LaPorte. The new route—which closely followed present-day U.S. Highway 287—ran directly in front of the pioneer cabins at the Burlington settlement, crossing the St. Vrain and Left Hand creeks and bringing daily freight and passenger traffic directly through Boulder County (Lange, 1984; Trenholm, 1970). - SEPTEMBER 11, 1862 · COLORADO TERRITORY: Acting Governor Elbert Calls for County Militias — While Governor Evans traveled east following the Sioux uprising in Minnesota, Acting Territorial Governor Samuel H. Elbert issued a proclamation about the threat of an Indian uprising. Elbert asserted that the twenty mounted regulars at Camp Weld were too small a force to protect the settlements, and he urged the citizens of each county to organize volunteer companies of mounted men under the territorial militia law (Roberts, 1984; Weekly Commonwealth, 1862). - DECEMBER 5, 1862 · COLORADO TERRITORY: Evans Imposes a Deadline for the Fort Wise Treaty — Governor Evans interpreted Article VI of the 1861 Fort Wise Treaty to mean that all Cheyenne and Arapaho bands had ceded their lands regardless of whether their chiefs signed the document. Evans concluded that non-signatory bands had to report to the Sand Creek reservation by December 5, 1862, to receive the treaty's benefits, and assumed all the bands would be bound to accept the reservation after the deadline (Roberts, 1984). - DECEMBER 31, 1862 · FORT LYON: Tribes Withdraw and Maintain Peace — Throughout 1862, the Southern Cheyennes and Arapahos maintained peace on the plains. At the end of the year, the bands arrived at Fort Lyon to receive their annual government annuities. On December 31, Agent Samuel G. Colley reported to Governor Evans that the Arkansas River Cheyennes and Arapahos remained peaceful and had departed for their hunting grounds on the Pawnee and Republican rivers (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981). ### — The Year of Hunger and a Failed Treaty Council The Cheyenne and Arapaho called 1863 "the year of hunger" as drought, disease, and vanishing buffalo gutted the camps. Neva and Spotted Wolf represented the Southern Arapaho on a federal delegation to Washington, D.C., while Governor John Evans's attempt to hold another treaty council collapsed at the Arikaree Fork, hardening his belief in a hostile conspiracy. - THROUGHOUT 1863 · BOULDER COUNTY: Settlers Expand Civil Infrastructure — Throughout 1863, the Boulder County Commissioners expanded local civil infrastructure. The board authorized and funded county road networks and formally recognized agricultural corporations, including the Farmers Ditch Company and the Left Hand Ditch Company, to regulate water (Boulder County Commissioners Journal, 1863; Crifasi, 2015). - WINTER–SPRING 1863 · THE PLAINS: The Cheyenne and Arapaho Face the "Year of Hunger" — Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho bands experienced starvation, drought, and disease as buffalo herds grew scarce. The Indians called 1863 "the year of hunger." Whooping cough and diarrhea swept the camps, the designated Sand Creek reservation was destitute of game, and there was not a buffalo within a hundred miles. Agent Samuel G. Colley admitted that the few depredations committed by the Arapahos resulted directly from starvation. Chief Nowoo3 and allied leaders along the Arkansas and Smoky Hill rivers maintained peaceful relations with the white settlements (Coel, 1981; Trenholm, 1970). - JANUARY 1863 · DENVER CITY: The First Colorado Regiment Returns — Colonel John Chivington and the First Colorado Regiment returned to Denver after an attempt to transfer the regiment to the Army of the Potomac. The troops received horses, new federal equipment, and new arms. Now commanding the Military District of Colorado, Chivington posted his troops along the South Platte River (Coel, 1981). - FEBRUARY 1863 · WASHINGTON D.C.: Dole Rules the Fort Wise Cession Is Confined — Federal Commissioner of Indian Affairs William P. Dole responded to U.S. District Attorney Samuel E. Browne regarding the contested territorial boundaries. Dole ruled that the 1861 Fort Wise land cession was confined to the territory extending from the South Platte River to the Arkansas River, affirming that the Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho bands retained land claims north and west of the South Platte (Roberts, 1984). - SPRING 1863 · WASHINGTON D.C. & NEW YORK: Native Delegation Tours the East — Governor John Evans ordered Agent Samuel G. Colley to escort a delegation of Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, Kiowa, and Ute chiefs to Washington to impress them with the power of the United States. Left Hand traveled to Fort Lyon to join the tour, but Colley and interpreter John Smith departed without him; Left Hand told the post surgeon that Smith intentionally left him behind because Left Hand spoke English and would expose his lies, and Little Raven refused to join when he learned Left Hand was excluded. Neva and Spotted Wolf represented the Southern Arapahos, with Lean Bear, War Bonnet, and Standing in the Water representing the Cheyennes. On March 27, the chiefs met President Lincoln at the White House, where Lean Bear acted as spokesman. The chiefs returned convinced that resistance against the whites would be futile, and in April the delegation was exhibited at P. T. Barnum's New York museum until they realized Barnum was using them to make money (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - SPRING 1863 · DENVER CITY: Browne Halts Land Surveys — Following Dole's boundary ruling, U.S. District Attorney Samuel E. Browne halted land surveys north of the South Platte River and published the boundary limits in the territorial newspapers. Surveyor General John Pierce subsequently terminated the receipt of new land claims along the South Platte under the Pre-emption Act of 1841 until the Indian title was extinguished. Governor Evans challenged these decisions, warning Washington that the situation would provoke an Indian war if the land question was not adjusted (Berthrong, 1963; Roberts, 1984). - MAY–JUNE 1863 · COLORADO TERRITORY: Evans Warns of an Indian Threat — General James H. Carleton requested that Colorado troops be transferred to New Mexico. Governor Evans wrote to General John M. Schofield warning of a secret conference between the Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arapahos and suggesting that Colorado troops needed reinforcements to prevent an Indian war. On June 1, Colonel Chivington assured Schofield that there was no immediate cause for alarm but also stated that the territory required the troops and that removing them would cause trouble (Roberts, 1984). - SUMMER 1863 · BEAVER CREEK & REPUBLICAN RIVER: Cheyenne and Sioux Gather for the Sun Dance — Cheyenne and Sioux bands congregated at Beaver Creek and the Republican River, in present-day eastern Colorado and western Kansas, to conduct their annual Sun Dances. The tribes camped about a mile apart in separate villages, and the Sioux invited the Cheyennes and the Dog Soldiers to attend their dance. White settlers and territorial officials observed this large intertribal gathering and circulated reports that the tribes were holding a secret war council. Following the ceremonies, the tribal members dispersed for their summer buffalo hunts without initiating hostilities (Hyde, 1968; Roberts, 1984). - JULY 9, 1863 · FORT LARNED: A Sentry Kills Little Heart — A military sentry shot and killed a Cheyenne warrior named Little Heart at Fort Larned, in present-day central Kansas. Colonel Jesse Leavenworth sent runners to bring in the chiefs of all tribes in the vicinity and ordered commanders along the Santa Fe Trail to concentrate troops to meet the anticipated emergency. Leavenworth reported that a military collision was avoided only because few Cheyennes were near the fort. Although the chiefs initially accepted the shooting as justified in council, the incident angered the Cheyenne warriors and was later cited as a primary reason for refusing to attend Governor Evans's Arikaree Fork council (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 1863 · ARIKAREE FORK: Governor Evans Fails to Hold a Council — Governor Evans organized a treaty council at the Arikaree Fork of the Republican River, in present-day southwestern Nebraska, to extinguish remaining Indigenous land claims. Evans sent trader Elbridge Gerry to invite the chiefs, but Dog Soldier chief Long Chin informed Gerry that the bands were too scattered on their summer hunts to attend. Native leaders refused to come, citing severe sickness in their camps, the scattering of the bands, and the recent killing of Little Heart at Fort Larned. Evans returned to Denver and concluded that the absence proved a hostile conspiracy (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - LATE FALL 1863 · CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER: Northern Arapaho Leaders Refuse to Leave — Northern Arapaho leaders, including Roman Nose, refused Governor Evans's demands to abandon their hunting grounds along the Cache la Poudre River, in present-day northern Colorado. Roman Nose informed the governor that he would not sign a new treaty unless the government established a reservation for his people on the Cache la Poudre. Following these meetings, Evans reported to his superiors that the Indian presence and inter-tribal meetings provided evidence of a massive war alliance (Berthrong, 1963; Roberts, 1984; Trenholm, 1970). - NOVEMBER 1863 · EAST OF DENVER: The Robert North Reports — Arapaho warriors stole livestock from the Van Wormer ranch thirty-five miles east of Denver. The rancher and frontiersman Robert North tracked the stock to an Arapaho village, where the Indians admitted to butchering the cattle and turned over one stolen horse. North then traveled to Denver and reported to Governor Evans that he had attended a medicine dance fifty-five miles below Fort Lyon where Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux leaders pledged to attack the white settlements in the spring. George Bent, who lived with the Cheyennes on the Smoky Hill River at the time, later dismissed North's report as a lie. Evans accepted the report as proof of a hostile alliance and used it to formulate a military policy against the tribes (Berthrong, 1963; Hyde, 1968; Roberts, 1984; Trenholm, 1970). ### — Fort Chambers, Buffalo Springs, Camp Weld, and the Sand Creek Massacre In 1864, fear, violence, hunger, disease, and political pressure intensified conflict across Colorado Territory, even as many Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders continued seeking peace. Boulder County men mustered into Company D of the Third Colorado Cavalry at Fort Chambers, attacked a Cheyenne camp at Buffalo Springs on October 10, and participated in the Sand Creek Massacre on November 29, where Chief Nowoo3 was mortally wounded. - WINTER–SPRING 1864 · FORT LYON & FORT LARNED: Tribes Suffer from Disease and Starvation — The Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho bands encamped near Fort Lyon and Fort Larned—in present-day southeastern Colorado and central Kansas—lacked food and suffered from disease. Many subsisted on diseased cattle abandoned by emigrant trains. Major Scott J. Anthony reported that two thousand Arapahos under Left Hand, Neva, and Little Raven were moving toward Fort Lyon in destitute condition. Special Agent H. T. Ketcham traveled the plains to vaccinate the tribes and reported smallpox, whooping cough, erysipelas, and diarrhea (Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - THROUGHOUT WINTER 1864 · THE PLAINS: The Tribes Maintain Peace — Through the severe winter of 1863–1864, the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho bands remained peaceful and caused no difficulties for the white settlements. Emigrant trains traveled unmolested up the Platte River valley through March, and Chief Left Hand and Little Raven acted as guides for Colonel Jesse Leavenworth and the Second Colorado Regiment, repeatedly assuring military officers that the Southern Arapahos desired peace (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - EARLY SPRING 1864 · POINT OF ROCKS: Officials Deny the Arapahos Ammunition — Left Hand and Little Raven led their bands to the Indian agency at Point of Rocks to seek accommodation and request relief. Officials informed the Indians that the reservation was not ready to take them and that they must subsist by hunting—while simultaneously denying the tribes the ammunition they needed to hunt for food (Roberts, 1984). - SPRING–SUMMER 1864 · THE ARKANSAS RIVER: Left Hand and the Arapahos Avoid the Conflict — Throughout the spring and early summer of 1864, the fighting on the plains consisted of conflicts strictly between the Cheyennes and the white troops. Left Hand and Little Raven kept their Southern Arapaho villages near the Arkansas River away from the Cheyenne camps on the Smoky Hill, pledged neutrality, and worked to avoid avenging soldiers and hostile raiders. Left Hand repeatedly assured military officers that his people desired peace and continued to guide for Colonel Leavenworth and the Second Colorado Regiment (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981). - APRIL 12, 1864 · FREMONT'S ORCHARD: A Firefight Breaks Out on the South Platte — Fourteen Cheyenne Dog Soldiers found four stray mules and took them in tow. A rancher claimed the mules and reported to Camp Sanborn that Indians were stealing stock. Lieutenant Clark Dunn and forty troopers of the First Colorado Cavalry intercepted the Cheyennes near Fremont's Orchard on the South Platte, attempted to seize their weapons without an interpreter, and a firefight began that left two soldiers dead, two wounded, and three Cheyennes wounded. The Cheyenne chiefs moved their camps toward the Smoky Hill River to avoid the soldiers (Berthrong, 1963; Roberts, 1984). - MAY 3, 1864 · CEDAR BLUFFS: A Dawn Attack on a Cheyenne Camp — Major Jacob Downing and forty men of the First Colorado Cavalry marched to Cedar Bluffs about sixty miles north of the South Platte and attacked a sleeping Cheyenne camp. Cheyenne warriors fought from behind rocks while women and children sought safety in a canyon. Downing reported twenty-five Cheyennes killed and thirty or forty wounded, and the troops captured about one hundred ponies and divided the herd among themselves (Berthrong, 1963; Hyde, 1968). - MAY 16, 1864 · SMOKY HILL RIVER: Troops Kill Chief Lean Bear — Lieutenant George S. Eayre and his troops approached a Cheyenne camp on the Smoky Hill River, in present-day western Kansas. Cheyenne chief Lean Bear and another chief named Star rode out to the front of the soldiers to show papers obtained in Washington. Lean Bear wore a peace medal given to him by President Lincoln in 1862. When the chiefs approached within twenty or thirty feet, Eayre ordered his men to fire and the soldiers shot both chiefs from their horses, then rode forward and fired another volley into their bodies. Black Kettle rode among the warriors and stopped the fighting (Berthrong, 1963; Hyde, 1968). - JUNE 11, 1864 · DENVER: The Hungate Family Murders — An attack at the Van Wormer ranch, thirty miles southeast of Denver, killed the ranch manager Nathan Ward Hungate, his wife, and their two young daughters. The attackers burned the ranch buildings and ran off the livestock. The bodies were brought into the city and placed on public display. Governor Evans then sent telegrams to federal officials, including Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, reporting extensive depredations and requesting authorization to call out the militia and raise a regiment of one-hundred-day volunteers (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Weekly Commonwealth, 1864). - JUNE 15–16, 1864 · DENVER: Residents Take Refuge During a False Alarm — On the night of June 15, a rancher rode into Denver reporting that a body of Indians was advancing to attack the town. Denver residents fled to the upper story of the commissary building on Ferry Street, the United States Mint, and other brick structures. Scouts discovered that the rancher had mistaken a camp of freighters for an advancing Indian army. On June 16, Governor Evans issued Executive Order No. 4, requiring all businesses to close at 6:30 p.m. and ordering all able-bodied citizens to assemble for military enrollment and drill (Coel, 1981; Trenholm, 1970; Weekly Commonwealth, 1864). - JUNE 27, 1864 · COLORADO TERRITORY: Governor Evans's Proclamation Sets a Fatal Trap — Exploiting frontier paranoia, Governor Evans issued a proclamation directing all "friendly" Arapahos and Cheyennes to separate themselves from hostile bands and report to designated military posts, including Fort Lyon on the Arkansas, under the promise of federal protection. Native peace chiefs interpreted this as a guarantee of military sanctuary, stepping into a bureaucratic trap that concentrated their vulnerable families in preparation for the coming massacre (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; John Evans Study Committee, 2014; TREC, 2023). - JUNE 29, 1864 · BOULDER VALLEY: Boulder County Militia Rapidly Constructs Fort Chambers — Territorial panic spread northward into Boulder Valley. Local militiamen constructed Fort Chambers, an adobe fortification on Boulder Creek near present-day Valmont designed to shelter two hundred fighting men and their families. The fortification turned the recognized wintering grounds of the Southern Arapaho into a staging area for the state-sanctioned militias that would soon mobilize against them (Bixby, 1880; City of Boulder, 2026; Crifasi, 2015; TREC, 2023). - MID-JUNE 1864 · DENVER: Robert North Reports to Governor Evans — Robert North—a white man who had lived among the Arapahos since boyhood and served as an informant and spy for Governor Evans—delivered reports to Evans in Denver alongside mountain man William McGaa. North reported that several plains tribes planned to drive the white settlers from the territory and that an Arapaho named John Notee had instigated the Hungate murders. Evans used the intelligence to push for military escalation (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981). - MID–LATE JUNE 1864 · THE PLAINS: A Lull in Hostilities Follows the Hungate Murders — Following the Van Wormer attack, the plains remained generally quiet for several weeks. Denver newspaper accounts reported that settlers observed a total of only nine Indians in the vicinity during the week of the murders, and the Cheyenne bands ceased raiding and moved their villages south to Medicine Lodge Creek in present-day Kansas to remove their women and children from the conflict zone. General Samuel R. Curtis reported that, aside from isolated incidents, the Indians remained quiet throughout the month (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Weekly Commonwealth, 1864). - JULY 1864 · FORT LARNED: Nowoo3 Is Fired Upon Under a White Flag — Maintaining his commitment to peace, Chief Nowoo3 approached Fort Larned in present-day Kansas bearing a white flag of truce to offer his assistance recovering stolen government livestock. Instead of receiving him, the fort's commander ordered his troops to fire an artillery shell directly at the Arapaho peace chief. Nowoo3 escaped uninjured, but the betrayal deeply angered his warriors and drove many young men to join the hostile factions (Coel, 1981; John Evans Study Committee, 2014). - SUMMER 1864 · THE PLAINS: Retaliatory Strikes Cut Denver's Supply Lines — Responding to the unprovoked spring assaults, Plains Indian warriors launched retaliatory strikes against overland stage stations and wagon trains across the central plains. The attacks severed the primary supply and mail lines connecting Denver to the eastern states, causing severe shortages and mass panic and giving colonial officials the justification they sought to demand massive federal military intervention (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 1864 · DENVER: The Press Champions the "Bold Sojer Boys" — While the newly enlisted volunteer troops remained idle in the tented streets of Denver, the territorial press published inflammatory rhetoric to sustain settlers' martial enthusiasm. The Rocky Mountain News boasted that the six or seven hundred "bold sojer boys" would soon start on the "savage war path" and make the "red devils howl." This relentless propaganda dehumanized the Cheyenne and Arapaho and psychologically prepared the militia for the violence to come (Roberts, 1984; Rocky Mountain News, 1864). - AUGUST 10, 1864 · DENVER: Evans's "Appeal to the People" — As panic over severed supply lines paralyzed the territorial capital, Governor Evans published an "Appeal to the People" in the Rocky Mountain News, urging citizens to organize militia companies. Evans declared that "any man who kills a hostile Indian is a patriot," officially encouraging civilian vigilantes to take up arms (Berthrong, 1963; Rocky Mountain News, 1864; TREC, 2023). - AUGUST 11–13, 1864 · WASHINGTON D.C. & DENVER: Federal Authorization for the Third Cavalry — Governor Evans received federal authorization from the U.S. Provost Marshal General to raise a regiment of one-hundred-day volunteers. Two days later, Evans called citizens to enlist in the newly formed Third Colorado Cavalry, directing the troops to "pursue, kill and destroy all hostile Indians that infest the plains." The rapid militarization mobilized a force specifically organized to attack Native populations before the volunteers' brief enlistments expired (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984; Rocky Mountain News, 1864). - AUGUST 11, 1864 · DENVER: A Second Proclamation Sanctions Unrestricted Warfare — Governor Evans issued a second executive proclamation that authorized all Colorado citizens to pursue and kill "hostile Indians" on sight, and to seize and hold Native property as their own private reward. The directive effectively sanctioned unrestricted warfare and stripped Indigenous people of legal protections, leaving even peaceful camps exposed to roaming bands of heavily armed white marauders (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; John Evans Study Committee, 2014; TREC, 2023). - AUGUST 15, 1864 · BLACK HAWK: Clinton M. Tyler Organizes the Tyler Rangers — Responding to the territorial call for volunteers, Captain Clinton M. Tyler organized the Tyler Rangers, an independent militia cavalry company of about ninety men recruited primarily from the mining town of Black Hawk. Outfitted and funded by Black Hawk citizens and other private sources, the well-equipped ranger unit marched to Denver to patrol the overland routes—demonstrating the willingness of wealthy mining communities to finance localized, heavily armed forces (Daily Mining Journal, 1864; Gladden, 1982). - AUGUST 19, 1864 · BOULDER CITY: Henry Blake Records Recruits Being Sworn In — Boulder County settler Henry Blake recorded in his diary that he and his fellow recruits were officially sworn into federal service to form Company D of the Third Colorado Cavalry, under the command of Captain David H. Nichols, for a one-hundred-day period. The formal swearing-in of nearly every able-bodied white man in the Boulder region marked the complete militarization of the local pioneer population (Bixby, 1880; Blake, 1864; Crifasi, 2015; Gladden, 1982). - AUGUST 21, 1864 · FORT CHAMBERS: A Panic Sends Boulder Men Rushing for Their Guns — On the evening of August 21, a sudden panic swept through the Boulder County settlements after rumors of an impending Indian attack. Henry Blake and his fellow Company D recruits rushed to Fort Chambers near present-day Valmont to frantically arm themselves. The threat proved unfounded, but these constant false alarms maintained a state of extreme hysteria and accelerated the militarization of the region (Bixby, 1880; Gladden, 1982). - AUGUST 23 – SEPTEMBER 3, 1864 · DENVER: The Press Champions Boulder County's Militarization — As territorial newspapers celebrated the regional mobilization, editor William Byers used the Rocky Mountain News to fuel the militarization. Byers explicitly championed Boulder County's response, declaring "Bully for Boulder County!" and praising the community for nobly mustering "103 fine looking men" into service—propaganda that encouraged white settlers to view the campaign against the Plains tribes as a heroic civic duty (Rocky Mountain News, 1864). - MID-AUGUST 1864 · BOULDER VALLEY: David H. Nichols Recruits Company D — Colonel John M. Chivington commissioned prominent settler David H. Nichols to recruit Company D of the Third Colorado Cavalry from Boulder Valley. Nichols drew heavily from preexisting local militias—including Captain Thomas A. Aikins's Boulder County Mounted Rifles—to muster one hundred men at Fort Chambers. The prevailing sentiment among the recruits demanded a total war of extermination, with volunteers openly expressing the view that "neither sex nor age should be spared" (Bixby, 1880; City of Boulder, 2026; Coffin, 1965; Crifasi, 2015). - AUGUST 19 – LATE SEPTEMBER 1864 · THE PLAINS: The Tyler Rangers Patrol the Platte Without a Battle — Captain Tyler led his rangers out of Denver to aggressively patrol the major overland travel corridors. The Rangers scouted the cutoff and swept the flanks out to Box Elder and Bijou Creeks, reaching Valley Station near present-day Sterling on August 25. Despite the territorial press reporting that the militiamen were "spoiling to see Indians," the heavily armed force encountered no Native combatants across an empty landscape (Gladden, 1982; Rocky Mountain News, 1864). - SEPTEMBER 6, 1864 · FORT LYON: Major Wynkoop Leads a Peace Expedition — Responding to a written plea for peace from Chief Black Kettle, Major Edward Wynkoop departed Fort Lyon to negotiate a prisoner exchange with the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Guided by Cheyenne emissaries One-Eye and Min-im-mic, Wynkoop led roughly 130 soldiers, including Captain Silas Soule and Lieutenant Joseph Cramer, deep into the tribes' territory and opened the military-diplomatic dialogue that would soon bring the chiefs to Denver (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - SEPTEMBER 9–10, 1864 · SMOKY HILL RIVER: Wynkoop's Council with Black Kettle and Nowoo3 — Major Edward Wynkoop's command arrived at a massive Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment on the Smoky Hill, where Chief Nowoo3 and Black Kettle actively restrained their warriors to facilitate negotiations. During a tense diplomatic council, Wynkoop admitted he lacked the authority to conclude a treaty but demanded the release of white captives as proof of the tribes' peaceful intentions before he would escort the chiefs to Denver. Despite vocal opposition from militant Dog Soldiers citing recent unprovoked military attacks, Black Kettle and Nowoo3 maintained order and agreed to the exchange (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - SEPTEMBER 11–12, 1864 · SMOKY HILL RIVER: Nowoo3 Personally Delivers Laura Roper — Honoring his diplomatic pledges, Chief Nowoo3 personally delivered seventeen-year-old captive Laura Roper to Wynkoop's military camp, explaining that he had purchased her freedom to ensure her safe return. Wynkoop soon received Roper alongside three rescued children—Isabella Eubanks, Ambrose Asher, and Daniel Marble—securing the tangible proof of peaceful intentions he needed (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - SEPTEMBER 13, 1864 · COLORADO TERRITORY: Voters Reject Statehood and Chivington Loses — Colorado voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed statehood constitution, simultaneously defeating Colonel Chivington's congressional bid and depriving Governor Evans of an anticipated Senate seat. The electoral defeat severely damaged Chivington's standing as his volunteer military commission approached expiration. Desperate to avoid leaving the idle "Bloodless Third" as a monument to his failure, Chivington viewed a spectacular military victory over the Plains tribes as his final chance to salvage his political ambitions (Roberts, 1984). - SEPTEMBER 18–20, 1864 · FORT LYON TO DENVER: Wynkoop Escorts the Peace Delegation — Choosing to remain on the Smoky Hill to restrain his warriors, Chief Nowoo3 dispatched his brother Neva to represent him in Denver alongside Cheyenne leaders Black Kettle, White Antelope, and Bull Bear. Between September 18 and 20, Major Wynkoop escorted the delegation hundreds of miles into the territorial capital. The unauthorized expedition placed the peace chiefs in extreme physical danger and forced a reluctant Governor Evans into a public council he had tried to avoid (Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - SEPTEMBER 28, 1864 · CAMP WELD (PRESENT-DAY DENVER): The Camp Weld Council Evades Peace Overtures — Governor Evans and Colonel Chivington met with a delegation of Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs at Camp Weld. Black Kettle, White Antelope, and Bull Bear represented the Cheyennes; Neva, Bosse, Heaps of Buffalo, and No-Ta-Nee represented the Arapaho. Evans refused to negotiate a formal treaty, claiming he lacked civilian authority to end an active war, and shifted all diplomatic responsibility to Chivington. Chivington abruptly ended the council by ordering the chiefs to lay down their arms and submit to Major Wynkoop at Fort Lyon—a deceptive directive that left the Native leaders falsely believing they had secured military sanctuary (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; John Evans Study Committee, 2014; Roberts, 1984). - SEPTEMBER 28, 1864 · DENVER: The Ultimate Betrayal of the Peace Chiefs — As documented by Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Elders, the peace chiefs met with Evans and Chivington under the assurance that if they relocated to Big Sandy Creek, they would be considered peaceful and protected by U.S. troops. Evans and Chivington betrayed the Native leaders in the worst possible way: just two months later, U.S. troops violated these diplomatic promises and murdered more than 230 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho women, children, and elders at the Sand Creek encampment (Arapaho-Cheyenne Tribal Elders & History Colorado, 2022). - SEPTEMBER 30, 1864 · DENVER: Evans Publicly Defends the Returning Tyler Rangers — The Tyler Rangers abandoned their patrols and returned to Denver to muster out without having engaged any Native forces. Reacting to growing public mockery of the inactive militias, Governor Evans delivered a speech denouncing any citizens who cast obloquy upon the troops simply because they returned without a bloody battle—a public defense that demonstrated Evans's sensitivity to political criticism and his effort to sustain martial enthusiasm (Roberts, 1984; Rocky Mountain News, 1864). - OCTOBER 9–10, 1864 · BUFFALO SPRINGS: Boulder's Company D Massacres a Surrendering Cheyenne Camp — After receiving news that a Cheyenne warrior was seen near the Wisconsin Ranch, Captain Nichols rapidly organized a detachment of Company D and rode out to locate the Native camp. Arriving at the sand hills of Buffalo Springs near present-day Sterling the next morning, the Boulder County troops surrounded the two small lodges belonging to Cheyenne Chief Big Wolf. Captain Nichols and Quartermaster Henry Blake directed their men to open fire, ignoring the Cheyennes' white flag of surrender and shooting down five men, three women, and two children. Private Morse H. Coffin refused to participate and denounced the slaughter as the women and babies screamed in terror. Lieutenant Colonel Leavitt L. Bowen later proudly celebrated the unprovoked massacre as proof that the Third Regiment could no longer be mocked as the "bloodless Third" (Blake, 1864; Coffin, 1965; Crifasi, 2015; Roberts, 1984). - OCTOBER 15, 1864 · DENVER: Henry Blake Exhibits Big Wolf's Scalp — News of the Buffalo Springs killings was celebrated by white citizens in Denver, where Quartermaster Henry Blake spent the day publicly exhibiting his grisly trophies. Blake recorded in his diary that he had "some fun" showing off the scalp of Chief Big Wolf. Colonel Chivington expressed high pleasure on hearing of the attack and officially advised Captain Nichols to "kill all the Indians you come across," deliberately ignoring department orders that condemned the killing of women and children (Blake, 1864; Roberts, 1984). - OCTOBER 22, 1864 · DENVER: The Press Deflects Blame for the Buffalo Springs Mutilations — As word of the brutality and mutilations at Buffalo Springs spread through the settlements, some citizens raised concerns about the militia's conduct. Acting to protect the officers from public backlash, the Rocky Mountain News published an article claiming that the mutilations were unauthorized and asserting that the men of Company D had no desire to "barbarously mutilate their fallen foe" (Roberts, 1984; Rocky Mountain News, 1864). - MID-OCTOBER 1864 · FORT LYON & SAND CREEK: Peace Chiefs Move Toward Military Posts — Following the instructions they received at the Camp Weld Conference, Cheyenne and Arapaho peace chiefs moved their people south to congregate near military posts. Chief Nowoo3, Little Raven, Neva, and Storm brought 652 Southern Arapaho people to establish a camp two miles east of Fort Lyon. Black Kettle and the Cheyenne bands concurrently moved into the area, eventually establishing their peaceful encampment on Big Sandy Creek to await further diplomatic orders under the belief that they possessed military protection (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - NOVEMBER 2–6, 1864 · FORT LYON: Anthony Disarms the Arapahos — Major Scott J. Anthony arrived at Fort Lyon to relieve Major Wynkoop and brusquely demanded the absolute surrender of all Native weapons and stolen stock. Southern Arapaho leaders accepted these terms, surrendering a handful of bows and trade guns alongside fourteen animals. Although Anthony temporarily continued issuing rations to the band as prisoners of war, the disarmament left the camps defenseless—a vulnerability later confirmed by 1865 congressional testimony noting how few warriors possessed weapons to fight back (Roberts, 1984). - NOVEMBER 15–28, 1864 · COLORADO TERRITORY: Company D Marches to Fort Lyon — Company D departed Denver to join the Third Colorado Cavalry for the march to Fort Lyon on the Arkansas. The troops marched through severe winter conditions, enduring deep snow and freezing temperatures that caused frostbite and exhausted their horses. On November 24, the command joined Colonel Chivington, who took command of a combined force of the Third, remnants of the First, and more than one hundred wagons. The troops reached Fort Lyon on November 28 and received orders to prepare three days' rations and extra ammunition for an immediate expedition to Sand Creek (Coffin, 1965). - NOVEMBER 20, 1864 · DENVER: Chivington Leaves Denver to Join the Third Regiment — Colonel Chivington departed Denver with his military staff and a veteran battalion of the First Colorado Cavalry to join the Third Regiment assembling southeast of the city. Operating outside his designated military district, Chivington concealed his movements from his departmental superiors to personally lead this massive unauthorized expedition, transforming the territorial militia into an offensive extermination force directed at vulnerable Native encampments (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - NOVEMBER 23–24, 1864 · BOONE'S RANCH: Chivington Takes Command and Silences the Road — Arriving at Boone's Ranch on the Arkansas River, Colonel Chivington officially assumed command of the expeditionary force. Determined to cloak his movements in secrecy, Chivington immediately halted all eastbound mail carriers and stagecoaches, detaining all civilian traffic along the road toward Fort Lyon and preventing any early warnings of the advancing column from reaching the peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho camps (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - NOVEMBER 25–27, 1864 · THE ARKANSAS RIVER: Guards Are Placed at Ranches to Prevent Warnings — Advancing down the Arkansas, Chivington ordered heavy guards at all ranches along the route to maintain absolute secrecy. He specifically dispatched detachments to seize the properties of John Prowers and William Bent, disarming the inhabitants and forbidding anyone from leaving the premises under threat of violence—systematically preventing the intermarried ranchers from sending warnings to their Cheyenne and Arapaho relatives at Sand Creek (Roberts, 1984). - NOVEMBER 26, 1864 · FORT LYON: Wynkoop Departs Fort Lyon — Major Wynkoop departed Fort Lyon for district headquarters at Fort Riley, Kansas, to personally justify his unauthorized diplomatic efforts to his superiors. He traveled with letters of testimonial from local officers and twenty-six Arkansas Valley ranchers who praised his peace policies and recent humane rescue of white captives. His departure removed the primary military advocate for the Cheyenne and Arapaho peace factions, leaving the path clear for Chivington and Anthony to orchestrate their attack without internal interference (Roberts, 1984). - NOVEMBER 27, 1864 · BENT'S RANCH: Soldiers Confine the Bent Family and Press Robert Bent — Colonel George L. Shoup and a detachment of the Third Colorado surrounded William Bent's ranch on the Purgatoire River, placing the inhabitants under close guard to ensure operational secrecy. The detachment explicitly forced Bent's mixed-blood son, Robert Bent, into government service to navigate the force toward Black Kettle's village. Robert Bent later testified before the 1865 federal investigative commissions regarding this forced conscription (John Evans Study Committee, 2014; Roberts, 1984). - NOVEMBER 28–29, 1864 · FORT LYON TO SAND CREEK: Chivington's Forces March Through the Night — At 8:00 p.m. on November 28, Chivington marched his combined force of approximately seven hundred troops out of Fort Lyon, initiating a grueling forty-mile night march across the frozen plains toward Big Sandy Creek. To ensure the sleeping camps received no warning, the command forced Robert Bent and aging trapper Jim Beckwourth to navigate the column directly to the Cheyenne and Arapaho wintering grounds. Bent later provided damning testimony to the 1865 congressional committees about this calculated, covert advance (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; John Evans Study Committee, 2014; Roberts, 1984). - NOVEMBER 28, 1864 (MORNING) · FORT LYON: Chivington Arrives at Fort Lyon and Seals the Post — Following a swift and covert march across snow-covered plains, Colonel Chivington and his command arrived at Fort Lyon on the morning of November 28, taking the garrison by surprise. To conceal his impending attack, Chivington immediately isolated the fort by establishing a perimeter picket line and strictly prohibiting anyone from leaving. Several garrison officers later testified before the 1865 commission that Chivington explicitly threatened to shoot any individual who attempted to slip away to warn the Native camps (Roberts, 1984; U.S. Congress, 1865). - NOVEMBER 28, 1864 (AFTERNOON) · FORT LYON: Captain Silas Soule Vehemently Protests the Planned Attack — As the expeditionary force prepared, Captain Silas Soule vehemently condemned the operation, declaring to his fellow officers that any man who participated in murdering the peaceful camps was a "low lived cowardly son of a bitch." Chivington threatened to arrest Soule for insubordination. Soule courageously recounted these protests under oath before the 1865 military commission—an act of whistleblowing for which he was assassinated in the streets of Denver just months later (Arapaho-Cheyenne Tribal Elders & History Colorado, 2022; Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - NOVEMBER 28, 1864 (EVENING) · FORT LYON: Cramer Confronts Chivington at the Commissary — Lieutenant Joseph A. Cramer warned Colonel Chivington that attacking the surrendered camp constituted "murder, in every sense of the word." Lieutenants William P. Minton and Chauncey M. Cossitt, along with Indian Agent Samuel Colley, echoed these objections, reminding the commander of the diplomatic protection pledged to the tribes. During the 1865 federal investigations, the dissenting officers swore that Chivington brought his fist down near Cramer's face and shouted, "Damn any man who is in sympathy with an Indian!" (Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984; U.S. Congress, 1865). - NOVEMBER 29, 1864 (DAWN) · SAND CREEK: Troops Ignore Flags of Truce and Open Fire — Cheyenne and Arapaho families awoke to the sound of pounding hoofbeats on the snowy ground, initially hoping a herd of bison was nearby before realizing they were cavalry horses carrying soldiers intending to kill them. As the cavalry charged the village, Chief Black Kettle desperately hoisted an American flag and a white flag of surrender, while Chief White Antelope stood with his arms folded and sang a journey song. The troops deliberately ignored these diplomatic symbols and gunned down White Antelope underneath the flags—an unprovoked murder of a peaceful emissary heavily documented during the 1865 military commission (Arapaho-Cheyenne Tribal Elders & History Colorado, 2022; Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981). - NOVEMBER 29, 1864 (DAWN & MORNING) · SAND CREEK: Lieutenant Cramer Testifies to the Fall of Nowoo3 — Lieutenant Joseph Cramer testified under oath that Chief Nowoo3 stood bravely with his arms folded and declared he would not fight the soldiers because they were his friends, just before he was gunned down. Private Morse H. Coffin recorded that the men of Company D firmly believed they had killed the peace chief during the chaos of the initial charge. The Boulder detachment sustained their own fatal losses: Henry C. Foster died early from a neck wound near the east bank of the creek, and Robert McFarland was killed later during the pursuit, at least four miles away. Federal records later confirmed that Nowoo3 survived the immediate assault, was carried from the battlefield by fleeing survivors, and died several days later in the Smoky Hill encampments (Coffin, 1965; Roberts, 1984; U.S. Army, 1867; U.S. Congress, 1865). - NOVEMBER 29, 1864 (MORNING) · SAND CREEK: Villagers Flee as Military Discipline Collapses — Terrified Cheyenne and Arapaho survivors fled northward up the dry creek bed, desperately digging shallow pits in the sandy banks with their bare hands. Amid the chaotic slaughter of fleeing women and children, officers like Captain Silas Soule courageously held their men back and refused to participate in the carnage, an act of defiance Soule later testified to under oath. By the time the active shooting subsided, troops had murdered more than 230 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho women, children, and elders (Arapaho-Cheyenne Tribal Elders & History Colorado, 2022; Coel, 1981; John Evans Study Committee, 2014). - NOVEMBER 29, 1864 (AFTERNOON) · SAND CREEK: Soldiers Mutilate the Dead and Execute Prisoners — As active fighting subsided, the volunteer troops systematically scalped the dead and committed horrific atrocities, including bashing in children's skulls and cutting unborn babies from their dying mothers' wombs. Angry soldiers surrounded a lodge holding captives and demanded the death of mixed-blood prisoner Jack Smith; when asked for instructions, Colonel Chivington explicitly declared that he wanted no prisoners, prompting troops to poke a gun through the lodge flap and execute him. Dissenting officers later preserved these gruesome details in sworn testimony during the 1865 federal inquiries (Arapaho-Cheyenne Tribal Elders & History Colorado, 2022; Coel, 1981; John Evans Study Committee, 2014; Roberts, 1984). - NOVEMBER 29, 1864 (AFTERMATH) · SAND CREEK: A Devastating Blow to Tribal Leadership — The unprovoked attack resulted in the murder of at least five Arapaho chiefs—Left Hand, Heap of Buffalo, Neva, Knock Knee, and Bull Bear—and twenty-three Cheyenne chiefs, including Yellow Wolf, Bear Man, White Antelope, Bear Robe, Lone Bear (One Eye), War Bonnet, Cut Nose, Little Robe, Tall Bear, Black Wolf, Bear Feathers, Spotted Crow, Black Horse, and Big Man. According to Tribal Elders, this sudden extermination of political, religious, and cultural leadership inflicted a devastating organizational blow comparable to the entire United States government being eliminated in a single day, leaving survivors deeply traumatized and significantly less able to mount a unified defense against the campaigns and forced removals that followed (Arapaho-Cheyenne Tribal Elders & History Colorado, 2022). - MID-NOVEMBER 1864 · FORT LYON: The Transition Council Endorses the Peace Policy — Major Wynkoop convened a formal transition council with about sixty Cheyenne and Arapaho headmen, assuring them that the new commander would uphold the established peace policies. Anthony explicitly pledged that the army would wage no war against their families while they awaited final federal orders, advising the tribes to remain at their Sand Creek encampment. Captain Silas Soule later revealed during the 1865 military commission that Anthony secretly intended to attack the camps once sufficient troops arrived (Roberts, 1984). - MID-NOVEMBER 1864 · FORT LYON: Anthony Expels the Arapahos — Major Anthony returned the few guns and bows he had confiscated and ordered the Southern Arapahos to leave the post to hunt, claiming he could no longer provide them with rations. Profoundly skeptical of Anthony's motives, Little Raven led the majority of the Arapahos sixty-five miles south of the Arkansas River to escape the military presence entirely—a decision that effectively saved most of the Southern Arapaho people from the impending massacre (Coel, 1981; Roberts, 1984). - LATE NOVEMBER 1864 · SAND CREEK: Nowoo3 Relocates His Band to Sand Creek — Suffering from severe illness and unable to undertake a long winter migration, Chief Nowoo3 chose not to follow Little Raven south of the Arkansas. Instead, Nowoo3 maintained his commitment to the peace process, moving his family and a small band of eight to ten lodges to join Black Kettle's encampment at Big Sandy Creek. By complying with military instructions to await General Curtis's orders, the Arapaho peace chief unwittingly placed his most vulnerable followers directly in the path of Colonel Chivington's coming force (Coel, 1981; Trenholm, 1970). - DECEMBER 1864 · WASHINGTON D.C.: Indian Agent Colley Demands a Federal Inquiry — Indian Agent Samuel G. Colley bypassed the celebratory Colorado press and used his political connections to report the slaughter directly to federal officials in Washington. Colley penned protest letters to Commissioner of Indian Affairs William P. Dole, Secretary of the Interior John P. Usher, and Senator James R. Doolittle, chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. He emphasized that the Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders had done everything possible to keep the peace and were encamped under military protection when Chivington attacked (Roberts, 1984). - DECEMBER 1–7, 1864 · THE PLAINS: The Pursuit of Little Raven Ends in Exhausted Horses — Following the massacre, Chivington mobilized the Third Colorado—including the Boulder volunteers of Company D—south toward the Arkansas River in pursuit of Little Raven's Southern Arapaho band. The cavalry tracked the fleeing families for several days, frequently arriving at hastily abandoned campsites just miles behind their quarry. The command abandoned the expedition on December 7 when their horses became completely exhausted, allowing Little Raven's people to survive (Coffin, 1965; Roberts, 1984). - DECEMBER 9–26, 1864 · WASHINGTON D.C. & NEW YORK: Harding's Leak Breaks the Story in the East — Colorado Chief Justice Stephen S. Harding leaked horrific details of the unprovoked slaughter to his political contacts in Washington. The correspondence resulted in an anonymous article published in the New York Herald on December 26, 1864, which sparked widespread eastern outrage and contradicted Chivington's claims of a glorious military victory. When Chivington's supporters in Denver exposed Harding as the author of the leak, they subjected the chief justice to intense public persecution and political pressure that eventually forced his resignation from the territorial bench (Roberts, 1984). - DECEMBER 14–19, 1864 · FORT LYON: Soule and Cramer Write to Wynkoop to Expose Atrocities — Captain Silas Soule and Lieutenant Joseph Cramer wrote detailed letters from Fort Lyon to Major Wynkoop documenting the horrific atrocities committed by Chivington's troops. The dissenting officers provided firsthand accounts of the unprovoked attack on the surrendered camp, explicitly describing soldiers mutilating the dead and beating out the brains of young children. Wynkoop immediately forwarded these reports to military headquarters and federal officials, providing the crucial primary evidence that would spark official congressional and military investigations (John Evans Study Committee, 2014; Roberts, 1984). - DECEMBER 22, 1864 · DENVER: The "Bloody Third" Receives a Heroes' Welcome — Colonel Chivington led the Third Regiment—now proudly calling themselves the "Bloody Third"—on a triumphal march through the streets of Denver to the cheers of a jubilant public. The returning cavalrymen were welcomed as heroes and crowded the city's bars, hotels, and stores to regale citizens with accounts of a glorious military victory. Over the following weeks, the soldiers publicly displayed Native scalps and severed body parts as macabre victory trophies, festooning local saloons and exhibiting the remains on stage at the Denver Theater (Arapaho-Cheyenne Tribal Elders & History Colorado, 2022; Roberts, 1984). - DECEMBER 29, 1864 · DENVER: Word of a Congressional Investigation Reaches Colorado — The Rocky Mountain News published a brief Washington dispatch announcing a congressional investigation into the "affair at Fort Lyon" based on reports from high officials that surrendered women and children had been slaughtered. The announcement shocked the majority of Colorado citizens, who viewed the Sand Creek attack as a justified act of self-defense and considered the impending federal investigation an assault on their community. Furious veterans and local politicians immediately began speculating about the identities and motives of the "high officials" who had betrayed them to Washington (Roberts, 1984). ### — Investigations, Retaliation, and the Treaty of the Little Arkansas After Sand Creek, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and allied warriors attacked settlements, stage stations, and telegraph lines along the South Platte Road, disrupting travel and isolating Denver. Federal investigations condemned the massacre, Governor Evans was forced to resign, Captain Silas Soule was assassinated in Denver for testifying against Chivington, and the Treaty of the Little Arkansas identified Sand Creek as a massacre while also removing Colorado from Cheyenne and Arapaho treaty lands. - JANUARY 4, 1865 · DENVER: Denver Celebrates the Massacre — In early January 1865, the white populace of Denver publicly celebrated the Sand Creek massacre as a military victory. Local theaters produced performances, including a melodrama titled "The Battle of Sand Creek," where actors and soldiers exhibited Indigenous scalps and three captive Indian children on stage to cheering audiences. The Rocky Mountain News and other territorial presses praised the returning soldiers and defended their actions (Hyde, 1968; Roberts, 1984). - JANUARY 4–8, 1865 · DENVER: Colonel Moonlight Replaces Chivington — On January 4, 1865, Colonel Thomas Moonlight arrived in Denver to assume command of the military district and relieve Colonel John M. Chivington. Shortly thereafter, Chivington formally mustered out of the army as a private citizen because his term of service expired, placing him beyond the jurisdiction of a formal military court-martial for his actions at Sand Creek (Grinnell, 1915; Roberts, 1984; U.S. Army, 1867). - JANUARY – FEBRUARY 1865 · THE PLAINS & JULESBURG: Retaliatory Raids Sweep the Plains — Following Sand Creek, Southern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho, and Sioux warriors formed a military coalition to launch retaliatory strikes against the overland transit routes. On January 7, 1865, a force of approximately one thousand warriors attacked the stage station at Julesburg, Colorado, severed the overland telegraph lines, sacked the town, and extracted massive quantities of supplies while soldiers barricaded inside Fort Rankin. Through January and February, allied tribes struck along a one-hundred-mile front of the South Platte Road, closing the road and isolating Denver before withdrawing their families north to the Powder River country (Berthrong, 1963; Hyde, 1968; Trenholm, 1970). - JANUARY 27, 1865 · BOULDER COUNTY: Boulder Sounds the First Gun in Defense of Sand Creek — In late January 1865, the local settler population of Boulder County mobilized to politically defend the military actions at Sand Creek. Citizens held a public meeting to formally endorse the attack on the Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment. The Rocky Mountain News praised the residents for their support, declaring that Boulder fired the first gun from the people in endorsement of the Sand Creek battle (Roberts, 1984; Rocky Mountain News, Jan. 27, 1865). - FEBRUARY – MAY 1865 · DENVER: Military Investigation Faces Procedural Problems — In February 1865, military officials convened a formal fact-finding commission in Denver to investigate the Sand Creek campaign without the authority to bring formal charges because Chivington had already mustered out. Lieutenant Colonel Samuel F. Tappan led the inquiry; Chivington objected to Tappan as an avowed enemy, and the commission closed sessions to the public. Despite procedural maneuvers by Chivington and his counsel Major Jacob Downing, Captain Silas Soule and Lieutenant Joseph Cramer testified regarding explicit promises of military protection and the mutilation of the dead before the commission closed in May (Roberts, 1984; U.S. Army, 1867). - FEBRUARY – MARCH 1865 · DENVER: Lieutenant Cramer Testifies Regarding Promises of Protection — Lieutenant Joseph A. Cramer testified that prior to the attack, he confronted Chivington and Major Scott J. Anthony and reminded them that the military pledged explicit protection to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, telling the commanders that attacking the peaceful encampment constituted murder. Cramer and other officers also testified that Chief Nowoo3 stood with his arms folded and refused to fight the soldiers before troops shot him. Fleeing survivors carried the mortally wounded chief away to the Smoky Hill encampments, where he later died (Roberts, 1984; U.S. Army, 1867). - MARCH – JULY 1865 · WASHINGTON D.C.: Congressional Investigation Releases a Damning Report — The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War launched a congressional investigation into Sand Creek and interrogated Governor John Evans. In the summer of 1865, the committee released a sweeping report condemning the attack as a foul and dastardly massacre, validated the peaceful intentions of the targeted Cheyenne and Arapaho bands, branded the military commanders as perpetrators of brutal and cowardly crimes, and demanded the immediate removal of Governor Evans (Roberts, 1984; U.S. Congress, 1865). - APRIL 23, 1865 · DENVER: Charles Squires Shoots Captain Silas Soule — On the evening of April 23, 1865, Charles W. Squires and William Morrow, two soldiers of the Second Colorado Cavalry, waited for Captain Silas Soule near a church on Lawrence Street in Denver. As Soule approached, Squires and Morrow shot and killed him, though Soule returned fire and wounded Squires in the hand. The two soldiers returned to camp, deserted, and fled south toward New Mexico (Roberts, 1984; Rocky Mountain News, Apr. 24, 1865). - MAY – JUNE 1865 · DENVER: Judge Advocate General Holt Condemns the Massacre — On May 30, 1865, the military commission concluded its investigation, prompting a detailed review by Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, who condemned the attack as a cowardly and cold-blooded slaughter and deplored that Chivington remained beyond the reach of a formal military trial. The federal government did not publish the eight hundred pages of official testimony until 1868, and Holt's condemnation never appeared in the public press. Editor William N. Byers used the Rocky Mountain News to architect the standard public defense of Sand Creek (Roberts, 1984; NPS Timeline, 2024). - MAY – JULY 1865 · LAS VEGAS & DENVER: Lieutenant Cannon Arrests Charles Squires — In May 1865, officials discovered Charles Squires in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Lieutenant James D. Cannon took custody of the prisoner, transported him to Fort Union for initial examination, and on July 11, 1865, delivered the ironed Squires to military authorities in Denver to await a court-martial for the murder of Captain Soule (Roberts, 1984; Rocky Mountain News, Jul. 11, 1865). - JULY 11–14, 1865 · DENVER: Lieutenant Cannon Dies Mysteriously at the Tremont House — After delivering Squires to the provost marshal, Lieutenant Cannon checked into the Tremont House. On the morning of July 14, individuals broke open his locked door and discovered him dead upon his bed, with a quantity of morphia upon a bedside table. A post-mortem concluded he died from congestion of the brain and stomach. Although officials produced no conclusive proof of poisoning, Major Edward W. Wynkoop remained convinced assassins murdered Cannon because he arrested Squires and previously testified against Chivington during the Sand Creek military commission (Roberts, 1984; Rocky Mountain News, Jul. 15, 1865). - JULY – AUGUST 1865 · WASHINGTON D.C. & COLORADO TERRITORY: President Johnson Forces Governor Evans to Resign — On July 18, 1865, Secretary of State William H. Seward formally requested the resignation of Governor John Evans. On August 1, 1865, President Andrew Johnson officially removed Evans from office for his role in the Sand Creek affair, and Evans resigned under protest. The federal government appointed Alexander Cummings to replace him as territorial governor (NPS Timeline, 2024; Roberts, 1984). - SUMMER 1865 · DENVER & FORT LYON: The Doolittle Committee Faces the Mob — Senator James R. Doolittle led a federal committee to Fort Lyon, where members physically inspected the perforated skulls of murdered infants as proof of the atrocities at Sand Creek. Doolittle subsequently traveled to Denver and advocated for a humane Indian policy during a public address at the Denver Theatre, where the pioneer audience repeatedly interrupted him with overwhelming shouts to exterminate the tribes (Roberts, 1984). - AUGUST 15–18, 1865 · LITTLE ARKANSAS RIVER: The Tribes Sign a Preliminary Truce — In mid-August 1865, Chief Black Kettle, Little Robe, and other Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders emerged from hiding and traveled to the mouth of the Little Arkansas River to negotiate with federal commissioners. On August 18, the chiefs signed a preliminary truce agreeing to cease hostilities against frontier settlements and travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. Within the truce document, the United States commissioners explicitly recognized the Sand Creek massacre as the direct cause of the recent Indian hostilities (Berthrong, 1963; Trenholm, 1970). - SPRING 1865 · VALMONT: Founders Lay Out the Town of Valmont — Judge C. P. Allen laid out the town of Valmont at the confluence of North and South Boulder Creeks. Judge Allen, his sons G. S. Allen and H. W. Allen, and his son-in-law Holden Eldred served as the active founders. Within two years, Valmont grew to five stores, three saloons, and two drug stores, becoming a direct business rival to Boulder. On January 1, 1866, H. W. Allen and D. G. Scouten published the first issue of the Valmont Bulletin, establishing the first newspaper in the county (Bixby, 1880). - SEPTEMBER 1865 · COLORADO TERRITORY: Governor Evans Publishes a Reply to the Congressional Committee — Governor John Evans published a formal reply to the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War in Colorado newspapers and printed the statement as a pamphlet to send to government officials. Evans charged the committee with culpable negligence and haste, blamed their conclusions on a conspiracy organized by his political enemies, sought to establish the hostility of the Cheyenne Indians prior to the attack, and denied sending the Cheyennes to Fort Lyon following the Camp Weld conference (Roberts, 1984). - OCTOBER 1865 · DENVER: Charles Squires Escapes from the Guardhouse — In October 1865, the military convened a general court-martial in Denver to try Charles Squires for desertion and the murder of Captain Soule. On the evening of October 9, 1865, Squires escaped from the military guardhouse after someone picked the padlock on the back door. The military dismissed the board of officers and never recaptured Squires (Roberts, 1984; Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 10, 1865). - OCTOBER 12–14, 1865 · LITTLE ARKANSAS RIVER: General Sanborn Apologizes at the Treaty of the Little Arkansas — Federal commissioners and Cheyenne and Arapaho delegates convened a peace council near present-day Wichita, Kansas, where Major General John B. Sanborn opened the proceedings by explicitly apologizing to the tribes for Sand Creek. Chief Black Kettle reluctantly agreed to sign the Treaty of the Little Arkansas, which repudiated Chivington's actions, established a new reservation south of the Arkansas River, and removed the Cheyenne and Arapaho from their remaining Colorado treaty lands. Article 6 promised land grants and financial reparations to the widows and orphans of Sand Creek, but the federal government never paid them. The Dog Soldiers rejected the agreement, permanently fracturing the Cheyenne nation (Bent, 1968; Berthrong, 1963; City of Boulder Ethnographic Education Report, 2023; NPS Timeline, 2024; Trenholm, 1970). - FALL 1865 · COLORADO TERRITORY: The Sand Creek Vindication Party Emerges — Colorado politicians organized the Union Administration party around an explicit political platform defending the Sand Creek massacre. During the territorial elections, Colonel Chivington ran for Congress as an independent candidate on a platform specifically promising to vindicate the actions at Sand Creek before ultimately withdrawing from the race (Roberts, 1984; Rocky Mountain News, Nov. 4, 1865). ### — Reparations Withheld and a Treaty Unfulfilled In 1866, federal authorities pressed the Cheyenne soldier societies to accept the Treaty of the Little Arkansas, but Congress underfunded the settlement and circumvented the land grants and financial reparations promised to the widows and orphans of Sand Creek. Edward Wynkoop became Indian Agent for the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Kiowa-Apaches, and Cheyenne children captured at Sand Creek remained separated from their people. - MID-FEBRUARY 1866 · ARKANSAS RIVER: Wynkoop Secures Agreement from the Soldier Societies — Major Edward Wynkoop traveled to the Arkansas River to council with Cheyenne bands who did not participate in the Treaty of the Little Arkansas. He successfully persuaded the leaders of the soldier societies to sign a paper accepting the terms of the treaty, which attempted to settle the Sand Creek hostilities. During these negotiations, Wynkoop also secured the freedom of Mary Fletcher, a sixteen-year-old white girl captured on the Platte route during the previous summer (Berthrong, 1963). - MAY 1866 · WASHINGTON D.C.: William Bent Lobbies the Federal Government — William Bent journeyed to Washington, D.C., to urge exact compliance with the terms of the Treaty of the Little Arkansas, specifically to influence the government to fulfill the treaty's provisions regarding the Sand Creek settlement and stabilize the region (Berthrong, 1963). - JULY 26, 1866 · WASHINGTON D.C.: Congress Appropriates—and Underfunds—the Sand Creek Reparations — The United States Congress voted to appropriate $39,050 to fulfill the Treaty of the Little Arkansas—$14,600 less than the treaty commissioners originally negotiated. Despite the treaty's explicit provisions, the government circumvented the land grants and never paid the specific financial reparations promised to the widows and orphans of the Sand Creek massacre (Roberts, 1984). - LATE 1866 · UPPER ARKANSAS AGENCY: Edward Wynkoop Becomes Indian Agent — The federal government appointed Edward Wynkoop to replace Indian Agent Taylor as the agent for the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Kiowa-Apaches. Authorities believed Wynkoop was the only man who could gain assent to the treaty amendments from the Indians who still sought revenge for Sand Creek and separate the friendly bands from the recalcitrant factions (Berthrong, 1963). - OCTOBER 1866 · CENTRAL CITY & NEW YORK CITY: The Fate of a Cheyenne Captive — Territorial Governor Alexander Cummings investigated the whereabouts of the Cheyenne children taken captive by the military during the Sand Creek massacre. Cummings reported to the Office of Indian Affairs that one of the girls lived with the family of Mrs. Ford in Central City, Colorado, where she attended school and church. Because the family and the girl grew attached and expressed aversion to her returning to the Plains, the government did not press the matter. During the 1870s, Samuel F. Tappan adopted the girl and sent her to a girls' school in New York City, where she became violently ill and died before finishing her education (Roberts, 1984). ### — Hancock's War and the Medicine Lodge Treaty In 1867, Major General Winfield Scott Hancock burned a Cheyenne and Sioux village on the Pawnee Fork, provoking retaliatory strikes that halted construction of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Congress established the Indian Peace Commission, which produced the Medicine Lodge Treaty—replacing the 1865 Treaty of the Little Arkansas, relocating Cheyenne and Arapaho people to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), and clearing the way for railroad construction across the central plains. - JANUARY 1867 · FORT HARKER & ARKANSAS RIVER: Hancock Embargoes Arms After Cheyennes Run Off Stock — On January 1, 1867, sixty-five warriors from Black Kettle's camp, including Sand Creek survivors George and Charles Bent, turned aside at Fort Harker, Kansas, wounded a Kaw army scout, and ran off forty horses. In response, Major General Winfield Scott Hancock issued a blanket prohibition on January 26, 1867, banning all sales of weapons and ammunition to the reservation tribes living along the Arkansas River (Berthrong, 1963). - APRIL 1867 · PAWNEE FORK: General Hancock Burns the Cheyenne and Sioux Village — Major General Hancock marched a military expedition of fifteen hundred troops to a large Cheyenne and Sioux encampment on the Pawnee Fork. As the troops approached, the inhabitants fled because they feared a repetition of Sand Creek. On April 19, 1867, Hancock ordered the military to completely burn the village and destroy Indian property. Indian Agent Edward Wynkoop formally denounced the campaign, informing his superiors that the Indians fled because they possessed no means of discriminating between Hancock and Chivington (Berthrong, 1963; Roberts, 1984). - MAY – JUNE 1867 · SMOKY HILL RIVER: Cheyennes Attack the Kansas Pacific Railroad — Following the destruction of the village at Pawnee Fork, Cheyenne warriors launched retaliatory strikes against overland transit routes and settlements in Kansas. Between May 22 and June 24, 1867, indigenous forces attacked engineering parties of the Kansas Pacific Railroad in the Smoky Hill Valley and completely halted construction. During June, Cheyenne warriors executed lethal ambushes against stage station keepers west of Fort Wallace (Berthrong, 1963). - JULY 20, 1867 · WASHINGTON D.C.: Congress Establishes the Indian Peace Commission — Reacting directly to the report of the congressional committee that investigated the Sand Creek massacre, the United States Congress passed an act establishing a formal commission to conclude a permanent peace with the western tribes. President Andrew Johnson appointed military officers, including Generals William T. Sherman and William S. Harney, to serve alongside civilian commissioners. The commission sought to place the tribes upon permanent reservations removed from western roads and railroads (Berthrong, 1963). - OCTOBER 28, 1867 · MEDICINE LODGE CREEK (PRESENT-DAY SOUTHERN KANSAS): Medicine Lodge Treaty — Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders—including Sand Creek survivors Chief Black Kettle and Chief Little Raven—signed the Medicine Lodge Treaty to replace the 1865 Treaty of the Little Arkansas. The treaty relocated the tribes to a smaller joint reservation in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) while clearing the way for railroad construction across the central plains. To secure the signatures, Senator John B. Henderson promised the Indians they could continue to range and hunt buffalo north of the Arkansas River until the herds disappeared (Berthrong, 1963; Coel, 1981; NPS Timeline, 2024; Roberts, 1984; Trenholm, 1970). ### — Fort Laramie, Wynkoop's Resignation, and the Washita In 1868, Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapaho leaders signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie, Edward Wynkoop resigned as Indian Agent citing the unpunished murders at Sand Creek, and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry attacked Chief Black Kettle's village on the Washita River. Black Kettle and his wife, Medicine Woman Later—both survivors of Sand Creek who actively advocated for peace—were killed alongside more than fifty Cheyenne people. - APRIL 29 & MAY 10, 1868 · FORT LARAMIE: Northern Tribes Sign the Treaty of Fort Laramie — Federal peace commissioners negotiated a treaty at Fort Laramie with the Northern Cheyennes and Northern Arapahoes, who remained in the north country separated from the southern bands following Sand Creek. Northern Arapaho chiefs, including Medicine Man, Black Bear, and Sorrel Horse, affixed their marks to the treaty, which required the Northern Arapahoes to eventually accept a permanent home on either the southern reservation established at Medicine Lodge or the reservation designated for the Sioux (Bent, 1968; Trenholm, 1970). - OCTOBER 7, 1868 · PHILADELPHIA: Edward Wynkoop Resigns over the Sand Creek Legacy — Edward Wynkoop submitted his formal resignation as the Indian Agent for the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. Writing from Philadelphia, Wynkoop sent a lengthy letter to Commissioner Charles E. Mix explaining that the current outbreak of violence resulted directly from the unpunished murders at Sand Creek and the wanton destruction of Cheyenne property by Major General Hancock (Berthrong, 1963). - MID-OCTOBER 1868 · THE SOUTHERN PLAINS: General Sheridan Plans the Winter Campaign — Federal authorities authorized General Philip H. Sheridan to commence a winter campaign to punish the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, whose memories of Sand Creek remained fresh and influenced their actions. Sheridan planned to drive the tribes south and specifically targeted the village of Chief Black Kettle, encamped on the Washita River (Grinnell, 1915). - NOVEMBER 3, 1868 · WASHINGTON D.C.: Northern Tribes Protest Removal to the South — Delegations of Northern Cheyennes and Northern Arapahoes held an interview with President Ulysses S. Grant to protest their removal. When Grant informed the chiefs that the 1868 treaty required them to move south to Indian Territory, the Northern Arapaho chief Plenty Bears replied that his people did not wish to go south and were well satisfied where they were. The chiefs reiterated to the Secretary of the Interior that they never understood the treaty to oblige them to give up their home in the North, but the talks concluded with no resolution (Bent, 1968). - NOVEMBER 27, 1868 · WASHITA RIVER (PRESENT-DAY WESTERN OKLAHOMA): Custer Kills the Sand Creek Survivors at the Washita — At dawn, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry executed a surprise attack on Chief Black Kettle's Cheyenne village along the Washita River. The troops shot and killed Chief Black Kettle and his wife, Medicine Woman Later—both of whom survived Sand Creek four years earlier and actively advocated for peace—along with more than fifty Cheyenne people. Following the destruction of the village, the troops captured the Cheyenne pony herd and executed the horses they could not utilize (Bent, 1968; Berthrong, 1963; Grinnell, 1915; NPS Timeline, 2024). ### — Custer's Winter Campaign, Summit Springs, and the Southern Reservation In 1869, federal military pressure forced the Southern Arapahoes and Cheyennes onto a permanent reservation in Indian Territory. Custer marched from Fort Sill against Cheyenne camps on the Sweetwater River, most Southern Arapahoes agreed to settle near Fort Sill, the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers retaliated along the Kansas frontier, the Fifth U.S. Cavalry destroyed Tall Bull's village at Summit Springs in northeastern Colorado, and President Grant issued an executive order assigning the tribes a new reservation along the North Canadian and upper Washita rivers. - MARCH 2, 1869 · FORT SILL & SWEETWATER RIVER: Custer Marches Against the Cheyenne Camps — Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer marched from Fort Sill toward the North Fork of the Red River with a command of eleven companies of the Seventh Cavalry and ten companies of the Nineteenth Kansas Volunteers. On March 15, 1869, Custer's Osage scouts discovered a large Cheyenne encampment of two hundred and sixty lodges stretching along the Sweetwater River. The military expedition frightened and scattered the tribe, prompting Cheyenne chiefs to proceed to Camp Supply, where they promised to begin reservation life on the lands set aside for them (Berthrong, 1963). - APRIL 1869 · FORT SILL: Southern Arapahoes Agree to Settle on the Reservation — Medicine Man, Little Big Mouth, Yellow Bear, Storm, and six hundred Arapahoes expressed themselves ready to go on the reservation. Medicine Man held a talk with General B.H. Grierson a short distance from Fort Sill and asked that his people be allowed to follow the face of the white man, live with the white teachers on their reservation, and treat them as brothers. By April 1869, most of the Southern Arapahoes had taken up life on the reservation (Trenholm, 1970). - MAY 1869 · REPUBLICAN RIVER & KANSAS FRONTIER: Dog Soldiers Defy Removal and Raid Kansas Settlements — Defiantly rejecting the removal to the southern reservation, Chief Tall Bull and the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers established themselves on the Republican River and its tributaries. Following a military assault on their village by Major E.A. Carr on May 13, 1869, the Dog Soldiers launched retaliatory strikes along the Kansas frontier. In the eight days following May 21, 1869, Cheyenne and Sioux warriors killed thirteen people and took two prisoners in Republic County, Kansas, and tore up two miles of track on the Kansas Pacific railroad near the Fossil Spring station (Berthrong, 1963). - JULY 11, 1869 · SUMMIT SPRINGS (NORTHEASTERN COLORADO): Major Carr Destroys Tall Bull's Village — Major E.A. Carr and a battalion of Pawnee scouts executed a complete surprise attack upon Tall Bull's Cheyenne Dog Soldier encampment near Summit Springs in present-day Colorado. The troops and Pawnee scouts captured the greater part of the pony herd and drove the fleeing Indians into a ravine with steep banks. During the intense fighting in the ravine, the troops killed Chief Tall Bull, effectively destroying the Dog Soldier band as a militant force on the central plains. Following the battle, the remnants of Tall Bull's village fled north to join the Sioux camps on the White River (Bent, 1968; Berthrong, 1963; Grinnell, 1915). - AUGUST 10, 1869 · WASHINGTON D.C.: President Grant Assigns a New Reservation — President Ulysses S. Grant issued a formal proclamation assigning a new reservation to the Southern Arapahoes and Cheyennes. The executive order located the permanent reservation along the North Canadian River and the upper Washita River, lying west of the 98th meridian in the Indian Territory. This federal action legally confined the tribes to the south, far removed from the site of the Sand Creek massacre and their former hunting grounds in Colorado (Trenholm, 1970). ### — Reservation Years, Railroad Arrival, and the Founding of Niwot Between 1870 and 1875, federal commissioners formally condemned Sand Creek even as the U.S. Treasury absorbed the unpaid reparations, Sand Creek survivors relocated to the Darlington Agency in Indian Territory, and Congress ended treaty-making with Native nations. In Boulder County, settler communities organized rapidly: Boulder and Longmont incorporated, the Colorado Central Railroad pushed tracks through the future Niwot area and began daily service, mountain mining towns like Sunshine and Nederland established municipal governments, and on March 30, 1875, Sand Creek veteran Porter M. Hinman and Ambrose S. Murray Jr. platted the town of Niwot and named it for Southern Arapaho Chief Nowoo3 (Left Hand). - 1870 · WASHINGTON D.C.: Grant's Board of Indian Commissioners Condemns the Massacre — The new Board of Indian Commissioners appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant formally reviewed military events since the Civil War and addressed the legacy of the Third Colorado Cavalry. The federal commissioners explicitly wrote that for the honor of humanity, the government should blot out the record of Colonel Chivington's deeds, and officially declared that the entire history of Indian warfare furnished no more black and damning episode than the massacre at Sand Creek (Roberts, 1984). - JANUARY 23, 1870 · MONTANA: Colonel Baker Executes the Piegan Massacre — Colonel E. M. Baker attacked a camp of Piegans in Montana and killed one hundred and seventy-three men, women, and children. The New York Times called the attack a sickening slaughter in the Chivington style, and the affair joined Sand Creek in the case against the army. Colorado papers applauded the Piegan massacre, and the Chicago Tribune noted that Colorado citizens still justified the transaction at Sand Creek (Roberts, 1984). - APRIL 8, 1870 · WYOMING TERRITORY: White Citizens Kill Chief Black Bear — After Sand Creek, Arapaho chiefs Notanee and Neva took their people north and never returned to the familiar haunts between the Platte and the Arkansas. In the spring of 1870, young Arapaho warriors raided several settlements in Wyoming, and local citizens organized a militia. Unable to find the raiders, the citizens attacked a small group of friendly Arapahoes, killing Chief Black Bear and his people on April 8, 1870. During one of the April attacks, the Sand Creek survivor Notanee sustained fatal injuries (Roberts, 1984; Trenholm, 1970). - MAY 3 & 26, 1870 · EL RENO & ANTELOPE HILLS: Sand Creek Survivors Relocate to the Permanent Agency — On May 3, 1870, Brinton Darlington shifted his agency to its permanent site near present-day El Reno, Oklahoma. The Arapahoes quickly followed the Indian agent, but the Cheyennes were slow to move east. On May 26, 1870, only Stone Calf with thirteen lodges and the families of Sand Creek survivors George Bent and John Smith were with Darlington at the agency. Most of the Cheyennes were camping near the Antelope Hills with the Kiowas and Comanches (Berthrong, 1963). - 1871 · INDIAN TERRITORY: Sand Hill and the Survivors Relocate to the Agency — Chief Sand Hill and his band of survivors from the Sand Creek massacre finally appeared on the reservation in Indian Territory. Because Sand Hill remained fiercely loyal to Stone Forehead, he kept his people close to the Sacred Arrows during the difficult years after Sand Creek and stayed clear of the white agency as much as possible to remain free (Roberts, 1984). - FEBRUARY 2, 1871 · BURLINGTON AND LONGMONT: The Chicago-Colorado Colony Selects the Longmont Site — Representatives of the Chicago-Colorado Colony selected a town site near the St. Vrain River. To integrate with the existing community, the colonists incorporated their interests with the early settlers, and residents moved the old town of Burlington across the creek to the new site (Bixby, 1880). - MARCH 1, 1871 · LONGMONT: Surveyors Lay Out the New Town — The colony surveyor began the survey of the new town, laid out streets and parks, and named the settlement Longmont. The colonists spent roughly fifty thousand dollars on building construction during the first three months. Longmont officially incorporated on January 7, 1873 (Bixby, 1880). - MARCH 3, 1871 · WASHINGTON D.C.: Congress Passes the Indian Appropriations Act — The United States Congress passed a law to fund the federal Indian Department. The legislation declared that the government no longer recognized any Indian tribe as an independent nation, and officially ended the practice of making new treaties with Native peoples. The act also guaranteed that the government still honored the obligations of all old treaties previously made and approved with the tribes. - NOVEMBER 4, 1871 · BOULDER: Boulder Is Incorporated — The Boulder County Commissioners officially incorporated the Town of Boulder. After a citizens' petition, the commissioners appointed Anthony Arnett, James P. Maxwell, Marinus G. Smith, Frederick A. Squires, and Alpheus Wright as the town's first board of trustees (Perrigo, 1946). - DECEMBER 25, 1871 · CAMP SUPPLY: Stone Forehead Arrives at the Agency — Stone Forehead, the venerated keeper of the Sacred Arrows who symbolized the old free spirit to the Cheyennes and survived Sand Creek, moved onto the reservation in 1871. On December 25, 1871, Stone Forehead (known to whites as Medicine Arrows) appeared at Camp Supply, Indian Territory, with thirty lodges of his band. Forty more lodges of Cheyennes were en route to the agency from the north, moving slowly because their ponies were in poor condition and because they lacked clothing and robes (Berthrong, 1963; Roberts, 1984). - AUGUST 30, 1872 · WASHINGTON D.C.: The Federal Government Defaults on the Sand Creek Reparations — The United States Treasury quietly absorbed an unexpended balance of fifteen thousand dollars originally appropriated to pay reparations to the victims of the Sand Creek massacre. Despite the explicit promises made in the Treaty of the Little Arkansas, the government circumvented the land clauses and refused to issue the specific land grants to the widows and orphans who lost family members during Chivington's attack. Federal officials never provided an official explanation for the cancellation of the Sand Creek indemnities (Roberts, 1984). - JANUARY – JULY 1873 · NIWOT AREA: Railroad Secures the Right of Way — In January, the Colorado Central Railroad secured the right of way for new tracks through land owned by Elijah and Nancy Williams in the present-day Niwot area. Ambrose Spencer Murray Jr., the representative handling the land acquisitions, purchased the property from the Williams family for five thousand dollars that July (Koehler, 2025). - SPRING 1873 · BOULDER COUNTY: Tracks Reach Longmont and Daily Service Begins — The Colorado Central Railroad laid tracks from Boulder City through the Niwot area and northward to Longmont. The company completed the twelve-mile section between Boulder and Longmont that same year and initiated daily passenger service (Dyni, 1994; Koehler, 2025). - 1873 · NIWOT AREA: Depot and Section House — After the tracks were finished, the railroad built a depot with a loading platform, ticket office, and telegraph office, and a section house named "Modoc" west of the depot. George Washington Wilson was hired as the first station agent and telegrapher (Dyni, 1994; Koehler, 2025). - 1874 · INDIAN TERRITORY: Sand Creek Emissary Minimic Keeps His Band out of the War — As the violent Red River War erupted across the Southern Plains, the Cheyenne leader Minimic warned the warring tribes that they could not beat the soldiers and kept his own band out of the conflict. Minimic, who originally traveled to Fort Lyon in September 1864 as a peace emissary just prior to Sand Creek, emerged as an important leader of the peace faction during the reservation years (Roberts, 1984). - SUMMER 1874 · NEDERLAND AND SUNSHINE: Mountain Mining Towns Incorporate — On July 5, 1874, the mining settlement of Sunshine—about eight miles west of Boulder—officially incorporated as a town. Later that same year, the settlement of Nederland, on Boulder Creek roughly twenty miles above Boulder, also incorporated and established a municipal government (Bixby, 1880). - 1873 – 1875 · NIWOT DEPOT: Daily Train Operations and Cattle Shipments — Trains passed through the depot each morning and afternoon, delivering mail and transporting passengers and farm produce out of the valley. Workers built stock pens along a sidetrack north of the depot to hold local farmers' cattle for shipment to the Denver stockyards. The railroad also placed empty boxcars on a sidetrack behind the depot to serve as living quarters for the section workers (Dyni, 1994; Koehler, 2025). - 1875 · DARLINGTON AGENCY: Bull Bear Settles at the Agency Following the Red River War — Following the conclusion of the Red River War, the Dog Soldier chief Bull Bear settled down near the Darlington Agency and became one of the leaders of the progressive faction. As one of the principal actors in the Sand Creek tragedy to survive the plains wars, the man who had traveled to Denver with Black Kettle in 1864 finally ceased his militant resistance, placed his children in the agency school, and served as an assistant farmer on the reservation (Roberts, 1984). - MARCH 30, 1875 · NIWOT: Niwot Is Platted and Named for Nowoo3 — Porter M. Hinman and Ambrose S. Murray Jr. filed the official platting map for the town of Niwot in present-day Boulder County, Colorado. The founders named the town after Southern Arapaho Chief Nowoo3, whose name in English is Left Hand. Eleven years before platting the town, Porter M. Hinman served in Company D of the Third Colorado Cavalry, mustering at Fort Chambers and participating in the Sand Creek Massacre (Bixby, 1880; City of Boulder Ethnographic Education Report, 2023; Koehler, 2025). ### — Arapaho and Cheyenne Representatives Return to Niwot In 2025, Southern Arapaho representative Fred Mosqueda and Southern Cheyenne representative Chester Whiteman spoke at Niwot Hall during the event 'Building Arapaho, Cheyenne and Niwot Relationships.' The gathering brought Arapaho and Cheyenne perspectives into the community named for Nowoo3 and marked a renewed effort to build relationships through truthful history, listening, and public education. - MARCH 17, 2025 · NIWOT, COLORADO: Building Arapaho, Cheyenne and Niwot Relationships — Southern Arapaho representative Fred Mosqueda and Southern Cheyenne representative Chester Whiteman spoke at Niwot Hall during the community event 'Building Arapaho, Cheyenne and Niwot Relationships.' The gathering brought Arapaho and Cheyenne perspectives into the community named for Chief Nowoo3 (Left Hand) and marked a renewed effort to build relationships through truthful history, listening, and public education. Contemporary perspectives: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/arapaho-cheyenne-perspectives This separate page gathers publicly shared and attributed Arapaho and Cheyenne perspectives from named speakers, public community events, reports, videos, and educational resources. It is not presented as official Tribal representation or endorsement. Key sources include the City of Boulder Tribal Nation ethnographic-education report (May 2026), the City of Denver We Are the Land historic context study, and public remarks by Southern Arapaho Elder Fred Mosqueda and Southern Cheyenne Elder Chester Whiteman. ## History Pathway — Guided Chapter Reader A seven-chapter sequential reader summarizing the road from Indigenous homelands through dispossession, the Sand Creek Massacre, federal investigations, and removal from Colorado. Each chapter timeline below is fully rendered on its public page and indexable independently. ### Chapter 01 — Homelands URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/history/homelands For more than ten thousand years, Indigenous peoples lived in and stewarded the Boulder Valley and the broader Colorado Front Range. By the early 1800s, the allied Southern Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne nations utilized the sheltered foothills for winter encampments. The United States Congress designated these plains as Indian Country in 1834, establishing a legal boundary that incoming gold seekers soon ignored. Key events: - Since Time Immemorial: Indigenous Homelands — The Boulder Valley in present-day Colorado has been home to Indigenous peoples since time immemorial. The City of Boulder formally acknowledges the ancestral homelands and unceded territory of the Di De'i (Apache), Hinono'eiteen (Arapaho), Tsétsėhéstȧhese (Cheyenne), Nʉmʉnʉʉ (Comanche), Caiugu (Kiowa), Čariks i Čariks (Pawnee), Sosonih (Shoshone), Oc'eti S'akowin (Sioux) and Núuchiu (Ute) Nations. - Late 1700s: Arapaho–Cheyenne Alliance — Pushed westward from the Great Lakes region by expanding tribes, the Arapaho and Cheyenne formed a durable alliance near the Black Hills. By 1800, the two allied nations migrated south onto the central plains and established their dominance along the Colorado Front Range. - Early 1820s: The Birth of Nowoo3 — In the early 1820s, a Southern Arapaho woman gave birth to a boy on the central plains who received the name Niwot, or Left Hand, because he favored that hand. Nowoo3 grew into an accomplished plainsman and an English-speaking chief who negotiated directly with encroaching white Americans to protect his people. - 1833: MaHom and the English Language — In 1833, Nowoo3's sister MaHom married John Poisal, an American trader who lived in their village and tutored both Nowoo3 and his brother Neva in English. This rare education gave the brothers the exact linguistic tools they later used to interpret at treaty councils and navigate complex diplomacy. - June 30, 1834: Indian Trade and Intercourse Act — The United States Congress passed legislation designating the lands west of the Mississippi River as Indian Country and prohibiting white settlement. This federal law legally recognized Southern Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne possession of the central plains, but the government later abandoned this promise during the Colorado Gold Rush. - 1849: Overland Trails and Ecological Disruption — Driven by the California gold discovery, forty thousand prospectors traveled the Platte and Arkansas river routes in 1849, destroying prairie grasses and scattering buffalo herds. These wagon trains also introduced a cholera epidemic that killed hundreds of Arapaho people and wiped out half of the Southern Cheyenne nation. Bibliography: - Berthrong, Donald J. The Southern Cheyennes. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963. - City of Boulder. "Staff Land Acknowledgment." - City of Boulder and Living Heritage Anthropology, LLC. "The City of Boulder Ethnographic Education Report: Cheyenne and Arapaho." - Coel, Margaret. Chief Left Hand: Southern Arapaho. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1981. - Grinnell, George Bird. The Fighting Cheyennes. Arcadia Press, 2019 (originally published 1915). - Hall, Frank. History of the State of Colorado, Vol. 1. - Hyde, George E. A Life of George Bent: Written from His Letters. Edited by Savoie Lottinville. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968. - Niwot Living History Historical Pathway. "Project Charter." - Roberts, Gary Leland. Sand Creek: Tragedy and Symbol. PhD Dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 1984. - Trenholm, Virginia Cole. The Arapahoes, Our People. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970. - West, Elliott. The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998. --- ### Chapter 02 — Gold Rush & Dispossession URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/history/gold-rush-and-dispossession Prospectors discovered gold near present-day Denver, igniting a gold rush that drove white settlers into the Boulder Valley. Although early local histories state that Chief Nowoo3 ordered these prospectors to leave, the settlers stayed and organized claims in direct violation of the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie and the 1834 Indian Intercourse Act. This occupation dispossessed the Southern Arapaho and Cheyenne of lands promised to them and would soon exile the tribes from the Boulder Valley. Key events: - September 17, 1851: Treaty of Fort Laramie — The United States signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie, recognizing Arapaho and Cheyenne ownership of the lands between the North Platte and Arkansas rivers. This protected Native territory included present-day Boulder County and Denver. - July 1858: Gold Discovery at Dry Creek — Prospectors struck gold on a Southern Arapaho wintering ground at Dry Creek near present-day Denver. This discovery ignited the Pikes Peak gold rush and drove tens of thousands of settlers onto the plains. - November 1858: Boulder Valley Settlement — Local histories say Thomas Aikins and his party arrived at the mouth of Boulder Canyon and built cabins on unceded Arapaho land. Chief Nowoo3 confronted the prospectors and ordered them to leave because they were destroying the tribe's timber, game, and grass. However, they stayed and several of the goldseekers would form the first city in present-day Boulder County. - 1859: Front Range — The Fifty-Niners and Ecological Collapse — Approximately 100,000 settlers flooded the Front Range, bringing livestock that overgrazed river valleys and cutting down vital cottonwood groves for fuel and cabins. This sudden migration collapsed the bison economy and spread severe hunger and deadly diseases through Native camps. - Mid-January 1859: The Gold Run Discovery — In mid-January 1859, prospectors from the Boulder Creek encampment discovered surface gold at Gold Run, triggering a massive rush of miners onto unceded Southern Arapaho territory. To protect their unauthorized claims on Indigenous land, these prospectors established Mountain District No. 1 at Gold Hill as the region's first extralegal mining government. - February 10, 1859: Boulder City Town Company — Fifty-six prospectors organized the Boulder City Town Company directly on Arapaho wintering grounds. The founders platted more than twelve hundred acres of unceded land into 4,044 commercial lots. - Spring–Summer 1859: Extralegal Claim Clubs and Mountain Districts — White settlers formed extralegal organizations, including Mountain District No. 1 and the Great Western Land Claim Association, which functioned as an unauthorized recorder of deeds for the Boulder Valley. Acting as legal trespassers, these prospectors misused the federal Preemption Act of 1841 to claim 160-acre tracts, even though the law strictly prohibited settlement on unceded Native lands. - May 1859: Indigenous Diplomacy in Denver — Southern Arapaho leaders Little Raven and Nowoo3 independently visited the new Rocky Mountain News in the expanding settler camps in present-day Denver. During a formal public council, Little Raven said the land around Denver belonged to his people and that white settlers "would not stay round here very long." - November 1859: The Territory of Jefferson — Recognizing their lack of legal land titles, white settlers organized the extralegal Territory of Jefferson across present-day Colorado. The provisional assembly enacted unauthorized laws, established counties, and collected taxes to protect pioneer property until the federal government created Colorado Territory in 1861. Bibliography: - Bixby, Amos. "History of Boulder County" in History of Clear Creek and Boulder Valleys, Colorado (1880). - Coel, Margaret. Chief Left Hand, Southern Arapaho (1981). - Gillespie, Lois M. Wright. "The Jackson (Great Western) Land Claim Association – 1859-1860: Boulder Valley Settlers Claim Tracts on Indian Land" (1994). - Meier, Tom. The Early Settlement of Boulder Set in Type — Cast in Bronze — Fused in Porcelain. ‘It Ain't Necessarily So’ (1993). - Roberts, Gary L. Sand Creek: Tragedy and Symbol (1984). - Trenholm, Virginia Cole. The Arapahoes, Our People (1970). - Rocky Mountain News Articles (1859). - Treaties and Laws: 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the 1841 Preemption Act, and the 1834 Indian Intercourse Act. --- ### Chapter 03 — The Fort Wise Treaty & Colorado URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/history/fort-wise-treaty-and-escalation In February 1861, federal agents secured six Cheyenne and Arapaho signatures on the Treaty of Fort Wise, an agreement that Chief Nowoo3 and the majority of tribal leaders rejected. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, Territorial Governor William Gilpin funded the construction of Camp Weld and raised the First Colorado Regiment, which would defeat Confederate forces near present-day Glorieta, New Mexico. In November 1861, the Boulder County Commissions began their first meetings to levy taxes, map voting townships and record property deeds. Key events: - February 18, 1861: The Treaty of Fort Wise — Federal agents convinced a small faction of Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs to sign the Treaty of Fort Wise to clear Native land claims from the Colorado mining region. The few chiefs who signed believed the agreement only bound themselves, but federal officials insisted the treaty legally committed all the bands to relocate to a new reservation. - February 28, 1861: Congress Creates Colorado Territory — Congress passed the Organic Act creating Colorado Territory, bringing federal jurisdiction to the pioneer settlements while explicitly stating that unceded Indigenous lands were excluded from territorial boundaries. Federal officials later clarified that Indian land title remained unextinguished, meaning the thousands of gold rush prospectors who had built towns and farms were residing on unceded Native territory. - April 12, 1861: The Outbreak of the Civil War — Confederate artillery fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter, igniting a national conflict that accelerated the expansion of the American empire on the western plains. Territorial leaders like Governor John Evans and Colonel John Chivington used the Union's need for western gold and reports of Confederate-allied uprisings to justify raising troops against the Cheyenne and Arapaho. - August 1861: Senate Strikes Article XI — The United States Senate ratified the treaty but struck out Article XI, which would have allowed Denver residents to bypass federal law and purchase Native land directly. Because this alteration changed the legal document, federal agents had to return to the plains to secure new signatures from the Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders. - Fall 1861: Nowoo3 Refuses the Amendment — When the Southern Arapaho and Cheyenne assembled at Fort Wise to receive their government annuities, Agent A. G. Boone withheld needed provisions promised under the 1851 treaty until the chiefs signed the Senate's treaty amendment. Chief Nowoo3 refused to sign the altered document. - November 15, 1861: The First County Commissioners Meeting — Boulder County Commissioners George W. Chambers, David P. Walling, and T. J. Graham held their inaugural meeting to divide the pioneer settlements into eight voting townships. By levying taxes, recording property deeds, and granting franchise permits for new toll roads and irrigation ditches, the commissioners established a formal legal bureaucracy over the unceded Indigenous territory. - February-March 1862: The First Colorado Volunteers March South — The First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers marched out of Camp Weld to defend New Mexico Territory from a Confederate invasion. During the Battle of La Glorieta Pass in late March, Major John Chivington led a detachment that outflanked the enemy, destroyed the Confederate supply train, and bayoneted nearly five hundred horses and mules, a decisive victory that forced a Confederate retreat and secured Chivington's appointment as commander of the Military District of Colorado. - Spring 1862: Governor John Evans Arrives in Denver — Appointed by President Abraham Lincoln, businessman John Evans arrived in Denver to serve as Colorado's territorial governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Evans immediately adopted an interpretation of the Fort Wise Treaty that legally bound all Cheyennes and Arapahoes to surrender their land and move to the Sand Creek reservation. Bibliography: - Carson, Dina C. (Compiler). Boulder County Commissioner's Journal 1861-1871: An Annotated Transcription. Niwot, CO: Iron Gate Publishing, 2012. - Coel, Margaret. Chief Left Hand, Southern Arapaho. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1981 - Roberts, Gary Leland. Sand Creek: Tragedy and Symbol. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma (Ph.D. Dissertation), 1984 - United States Government Documents. 1861 Treaty of Fort Wise, 1861 Organic Act of Colorado Territory, and the 1834 Indian Trade and Intercourse Act. --- ### Chapter 04 — Expansion and the Year of Hunger URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/history/federal-expansion-and-the-year-of-hunger Hoping to correct the 1861 Fort Wise Treaty, Neva met directly with Governor John Evans in May 1862, but Evans rejected the protest and ordered all Cheyenne and Arapaho bands to relocate to the Sand Creek reservation by the end of the year. As Congress passed the Homestead, Pacific Railway, and Morrill acts to transfer western lands, white settlers expressed relief when federal surveyors arrived to officially record their claims. While the tribes faced starvation and disease during a severe drought in 1863, Evans reported the chiefs' absence from a fall treaty council as evidence of a hostile conspiracy and intensified his efforts to clear the plains. Key events: - Late May 1862: Neva Confronts Governor Evans — Hoping to correct the 1861 Fort Wise Treaty, Neva met directly with Governor Evans to explain that the Southern Arapaho had been misled by their interpreter. Evans rejected this protest and appointed John Smith as the official interpreter anyway. - Summer 1862: The Homestead, Pacific Railway, and Morrill Acts — During the summer of 1862, Congress passed the Homestead, Pacific Railway, and Morrill acts, establishing legislation that transferred millions of acres of unceded Indigenous land to white settlers, railroad corporations, and state colleges. To facilitate this transfer of the western plains, Governor Evans presented a program to extinguish remaining Native land titles in Colorado Territory but excluded the Cheyenne and Arapaho, stating the 1861 Fort Wise Treaty had already settled their claims. - December 5, 1862: Evans Imposes a Deadline for the Fort Wise Treaty — Governor John Evans interpreted Article VI of the 1861 Fort Wise Treaty to mean that all Cheyenne and Arapaho bands had ceded their lands, regardless of whether their specific chiefs had signed the document. Evans concluded that non-signatory bands had until December 5, 1862, to report to the Sand Creek reservation to receive treaty benefits, assuming that after this deadline all bands would be bound to the reservation without compensation. - Spring 1863: Native Delegation Tours the East — In Spring 1863, Governor John Evans ordered Agent Samuel Colley to escort a delegation of Plains Indian chiefs to Washington, D.C., but Colley intentionally left Chief Nowoo3 at Fort Lyon, prompting Nowoo3 to state they did so to prevent him from translating. Representing the Southern Arapaho in his brother's absence, Neva met and shook hands with President Abraham Lincoln at the White House before returning to the plains convinced by the massive eastern population that military resistance against white expansion would be futile. - 1863: The Year of Hunger — Throughout 1863, drought, scarce buffalo herds, and outbreaks of whooping cough and diarrhea plunged the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho into a period they called the "year of hunger." Agent Samuel Colley reported that the Sand Creek reservation lacked game and that starving tribes were committing depredations for survival, while Chief Nowoo3 and allied leaders maintained peaceful relations with the white settlements. - August–September 1863: Governor Evans Fails to Hold a Council — Hoping to extinguish remaining Indigenous land claims, Governor John Evans organized a treaty council at the Arikaree Fork of the Republican River and dispatched trader Elbridge Gerry to invite the Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs. When Native leaders did not attend—citing disease outbreaks, the scattering of their bands for the fall hunt, and the recent killing of Cheyenne warrior Little Heart at Fort Larned—Evans returned to Denver and reported their absence as proof of a hostile Indian conspiracy. - Fall 1863: Federal Surveyors Arrive — Even though early white settlers were squatting on unceded Indigenous territory, they expressed relief when federal surveyors arrived in the fall of 1863 to map their claims. Pioneers like Morse Coffin noted that the arrival of the surveyors eased their anxieties by signaling that the U.S. government intended to secure their occupation of the land. Bibliography: - Coel, Margaret. (1981). Chief Left Hand: Southern Arapaho. University of Oklahoma Press. - Crifasi, Robert R. (2015). A Land Made from Water. University Press of Colorado. - Roberts, Gary Leland. (1984). Sand Creek: Tragedy and Symbol. PhD Dissertation, University of Oklahoma. - Trenholm, Virginia Cole. (1970). The Arapahoes, Our People. University of Oklahoma Press. - U.S. Congress. (1862). Homestead Act, Pacific Railway Act, and Morrill Act. --- ### Chapter 05 — Boulder County & Sand Creek Massacre URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/history/road-to-sand-creek Throughout 1864, Cheyenne and Arapaho peace chiefs such as Black Kettle and Nowoo3 sought peace amid conflict provoked by the First Colorado Regiment. Amid the violence, Neva and Cheyenne chiefs sought peace at Camp Weld in Denver, but Governor John Evans and Colonel Chivington evaded their peaceful overtures. Twelve days later, Boulder County men of Company D, assembled at Fort Chambers near Boulder, killed ten Cheyenne people. On November 29, 1864, 700 men from across Colorado—including men from Boulder County—participated in the killing and mutilation of Arapaho and Cheyenne people promised military protection during the Sand Creek Massacre. Key events: - Early 1864: The Tribes Maintain Peace Amidst Starvation — Throughout the winter and spring of 1864, Cheyenne and Arapaho bands faced starvation while initially maintaining peace; unprovoked soldier attacks disrupted their way of life and drove the starving camps together. - April–May 1864: Unprovoked Military Attacks — Soldiers launched a series of unprovoked attacks on Cheyenne camps, including the killing of peaceful Chief Lean Bear on the Smoky Hill River. Denver newspapers sensationalized the skirmishes to inflame white anxieties. - June 11, 1864: The Hungate Family Murders — The mutilated Hungate family bodies were brought into Denver and placed on public display; the territorial press used the spectacle to manufacture panic and demand extermination of the Plains tribes. - Late June 1864: Fort Chambers Constructed — Local militiamen built Fort Chambers, an adobe fortification a few miles below Boulder City that became the training camp and headquarters for Company D of the Third Colorado Cavalry. - August 1864: Evans Sanctions Unrestricted Warfare — Governor Evans's August 10 "Appeal to the People" and August 11 proclamation authorized Colorado citizens to kill hostile Native people on sight and seize their property, and he raised the Third Colorado Cavalry to chastise the Plains tribes. - Mid-August 1864: Company D Mustered at Fort Chambers — David H. Nichols recruited one hundred men of Company D from Boulder Valley, drawing on preexisting local militias under a prevailing sentiment of total war. - September 28, 1864: Camp Weld Council — Evans and Chivington met Black Kettle, White Antelope, Bull Bear, Neva, Bosse, Heap of Buffalo, and Na-ta-nee at Camp Weld; Chivington directed the chiefs to Fort Lyon, leaving them falsely believing they had secured military sanctuary. - October 10, 1864: Buffalo Springs Massacre — Boulder County troops of Company D surrounded Cheyenne Chief Big Wolf's two small lodges at the sand hills of Buffalo Springs and shot down five men, three women, and two children, ignoring a white flag of surrender. - November 28, 1864: Officers Protest the Planned Attack — Chivington's command sealed Fort Lyon to prevent warnings; Captain Silas Soule and Lieutenant Joseph Cramer vehemently condemned the planned attack on the surrendered camp as murder. - November 29, 1864: The Sand Creek Massacre — At dawn, 700 Colorado troops attacked the surrendered camp at Sand Creek, killing roughly 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho people—most of them women, children, and elders—and at least 23 Cheyenne chiefs and 5 Arapaho chiefs. Nowoo3 (Left Hand) was mortally wounded. Bibliography: - Arapaho-Cheyenne Tribal Elders, & History Colorado. (2022). The Sand Creek Massacre: The betrayal that changed Cheyenne and Arapaho people forever. History Colorado. - Berthrong, D. J. (1963). The Southern Cheyennes. University of Oklahoma Press. - Coffin, M. H. (1965). The battle of Sand Creek (A. W. Farley, Ed.). W. M. Morrison Publisher. - Crifasi, R. R. (2015). A land made from water: Appropriation and the evolution of Colorado's landscape, ditches, and water institutions. University Press of Colorado. - Grinnell, G. B. (2019). The fighting Cheyennes. Arcadia Press. (Original work published 1915). - People of the Sacred Land. (n.d.). Truth, restoration & education report: Legal and political history of Colorado tribes (Part II). - Roberts, G. L. (1984). Sand Creek: Tragedy and symbol. - Roberts, Gary Leland. (1984). Sand Creek: Tragedy and Symbol. University of Oklahoma. - Hyde, George E. (1968). Life of George Bent. University of Oklahoma Press. - History Colorado. (2022). The Sand Creek Massacre: The Betrayal That Changed Cheyenne and Arapaho People Forever. - Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission of Colorado [TREC]. (2023). Fraud Report. - U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. (1865). Massacre of the Cheyenne Indians. --- ### Chapter 06 — Investigations & Condemnation URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/history/investigations-and-condemnation Following the Sand Creek Massacre, returning troops received a heroes' welcome in Denver, where theatrical productions exhibited Indigenous scalps and captive children to cheering audiences. As a massive military coalition of Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux warriors launched devastating retaliatory raids across the plains, local settlers mobilized to politically defend the massacre. Despite procedural challenges and intense public hostility, a military commission in Denver and a congressional committee in Washington gathered sworn testimony from dissenting officers, eventually releasing reports that thoroughly documented the atrocities and condemned the military commanders. Key events: - January–February 1865: Retaliatory Raids Sweep the Plains — Following the Sand Creek massacre, Southern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho, and Sioux warriors formed a military coalition to launch retaliatory strikes against the overland transit routes. On January 7, 1865, a force of approximately one thousand warriors attacked the stage station at Julesburg, Colorado, and completely severed the overland telegraph lines. The warriors sacked the town and extracted massive quantities of supplies while soldiers and stagecoach operators barricaded themselves inside Fort Rankin. Following the initial raids, the allied tribes withdrew their families northward toward the Powder River country. - January 27, 1865: Boulder Sounds the First Gun in Defense of Sand Creek — In late January 1865, the local settler population of Boulder County mobilized to politically defend the military actions at Sand Creek. Citizens held a public meeting to formally endorse the attack on the Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment. The Rocky Mountain News praised the residents for their support, declaring that Boulder fired the first gun from the people in endorsement of the Sand Creek battle and the men engaged in it. - February–May 1865: The Military Investigation Gathers Sworn Testimony — In February 1865, military officials convened a formal fact-finding commission in Denver led by Lieutenant Colonel Samuel F. Tappan, whom Chivington formally objected to as an avowed enemy, though the inquiry already lacked the authority to court-martial Chivington because he had mustered out of the military. Because the commission's transcripts were not released to the press, citizens were prevented from hearing the facts of the massacre as they emerged. During the investigation, Captain Silas Soule and Lieutenant Joseph A. Cramer successfully testified that prior to the attack, they had confronted Colonel Chivington and Major Scott J. Anthony to remind them of the military's explicit pledges of protection, warning that attacking the encampment constituted a betrayal and murder. - March–July 1865: The Congressional Investigation Releases a Damning Report — In Washington, D.C., the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War launched a congressional investigation into the Sand Creek attack and interrogated Governor John Evans regarding his administration. In the summer of 1865, the committee released a sweeping report that condemned the attack as a brutal and unprovoked slaughter. The report officially validated the peaceful intentions of the targeted Cheyenne and Arapaho bands and branded the military commanders as perpetrators of brutal and cowardly crimes. The committee concluded its report by recommending the immediate removal of Governor Evans from office and the arrest of Colonel Chivington. - April 23, 1865: Charles Squires and William Morrow Assassinate Captain Silas Soule — On the evening of April 23, 1865, Charles W. Squires and William Morrow, two soldiers of the Second Colorado Cavalry, waited for Captain Silas Soule near a church on Lawrence Street in Denver. As Soule approached, an exchange of gunfire occurred, during which Soule wounded Squires in the hand before being shot in the head and killed. Following the shooting, the two soldiers returned to their camp, confessed to shooting an officer who had previously incarcerated Squires, and deserted the military. Morrow fled down the Platte River, while Squires fled south toward New Mexico. - May–October 1865: The Arrest and Escape of Charles Squires — In May 1865, authorities arrested Charles Squires in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and eventually transported him back to Denver in irons. In October 1865, a general court-martial convened in Denver to try Squires for the murder of Captain Soule and for deserting the military. Before the trial concluded, Squires escaped from the provost guardhouse on the evening of October 9, 1865, with outside assistance that included picking the padlock and providing chisels to remove his shackles. Squires fled the territory and was never brought to justice for the assassination. - May 30, 1865: Judge Advocate General Holt Condemns the Massacre — On May 30, 1865, the military commission concluded its investigation, resulting in a detailed review by Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt. Holt condemned the attack as a cowardly and cold-blooded slaughter and deplored that Colonel John M. Chivington remained beyond the reach of a formal military trial. However, the federal government did not publish the eight hundred pages of official testimony until 1868, and Holt's strong condemnation never appeared in the public press. Because the full testimony remained unpublished, the citizens of Colorado never saw the complete case against the military commanders. - June 1865: Chivington Publishes His Synopsis and the Press Defends the Campaign — Because the commission's transcripts were withheld, Colonel Chivington relied instead upon publishing a pamphlet titled "Synopsis" in June to publicly defend his actions. The Rocky Mountain News actively defended the soldiers' conduct, and its junior editor, John L. Dailey, had enlisted as a private and later served as a lieutenant in the Third Regiment during the Sand Creek campaign. Following the investigations, editor William N. Byers served as an architect of the standard public defense of Sand Creek and utilized the newspaper in Denver to justify the events. - July–August 1865: President Johnson Forces Governor Evans to Resign — On July 18, 1865, Secretary of State William H. Seward formally requested the resignation of Governor John Evans on behalf of the president. Secretary Seward subsequently informed Bishop Matthew Simpson at Cape May, New Jersey, that the federal administration could not retain Evans in office without causing trouble in Congress due to the recently published report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. On August 1, 1865, Evans resigned his post under protest and wrote to the Secretary of the Interior requesting a delay in the transfer of power until he had completed treaty negotiations with the Ute Indians. Following the resignation, the federal government appointed Alexander Cummings to replace Evans as the territorial governor. - Summer 1865: The Doolittle Committee Faces the Mob — In the summer of 1865, Senator James R. Doolittle led a federal committee to Fort Lyon, where members physically inspected the site of the massacre and found the skulls of murdered infants perforated with pistol and rifle shots. Senator Doolittle subsequently traveled to Denver and appeared at the Denver Theatre on July 21 to discuss the Indian question and advocate for a humane policy. During the address, the pioneer audience repeatedly interrupted him with overwhelming shouts demanding the extermination of the tribes. - Fall 1865: The Sand Creek Vindication Party Emerges — In the fall of 1865, Colorado politicians organized the Union Administration party around an explicit political platform defending the Sand Creek campaign, pledging that the party would not support any candidate who sympathized with the Indians or who had criticized the attack. Meanwhile, hard-line veterans calling themselves the "Sand Creek Vindication Party" mobilized to ensure candidates staunchly defended the military's actions. During the local territorial elections, Colonel John M. Chivington ran for Congress as an independent candidate upon a 23-point platform that specifically promised to vindicate the actions at Sand Creek. Just days before the election, Chivington withdrew his name from the race and threw his support to the regular Union nominee, stating he was content to leave the vindication of Sand Creek to the voice of the voters. Bibliography: - Arapaho-Cheyenne Tribal Elders & History Colorado. (2022). The Sand Creek Massacre: The betrayal that changed Cheyenne and Arapaho people forever. History Colorado. - Berthrong, D. J. (1963). The Southern Cheyennes. University of Oklahoma Press. - Grinnell, G. B. (2019). The fighting Cheyennes. Arcadia Press. (Original work published 1915). - Roberts, G. L. (1984). Sand Creek: Tragedy and symbol. - Soule, S., & Cramer, J. (1864). Letters to Edward Wynkoop. Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site Colorado. National Park Service. - Rocky Mountain News (January 4, 1865). "Local Items". - Rocky Mountain News (January 27, 1865). "Sound". - Daily Mining Journal (April 24, 1865). "Assassination of Capt. Soule". - Rocky Mountain News (April 24, 1865). "The Homicide Last Night". - Rocky Mountain News (June 13, 1865). "Local Items". - Daily Mining Journal (October 10, 1865). "Telegraph Dispatches". - Rocky Mountain News (October 10, 1865). "Another Jail Delivery". - Rocky Mountain News (October 18, 1865). "Platform: Adopted by the Union Administration State Convention, Oct. 17, 1865". - Rocky Mountain News (November 8, 1865). "Withdrawal of Col. Chivington". --- ### Chapter 07 — Removal & Niwot's Founding URL: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/history/removal-from-colorado After the Sand Creek Massacre, the federal government formally repudiated the attack in the 1865 Treaty of the Little Arkansas, yet never paid the reparations it promised to the survivors. Two years later, the Medicine Lodge Treaty forced the Southern Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne to cede their remaining lands in Colorado and relocate to a reservation in Indian Territory. During the 1870s, as military campaigns pushed the last remaining Arapaho and Cheyenne families south to the new reservation, white settlers founded the town of Niwot, naming it for the Arapaho chief whose people had been permanently driven from the valley. Key events: - August 15–18, 1865: The Tribes Sign a Preliminary Truce — In mid-August 1865, Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders, including Black Kettle and Little Robe, traveled to the mouth of the Little Arkansas River to negotiate with federal commissioners. On August 18, the chiefs signed a preliminary truce agreeing to cease hostilities against frontier settlements and travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. Within the truce document, the United States commissioners formally recognized the Sand Creek Massacre as the direct cause of the recent Indian hostilities. - October 12–14, 1865: General Sanborn Apologizes at the Treaty of the Little Arkansas — Federal commissioners and tribal delegates convened near present Wichita, Kansas, where Major General John B. Sanborn opened the peace council by conceding that Colonel Chivington's actions had forced the tribes into war. Although Chief Black Kettle expressed reluctance because most Cheyenne people were absent, he and other peace chiefs signed the Treaty of the Little Arkansas on October 14, 1865. The treaty officially repudiated the Sand Creek Massacre and forced the tribes to cede their remaining lands in Colorado for a new reservation. However, the federal government never fulfilled the treaty's promises of financial indemnities and 160-acre land grants to the massacre survivors. - October 28, 1867: The Medicine Lodge Treaty — On October 28, 1867, Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders, including Sand Creek survivors Chief Black Kettle and Chief Little Raven, signed the Medicine Lodge Treaty to replace the 1865 Treaty of the Little Arkansas. The treaty relocated the tribes to a smaller joint reservation in Indian Territory while clearing the way for railroad construction across the central plains. To secure the signatures, federal commissioners promised the Cheyenne leaders they could continue to range and hunt buffalo north of the Arkansas River until the herds disappeared. - November 27, 1868: Custer Kills the Sand Creek Survivors at the Washita — At dawn on November 27, 1868, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry executed a surprise attack on Chief Black Kettle's Cheyenne village along the Washita River. The troops shot and killed Chief Black Kettle and his wife, Medicine Woman Later—both of whom had survived Sand Creek four years earlier and actively advocated for peace—as they tried to escape across the freezing river. The troops killed dozens of other innocent Cheyenne people during the attack. Following the destruction of the village, the military strategy dictated the capture and execution of the Cheyenne pony herds to immobilize the survivors. - August 10, 1869: President Grant Assigns a New Reservation — On August 10, 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant issued a formal proclamation assigning a new reservation to the Southern Arapahoes and Cheyennes. The executive order located the permanent reservation in Indian Territory, bounded by the Cimarron River and the ninety-eighth meridian on the east. This federal action legally confined the tribes to the south, far removed from the site of the Sand Creek Massacre and their former hunting grounds in Colorado. - 1869–1875: Forced Removal to Indian Territory — Following the treaties, many Cheyenne and Arapaho bands resisted confinement and attempted to remain in their traditional hunting territories. In response, the United States military launched a series of campaigns, destroying villages and supplies to force the remaining bands south. By the spring of 1875, relentless military pressure, starvation, and the systematic destruction of the buffalo herds forced the last resistant bands to surrender and relocate to Indian Territory. - January–July 1873: Railroad Secures the Right of Way — In January 1873, the Colorado Central Railroad secured the right of way for new tracks through land owned by Elijah and Nancy Williams in the present-day Niwot area. That July, Ambrose Spencer Murray Jr., the representative handling the land acquisitions, purchased the property from the Williams family for five thousand dollars, maintaining the railroad's right of way through the land. - March 30, 1875: Niwot Is Platted and Named for Nowoo3 — On March 30, 1875, Porter M. Hinman and Ambrose S. Murray Jr. signed the official platting map for the town of Niwot. The founders named the settlement after Southern Arapaho Chief Nowoo3, whose name translates to Left Hand in English. Eleven years before platting the town, Porter M. Hinman served as a corporal in Company D of the Third Colorado Cavalry, a Boulder County unit that participated in the Sand Creek Massacre. Although local settlers adopted the chief's name for their town, the Arapaho people had already been permanently driven from their traditional homelands in the region. Bibliography: - Arapaho-Cheyenne Tribal Elders & History Colorado. (2022). The Sand Creek Massacre: The betrayal that changed Cheyenne and Arapaho people forever. History Colorado. - Berthrong, D. J. (1963). The Southern Cheyennes. University of Oklahoma Press. - Bixby, A. (1880). History of Boulder County in History of Clear Creek and Boulder Valleys. - Grinnell, G. B. (2019). The fighting Cheyennes. Arcadia Press. (Original work published 1915). - Koehler, K. (n.d.). Niwot: The Spirit of Colorado. - People of the Sacred Land. (n.d.). Truth, restoration & education report: Legal and political history of Colorado tribes (Part II). - Perrigo, L. I. (1946). A Municipal History of Boulder. - Roberts, G. L. (1984). Sand Creek: Tragedy and symbol. - Rosters - 3rd Regiment Roster. (n.d.). - Rosters - 3rd Regiment, National Park Service. (n.d.). - Trenholm, V. C. (1970). The Arapahoes, Our People. University of Oklahoma Press. --- ## Elder Conversations — March 17, 2025 Collection: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/elder-conversations-videos Speakers: Southern Arapaho Elder Fred Mosqueda and Southern Cheyenne Elder Chester Whiteman. Recording location: Niwot, Colorado. Recording date: 2025-03-17. ### Nowoo3, Neva & Snake Woman Southern Arapaho Elder Fred Mosqueda shares the story of Chief Nowoo3, his brother Neva, and their older sister Mahom, also known as Snake Woman, whose family survived the Sand Creek Massacre. He explains how Mahom’s daughters used their English-language skills as interpreters during treaty negotiations that ultimately forced the Arapaho People to Oklahoma. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8zRW8B3YlQ ### Legacy of the Sand Creek Massacre Fred Mosqueda and Chester Whiteman reflect on the Sand Creek Massacre, Chief Nowoo3’s death from his injuries, and the false “Indian Uprising” narrative repeated in Boulder County. They recount how Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders were denied an opportunity to negotiate peace and emphasize the enduring resilience of their peoples. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_TgBcaLtMg ### Perspectives of Relationship Building Fred Mosqueda and Chester Whiteman share their experiences building relationships with local governments, nonprofits, and other organizations across Colorado. They explain that truthful storytelling, mutual effort, and respect are necessary for healing and moving forward together. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzA8DGrRf70 ### Go Beyond a Land Acknowledgment Fred Mosqueda and Chester Whiteman discuss how communities can move beyond land acknowledgments by bringing Tribal Nations to the table and recognizing the knowledge they contribute. They call for tangible, face-to-face collaboration that creates shared benefits and turns passive statements into action. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRaNSEjnAnM ### What Can We Do Together? Fred Mosqueda and Chester Whiteman discuss co-stewardship, efforts to bring buffalo back to Boulder County, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes’ desire to return to Colorado. They describe that homecoming as a collaborative opportunity grounded in strong relationships and the question, “What can we do together?” Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMGQwGuP3B0 ### Naming Mount Blue Sky Fred Mosqueda and Chester Whiteman recount their collaboration to rename Mount Evans as Mount Blue Sky. They describe uniting Tribal Nations and government agencies around a name intended to honor both Arapaho and Cheyenne people without causing further harm. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbBEiWL3vpk ### Traditional Ecological Knowledge Fred Mosqueda and Chester Whiteman discuss Traditional Ecological Knowledge and how their ancestors’ understanding of plants, animals, water, and natural systems remains vital today. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL2wGpiwM7k ### Arapaho and Cheyenne Languages Fred Mosqueda and Chester Whiteman discuss efforts to preserve Arapaho and Cheyenne languages and teach them to new generations, emphasizing that these living oral languages are best sustained through face-to-face conversation. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it4JMJ1XBwQ ## Sand Creek Symposium Transcripts Verbatim transcripts of individual segments from the Sand Creek Massacre: 150 Year Remembrance symposium (October 9, 2014, Rasmuson Theater, National Museum of the American Indian). Each transcript is the speaker's own words. ### Part 03 — Causes and Consequences — Gary L. Roberts Speaker: Dr. Gary L. Roberts Segment: "The Causes of the Sand Creek Massacre with Particular Emphasis on the Roles of Governor John Evans and Colonel John M. Chivington" Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYzGB0MTBX0&list=PLS6nSmuURFJCenmnG4NfQtoCRBAJk50IM&index=3 Page: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/sand-creek-videos Good morning. I began my quest to understand Sand Creek 50 years ago this fall in an undergraduate class on the Civil War and Reconstruction. I had no idea then that a half-century later, it would still be the primary focus of my research. My exploration of Sand Creek began with a premise, and it was very simple: that searching for truth, the historian's role is not to care what the truth is. Father Francis Paul Prucha said, “We must be only concerned with finding it.” For me, that means that my role is simply that of a searcher, seeking to supply enlightenment, understanding, and perspective and to provide sound information upon which balanced judgments can be made. This perspective, early on, left me unhappy with a debate over Sand Creek. It is all about, or has been all about, justification and condemnation. Those who justified Sand Creek argued that the incident was a response to a bloody summer's war and that the soldiers were decent, hard-working men protecting their families and neighbors, so Sand Creek could not have been a massacre. Those who condemned Sand Creek made the case that it was a massacre, so the soldiers had to have been twisted or sick or mining camp's trash. I wrestled with this for a time before seeing a common link between them. Both interpretations rested on the character of the attackers. They were good men, so it couldn't have been a massacre, or Sand Creek was a massacre so they couldn't have been good men. Both of these views offered comforting solutions to the moral dilemma posed by Sand Creek. The first by denying that the massacre occurred at all; the second, by dismissing it as the work of social outcasts. Both views vindicated—and some still try to vindicate—good men, uphold American values, and affirm traditional moral standards. Both are briefs concerned with making cases to support predetermined position. But what if Sand Creek was carried out by rational men, with clear notions of right and wrong; by men with no perceptions of themselves as evil, by men who acted on what they believed to be true, by men who defended themselves afterwards because they believed that their intentions were right, even though they were responsible for one of the worst atrocities in American? This notion frightened me. Here was a possibility far worse than passing Sand Creek off as the work of sociopaths or barroom scum. Here was a reminder that all human beings are capable of great evil, not just the deviants in our society. How could this be? The Euro-American world is prone to moralism with an insistence that good and evil are opposites, so that the struggle is between what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, each sharply defined and separate. It's easy and comforting as a way of seeing, but consider an alternative view which, by the way, is held by more than a few cultural groups including at least some American Indians. In this view, humanity's worst instincts are held in check by a fragile tether within every person. Sometimes it snaps and … good men do horrible things. It may be argued, then, that the process that led Coloradans to that little dried river, and all of the ways they rationalized what happened there, revealed just how human they were. For me, that was more terrifying than the usual interpretations about good guys and bad guys. There's no doubt that Sand Creek was a massacre. Any interpretation that argues the contrary is rationalization. The violation of plighted faith is unmistakable; the slaughter of women and children is undeniable; the atrocities and mutilations of the dead are beyond dispute; prisoners were systematically killed and these excesses were celebrated both by the soldiers who committed them and by the community they represented. If the evidence of every source that denounced the attack is disallowed, the most damning evidence remains in the newspapers of the times and the reminiscences of those who praised Sand Creek, well summarized by the Central City Miners Register when it wrote, “The true policy is to give them no quarter but to kill male and female, old and young, that none may be left to tell the tale.” It was only later, after two congressional committees and a military commission investigated Sand Creek, that the history of the massacre began to be rewritten, atrocities denied, and rationalizations formulated to justify what happened. Frank Hall, who was part of the story, later wrote in his history of Colorado that the most damning aspects of Sand Creek were attacking a village under the protection of the flag and the failure to take prisoners. He wrote, “It was this more than any other stain attaching to the historic tragedy which brought the condemnation of mankind upon the leaders of that terrible day and which, strive as we may efface it, will remain the deliberate judgment of history.” The atrocity then is plain. Less clear is how such a thing could happen. In searching for causes of the Sand Creek horror, it is easy enough to find hatred and prejudice and arrogance, but we can't overlook the fear and the grief and the rage; the misguided sense of “them and us,” and the twisted sense of self-defense in community, based upon a false understanding of the truth that sustains these sins. But remember, while truth is the ultimate goal, what men believe to be true is more important because they act upon what they believe. Understanding what happens requires us to set aside our modern way of seeing and to seek to understand the mindset of the participants rather than to judge them by our own. Euro-Americans had a sense of cultural superiority so deeply embedded that it seemed not only self-evident but right. It was not just the worldview of bad guys; for a thousand years and more, Europeans had embraced views that endorsed both the right of conquest and justification of the dispossession of Indigenous people. The first began with a linear view of life and progress that gave superior rights to those more advanced, by their own definition as that. It was enhanced by the biblical admonition to “multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” This right of conquest worked its way into the law and was accepted as truth. White rights smugly pointed to their religion, their science, their cities, and their literature to convince themselves that they were right. From the time of the Greeks, there was always a brutal “other” to be overcome, whether Persian, Gaul, Hun, Mongol, Pict Viking, Saxon, Saracen, Scott or Irishman, the savage other was always there, with cultures to be routed out and land to be taken. Race came late to this rationale of conquest. Savagery was the obstacle to be overcome. In practically every environment, the options were those offered by General John Sullivan on the eve of his campaign against the Iroquois in 1779: civilization or death to all American savages. Ironically, the American ideals of freedom and democracy were forged against the backdrop of particularly brutal Indian warfare. Anti-Indian sentiment was unchallenged on the western fringes of settlement and in a bold literature that depicted all Indians as merciless savages with brutal practices, including the torture of prisoners and the murder of non-combatants. This image took deep root in American consciousness and was still present a century later. There were dissenters who warned that generalization and prejudice would fix a stain on the national reputation of America. Despite efforts to restrain the process, and to be fair, well-meaning policymakers were incapable of restraining the flood of settlers into the West. They tried various approaches, but it was always easier to relocate Indians or to kill them than to expel white trespassers on the land. The goal of those who sympathized with the Indian was to make the process of dispossession less painful, not to end it altogether. Whether viewed as ruthless or noble, the savage was vanishing. White people saw the Indian as a single, backward culture, destined to give way. When the first settlers reached Colorado, they did not know who the Cheyennes were or the Arapahos or the Utes or the Kiowas or the Sioux, but they knew the Indian. Dispossession accelerated after the Mexican War and a California gold rush, as tens of thousands of settlers rushed westward. By the time of the Colorado gold rush and the Civil War, policymakers were practically unable to restrain the flow or to control interaction. The man chosen to manage Colorado's affairs was John Evans who became governor and superintendent of Indian Affairs in 1862. He was a physician, philanthropist, entrepreneur, a prominent layman in the Methodist Church, a man ambitious for public office, a model American. He also had the particular interest in railroads and a desire to make Denver the next great metropolis by building the transcontinental railroad through the heart of Cheyenne and Arapaho lands. He had no understanding of, or sympathy for, the tribes never even questioning the treaty system itself. His contempt for the Cheyennes and Arapahos was plain and after a feeble effort to treat with them, in the fall of 1863, he proceeded with a plan to force all of the Cheyennes and Arapahos onto the Sand Creek Reserve created in 1861 by the Treaty of Fort Wise. It was passed to accommodate a few southern bands, but it was never intended to be binding on all Cheyennes and Arapahos. Evans worked to change that. His partner in Colorado was John Milton Chivington, the commander of the Military District of Colorado. Chivington was a former Methodist minister, a giant of a man with an undeniable charisma, won a measure of glory against the Confederates at the Battle of Glorieta in 1862. His Methodist and Republican credentials made an alliance with Evans that seemed natural. But, contrary to most accounts, their relationship was troubled from the beginning. Chivington was obsessed with promotion, transfer East to fight Confederates in the political future, and he did not see those things in campaigns against Indians. As Evans grew increasingly convinced that an Indian war was inevitable, Chivington played down the threat of the Cheyennes and Arapahos and insisted that he could handle the Indians and launched raids into Texas against Confederates as well. By mid-summer of 1864, Chivington had diddled and dawdled and neglected his duties so blatantly that General Curtis, his commanding officer, removed a significant portion of his district and created the district of the Upper Arkansas. Even then, Chivington spent most of his time running for Congress, while a real Indian war developed on the Platte and Arkansas routes. Chivington was blistered in reports by other commanders and eventually Chivington's effective fighting force was reduced from more than 3000 men to a little more than 600. Evans lost confidence in his partner as well. Although he continued to pressure Chivington, he bombarded General Curtis and Secretary of War Stanton with predictions of doom to the point that Curtis said, “Everything from Colorado is sensational.” When a family was murdered near Denver in June, citizens were terrified. Evans issued a proclamation to the friendly Indians of the Plains, but before any group had time to reasonably respond, he issued a second proclamation authorizing settlers to find and kill hostile Indians and demanded permission from Washington to raise a hundred-day regiment for the explicit purpose of fighting Indians despite the main fact that the major fighting came near the overland routes in Nebraska and Kansas. The primary effects in Colorado were to interrupt commerce and create hysteria in the mining camps. Evans seemed to have lost control and Chivington declared martial law in Denver. Things careened downhill from there. Statehood was crushed at the polls as a party of Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs were escorted to Denver to seek peace terms. Despite the governor's waffling, and Chivington's tough talk, the chiefs left Denver convinced that terms had been reached to begin the peace process. The overland routes opened up and commerce resumed. General Patrick Connor showed up in Denver to seek Chivington's cooperation for a winter campaign against the tribes on those Republican and Smoky Hill rivers. Evans was elated; Chivington was stunned. Chivington knew that any campaign under Connor would give him, not Chivington, the glory. Evans left for Washington shortly thereafter. En route, Evans visited General Curtis about another joint campaign against the tribes. In Chicago, he told a friend that all of the Indians in Colorado were hostile except for a band at Fort Lyon. On the other hand, Chivington was desperate. His term of service was due to expire. He had no stars on his uniform, he had no prospects of fighting Confederates, his bid for Congress had failed, he could not mount an effective campaign with the troops at his disposal. But Evans had left him a loaded gun, the 3rd Colorado Volunteer Cavalry. Chivington's one hope was a dramatic victory, but he did not have time for an extended campaign. It had to be quick and sure. And the only sure target was a gathering of Cheyennes and Arapahos near Fort Lyon. Mobilizing the hundred days-ers, and a few troops from the 1st, he marched on Sand Creek. So it came down to that: Governor Evans's mismanagement of Indian Affairs that created a panic in the territory and Chivington's ambition. The Sand Creek Massacre was the result. The men who followed Chivington and committed the atrocities were not unlike other men except in their rationalization that the ends justified the means. Their false sense of community of “us against them,” their fears, their willingness to go along, and their ignorance of the true circumstances. The great victory was celebrated in Denver, and Chivington enjoyed the praise. But it was short-lived. Chivington's victory became his shame in the eyes of the country and Evans rightly shared the blame, as did his men. Chivington had managed to offend the sensibilities of Americans locked in the bloodiest war in their history. Sand Creek became an emblem of a failed Indian policy in the decades that followed. What the reformers could not do, however, was to break with their mindset enough to see any alternative but assimilation. And so, once again, tribal interests were sacrificed on the altar of good intentions. Given the times and the attitudes, I do not know that it could have been under otherwise. But to ignore the shared humanity of the conflict with easy labels merely rearranges the stereotypes and oversimplifies a cultural conflict that victimized the conquered and, in a strange way, the conquerors as well. Something central to the shared humanity of victims and victimizers was involved. And that something does not mean excusing the horrors or justifying wrong. It does mean exploring intent as well as outcome. It does mean looking at the chilling ways that good men lost their way in their treatment of others and denied reality and led generations, even the most recent ones, to deal with what happened in ways that rationalized rather than explained. So we're left in a terrible place, rightly outraged by what happened but aware, too, that we are cut from the same human cloth as they. I have a deeper understanding of prejudice, fear, and character as a result of my study and I am more aware of the danger of the “them and us” worldview. Peace, not peace in the sense of the absence of conflict, but in the ancient sense of that wholeness and unity that is true good, is the outcome we should seek. That is a way that heals and makes right. That is a way of reconciliation that the old ones understood and a truth that even a historian can care about. And so, with tears, I continue my search. Thank you. _Transcribed from the symposium recording at the Rasmuson Theater, National Museum of the American Indian, October 9, 2014._ --- ### Part 13 — Memorialization and Healing — Ben Nighthorse Campbell Speaker: Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Northern Cheyenne) Segment: "The Memorialization of Sand Creek" Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqles9RjvJQ&list=PLS6nSmuURFJCenmnG4NfQtoCRBAJk50IM&index=13 Page: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/sand-creek-videos Thank you. Before I make my comments, and I will have to abbreviate those because so many speakers have already said some things I would have liked to have touched on, but coming from Colorado, I’m very appreciative of the people of Colorado that elected me to office so many times. But I think sometimes, too, it’s kind of poetic justice that a descendant of Sand Creek could be elected in the state where it happened. And that, I suppose, is part of the healing process, and I was very grateful to represent Indian Country and our state at the same time. And I think I might also tell you, since nobody has spoken very much about this wonderful venue that we’re in today. I think it was the first bill I introduced when I first was elected to Congress years and years ago. And Senator Dan Inouye, who was the prime sponsor on the Senate side, needed a House sponsor. I became that House sponsor. And right from the beginning, we didn’t want it to be a place that simply stored old baskets and pots in glass cases. We wanted it to be an interactive building. And if you saw all those children outside during our lunch break, we’ve certainly accomplished that goal. Not just Native American kids, but kids from every walk of life and many foreign countries as well as the United States. And this wonderful institution, as you know, they give lectures on song and dance and crafts. They have the food here, they give rotating displays, they have people from all over the world that come to study the American Indian, us. But Dan Inouye used to say years ago that this city, Washington, DC, is a city of monuments. But as Dan said, there’s not one monument to the American Indian. We think this is our monument. And the proximity to the Capitol itself gives it terrific access to the crowds of people that come to Washington. And we’re delighted to have them come here and learn about our ways. I am often very envious of Norma and Henrietta and Dick Little Bear, having been raised at home where they could spend time with their grandmothers and grandfathers and learn the language. I didn’t have that option because my dad left the rez to go into World War I and didn’t go back. And I used to ask him why he left. He said, “I got tired of being hungry.” And he didn’t want to talk about it very much. So things must have been really difficult. They’re difficult right now on some of the northern reservations that have a high suicide rate among teenagers or a high high school dropout rate or sometimes a 70 percent unemployment rate. I don’t need to tell my Indian relatives in here all those things that we face, I mean, almost as a daily existence on many of the reservations in the North. But still, when I hear them speak our language and know I can’t, I’m envious of that. And every two weeks when I get our little tribal newspaper and there’s a story in there about Cheyenne language by Dr. Little Bear, I try desperately to pronounce some of those words. And I’ll tell you, unless you’re raised by a grandmother, it’s a darn difficult thing to do. Well, in any event, we call this our house. And I was honored to be the House sponsor to build it, and I got an awful lot of help. Norma mentioned Lee Lonebear and a number of other people, Steve Brady and Laird Cometsevah from the Southern Cheyenne—and so many others helped me and gave me advice when I was going to introduce the first bill that they had written a draft for. But my personal interaction with the Sand Creek Massacre site goes back before that. First time I visited it was about 1978, something like that, about, in the late ’70s. And I remember at the time, I almost couldn’t find it because there was just a little dirt road going into a ranch. And on that dirt road, after you left the main highway, I think it was County Road 96 over there by Eads, Colorado, there was a stone monument, maybe two or three feet square. And that was all there was at the time. And I thought about it then that there had to be some better way to commemorate that terrible tragedy. When I was elected to the state legislature in 1982, I went to the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs, and I asked them if they would head up an effort to put a sign there so people that drove down that road could read at least the Cheyenne and Arapaho story about what happened. And so with their help, we did that. We contacted Northern Cheyenne and Arapahos and the Southern Cheyenne and Arapahos, and we got some tentative language that they would have wanted on that sign. That sign was erected on the highway and stood for, I think it was probably there for 20 or more years before it finally rotted away. And so I guess I was kind of a latecomer to some of the efforts. But then when I got elected to Congress, it was one of the first things on my mind to try to make some kind of a permanent place there where Cheyenne people could go and the rest of the world could learn about the Sand Creek Massacre. I wanted to, before I read an editorial from the Rocky Mountain News, I’ve often asked myself, how could a Cheyenne and Arapaho group, which were warrior societies, how could they be taken by surprise when normally they had camp guards, normally they were very alert. It just surprised me that they had sort of been snuck up on, you might say, by Chivington’s men. One of the reasons, of course, was the picture behind me that emissaries from General Wynkoop had told Black Kettle if he flew the American flag and a white flag, that he wouldn’t be attacked. So I think that sort of lulled them into complacency. Maybe the second reason was that already—and somebody gave me this book a little while ago—already American Indians were serving in the U.S. military. This was about the ones that were clear back in the Civil War. But, in fact, American Indians were, you know, helping feed General Washington when he was stranded by Valley Forge. They were with Teddy Roosevelt when he stormed San Juan Hill. And everybody’s heard about the code talkers, the Navaho code talkers, the Comanche code talkers, the Sioux code talkers, and so on. So maybe there was some feeling of, let your guard down a little bit because Indian people in those days, many of them knew others were in the military. And I think the third reason they might have been somewhat complacent because some Cheyennes had wives. Some white settlers also had Cheyenne wives. Prowers County, Colorado, is named for a well-known rancher in those days who had a Cheyenne wife. And, of course, everybody knows about William Bent, the founder of what is called Bent’s Fort near La Junta, Colorado, whose Cheyenne wife, Owl Woman, had five children, as I remember, four boys and a girl. Two of those boys were at Sand Creek. One, I think it was Charles, managed to escape with his life, and as I, some accounts say that the other boy was killed at Sand Creek. I think that because they had white relatives, there might have been some letting their guard down or thinking that those people understand us or something. Maybe nobody will know the complete truth about why they were taken by surprise, but it certainly did happen. Well, much of the language of the bill, of course, was written by the descendants group. And Steve Brady, Otto Braided Hair, and Laird Cometsevah from Oklahoma came to testify for us. But there is also unsung heroes, you might say, whenever you pass any bill. The guy carrying the bill, i.e. the Congressman or the Senator, often gets credit for doing it. But so many other people make it work. And in my case, I had a terrific staff. And many of the staff themselves, James Doyle, who now works for the Park Service in Colorado for the National Park Service, represented me at all of the meetings between the Northern and the Southern tribes and the park officials, too. And James Dean, who was on my staff here in Congress, he did much of the kind of networking with other offices to get co-sponsors and to try and make sure the bill moved. So a lot of people that deserve the credit are kind of unsung heroes. Let me skip around a little bit since a lot of the things I had wanted to say have already been covered. But let me read the editorial that was written just a couple days after November the 29th of 1864 by the largest newspaper in the whole Rocky Mountain region, which was the Rocky Mountain News. It was before the Denver Post came along. The Rocky Mountain News was absorbed by the Denver Post a few years ago, but in those years, that was the most widely read newspaper. And I’ll just read the first couple paragraphs. And I quote, “Among the brilliant feats in arms in Indian warfare, the recent campaign of our Colorado volunteers will stand in history with few rivals and none to exceed it in final results. Whether viewed as a march or a battle, the exploits have few, if any, parallels. All acquitted themselves well, and the Colorado soldiers have again covered themselves with glory.” The word should have probably been gory, but it was glory. No mention, of course, of the number of soldiers that were literally twice the number, if not more, than all of the Cheyennes that had been camped there and probably four times the number of the ones that were actually in camp since some of the warriors had been out hunting and were not in camp. And the ones remaining were women and children and some of the elders and just a few warriors. At no time, no mention at all of the conditions that they were there in the first place, which was really because of General Wynkoop’s directions. So a lot of the things that they could have said positively, they did not. It’s already been said that the two people that finally broke the true news, which was Silas Soule and Lieutenant Cramer—Silas Soule it was mentioned that he was killed. Those people were never brought to justice, never even tried, and were clearly supporters of Chivington who wanted to shut up any alternative comments being made to the investigating committees. The Department of Army had an inquiry, and I think there was something like three or four different congressional hearings in the Senate and the House. But those things were never implemented. And sometimes I wonder, How come they were not brought to trial, some kind of a military tribunal or something? Because I’m old enough to remember what happened in Southeast Asia when what was called the My Lai Massacre. And when they find out some Americans murdered people in Vietnam, well, killed them and depending on how you phrase it, they were brought to justice years later. And it seemed to me that there should have been something in retrospect to bring those people to justice. They weren’t. They got off, they got off scot-free. And I don’t exactly know why, except I know in those days, when people were brought in the military, it was usually for a hundred days. It wasn’t for a long duration like it is now, two years to four years if you join the air force or navy, it’s four years. It was a hundred days. By the time, I think, people began to focus on what ought to be done, these guys were gone. Most of them were gone. A lot of them had been brought in on this hundred-day enlistment, had mustered out, they were gone off to new gold fields or they were buffalo hunters traveling and finding the final buffalo they hadn’t been able to kill or something. They were simply gone. And so they never were brought to justice. But in my view, I imagine the perpetrators of those terrible crimes are still burning somewhere where they ought to be burning. And nothing is written about why they weren’t brought to justice. In fact, nothing is written except with the exception of a few people that, like, brought it out today that repatriations were never, ever paid to the Cheyennes for those terrible deeds. They pretty much got away scot-free. We often talk about healing wounds, and we use the word “healing” quite often after terrible tragedies. And I believe that. I think time takes care of a lot of that. In most cases, wounds are healed, but, you know, scars are never forgotten. And in my view, the Cheyenne and Arapaho people, for time immemorial, from now on, will always bear those scars and will always hear those stories. It’s one of the first stories you hear. I remember after we passed the legislation, it took seven years. You know, sometimes people think, well, if you introduce a bill it gets done and there’s no problem and, you know, you pass it and it’s signed into law the next day or a few days later. It’s not. It takes a lot of negotiating, and there was a lot of negotiating done. We had to involve the Park Service. We had to involve all four of the tribes. We had to involve the state of Colorado. We had to involve many, many other agencies. And so the first bill really turned out to be a study bill to study if it should be done at all. To get that bill passed and kind of networked, it took almost two years. And then we had to introduce the second bill. As Norma mentioned, there were three bills. We had to introduce the second one would actually do it. And during that time, there was a lot of negotiations, and there had to be environmental impact statements done. There had to be everything you can think about. And one of the problems that arose during these times of negotiating with all the different people who had a vested interest or a seat at the table, as you might say, was the fact that oral tradition did not jive with written documentation by the government. And a lot of people thought, well, you could pinpoint where the killing was. And it must have been right over here by those campfires or right over here. When, in fact, we later found out, it wasn’t. It was a total of about six miles long. There were people running and hiding and trying to bury themselves by cutting, by caving earth in on top of them on the banks of the creek, any number of things. And so what we finally decided to do was, rather than trying to focus on exactly where it was, this campfire or that teepee ring or so on, we’d take in a larger area and try to encompass the whole thing and then later decide exactly what happened where. And that’s basically what happened with the final bill. That’s the way it was done. There were really three landowners involved, and the largest number of acreage, about 1400 acres or a little more, was owned by a family by the name of Dawson. Years before, when I was elected to the state legislature and I wanted to do something about that land, we approached the Dawson family to see if they would sell that land to the state so we could make some kind of a state commemorative park out of it for the Cheyenne and Arapaho. But the Dawson family did not want to sell it in those early ’80s. And I’ve never been a big believer of condemning private land for government use, so I didn’t pursue it after that. But this time around, there was a little more interest by the Dawson family. But some of the battle site, the killing fields, as I think we ought to call them, was on other landowners’ places, too. The federal government, when they buy land, they can only buy at what is called fair market value. They take a survey of other land around it, and they find out what it was sold for and, by law, all they can offer you for your land if it happens to be in the proximity of the land that’s already sold. Well, a couple of the other landowners—at least one of the other landowners—said that would be okay. And we managed to get that land bought, the Park Service did, but the Dawson family felt that since theirs was the primary location of most of the terrible tragic killings, their land should be worth more, and he was probably right. From an historic standpoint, it was probably worth more. And so the federal government couldn’t pay all the money that he wanted for that land, but thanks to—I forgot his first name—Mr. Druck who’s really a principle behind some of the business concern, the South Cheyenne and Arapaho, they came to our aid and came up with the extra money that we needed to buy that land from the Dawson family. And so it’s an ongoing thing. There’s an interpretive center there now, as you probably know. And I remember visiting Bent’s Fort, which is, I think, about an hour away from the Sand Creek massacre site some years ago. And I asked him if many people came through there and asked about Sand Creek. And they said it was the single thing most of their visitors asked for. Where is Sand Creek? People had read about it, didn’t know a thing about it, they wanted to know where Sand Creek is. And now they know. When we went there for, you might say, the ribbon cutting a few years ago, there was a huge contingent, as you might guess, of Indian people. And if you’ve gone there, it’s about 10 miles away from a small farming town by the name of Eads, E-a-d-s, Eads, Colorado. We went into Eads to get lunch one of the days we were there, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see the reception the people in that county in Eads gave to the Cheyenne and Arapaho people that came back for the, you might say, the ribbon cutting and the ceremony opening it to the public. There were signs and writing on the windows of the stores that said, “Welcome back Cheyennes,” “Welcome back Arapahos.” And it was in English, but it was also in Cheyenne and Arapaho. And what interested me, one of my Cheyenne friends was kind of laughing at one of the signs in the window. And I said, “Why?” And they said, “Well, because whoever told them welcome back, they misspelled it.” So they had it wrong, but at least their heart was in the right place and their intention was in the right place. They also did a big barbeque, and the tribes provided the buffalo, but they invited everybody from the area to come to that. And it was, it was a really a welcome sight to see the non-Indian people of that area that were so open-hearted. And many of them came up to me, and I know many of them came up to my Cheyenne relatives, to thank us for coming back and thank us for doing what we did in establishing that as a national historic monument. Now, when I introduced those bills, we got the first, well, we got all three of them passed after seven years, actually six years in my side. But after we got it past the Senate, the final version of it, it was not signed into law yet. It still had to go by the House. Bills have to go through both houses. There was a congresslady that only did, I think, one or two terms from southeast Colorado. And since I had already announced I was not going to run again, I thought a lot of my job was pretty well done with this magnificent structure and introducing that Sand Creek bill and getting it passed. I had announced I was going to retire. Nobody had to throw me out, I knew the way home, and I was getting pretty homesick after 22 years. And so we got it past the Senate, and I announced I was not going to run again. And darned if our House counterpart didn’t drop the ball and didn’t even pursue getting the bill passed on the outside. And so it died. Fortunately, Senator Wayne Allard, who was my colleague when I was in and was still serving after I left, picked up the ball, took our language, and since the hearings had already been done, he reintroduced it, and it literally flew through that time. And the congresswoman who was on the other side, she had kind of got scolded by her local press and by some of the towns in southeast Colorado for not pursuing that bill and not getting it passed. And so she did then, and it was signed into law. So I’m just very proud of the fact that so many people worked so hard on that to get it passed, and particularly all those unsung heroes that you don’t read about very much that were really instrumental. I remember Lee Lonebear telling me many times—in fact, one of the last times that he talked to me a little bit about it was the morning when we had kind of the ribbon cutting of Sand Creek, and he was doing an early morning sweat and prayer ceremony. And afterwards I talked to him a little bit, and Lee, of course, was a direct descendant of Black Kettle. And he told me a little bit about some of the old chiefs that were killed there. As you know, Black Kettle wasn’t, but was surprised on the Washita some years later by General Custer. That story’s already been told by an earlier speaker. But a number of others, Chief War Bonnet, just two years before, according to Lee, he had been in Washington, DC, with a delegation and met with either the president or some of the emissaries of the president to try to work out some kind of an equitable peace agreement. But, of course, in those peace agreements in those days, they didn’t last too long, and the federal government simply couldn’t enforce them. When you had a western part of the United States that was growing so fast with a huge influx of gold seekers—gold was discovered in 1851 in Denver—and, of course, the people really came in there. It was after the California Gold Rush. And they were from all over the world looking for their fortunes there. There were the hide hunters, the trappers, you know, name it, the people that wanted to farm. Some didn’t speak English, just got off the boat, wanted to move west. They heard Horace Greeley’s words about “Go West, young man,” and they did. There wasn’t any way the federal government could control that. And certainly the territory of Colorado under then-Governor Evans and the principals like Chivington, they were out from the very beginning to kill some Indians. I mean, they both said it several times over. There’s never, ever been any proof at all that I know of that some of the depredations that were done by somebody were by that band of Cheyenne, let alone any Cheyenne or any other tribe. There was one family that was called the Hungate family that was killed a few months before the Sand Creek Massacre, and it has never been proven by anybody that people that killed that family were even Indian, let alone Cheyenne Indians. And yet around the streets of Denver, it was bandied around, particularly among the unwashed that it must have been a Cheyenne. And so they had this terrific hype and this negative stereotyping and this anger and hate built up by frustrated people that hadn’t found gold or couldn’t kill enough buffalo or something to lash out at somebody. And, of course, we’ve seen that happen in other parts of the world at other times. I mean, that’s what Adolf Hitler was all about. And as Norma said, you know, now’s the time we focus on trying to make sure something that could never happen again. But in fact, my friends, it not only could happen again, it is happening again. Look what’s happening right now in Iraq and Afghanistan and some other places with the rise of ISIS and some of these other hate groups that are simply out to kill anybody that does not believe their ideology. It can happen again. Not so easy in this country, I think, because I think most Americans now think pretty independently, but it’s just tragic that not enough people learned from those terrible tragedies. And, of course, that’s what the bills were supposed to be all about, and that’s what this forum is all about, too, I think, to try to carry that message a little bit further. Thank you. _Transcribed from the symposium recording at the Rasmuson Theater, National Museum of the American Indian, October 9, 2014._ --- ### Part 14 — Memorialization and Healing — Ari Kelman Speaker: Dr. Ari Kelman Segment: "Remembering Sand Creek at the Sesquicentennial" Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0krmAKXqnBk&list=PLS6nSmuURFJCenmnG4NfQtoCRBAJk50IM&index=14 Page: https://niwotlivinghistory.org/sand-creek-videos Thanks. Before I begin, I want to say thanks again to Karen, to Alexa, for inviting me here today. It’s really an extraordinary honor to be with you all, and it’s also wonderful, as Norma said, to be with a lot of friends that I’ve made over the past—how long has it been—decade-and-a-half or so. What I’m going to try and do over the next maybe 15 or 20 minutes is talk about how the process that we’re engaged in today memorializing, remembering collectively, is a historical process, that this is something that’s been going on now for 150 years, and if I’ve got it right, I’m going to do 150 years in 15 minutes, so I’m going to talk really fast. As Gary Roberts mentioned this morning, John Chivington was a relentlessly political figure. He had a strong interest in furthering his career, and so in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, John Chivington understood that he needed to control the spin around what had happened at Sand Creek, and he, I would say, lobbed the first volleys in what would ultimately become protracted fights over the memory of Sand Creek. Chivington sent dispatches to his commander, explaining to his commander that his men had—that Chivington’s men, excuse me, had attacked a village that he said had been bristling with warriors. In retrospect, that obviously wasn’t true. He went on to insist that the Native people in that village had been responsible for those depredations that Senator Campbell just mentioned a moment ago. He said that his men had recovered the remains of white settlers that had been murdered by the Native people in that camp. Later that day Chivington sent a note to the press in Denver, again, trying very, very hard to control how this event would be remembered in its immediate aftermath. So as the bodies of his victims were still cooling nearby, John Chivington already had his eye on posterity. It’s an interesting question to consider whether or not Chivington’s perspective on Sand Creek simply would have become part of the historical record unchallenged if Silas Soule and Joe Cramer hadn’t written the letters that David Halaas spoke about this morning, but they did. Soule and Cramer, among others, refused to commit the soldiers under them at Sand Creek to the fight and, in its aftermath, understood that John Chivington was going to try and characterize their actions at Sand Creek as cowardice. They were very eager to make sure that the record reflected accurately what had happened at Sand Creek, and so I won’t go into the details of those letters because David did a great job of that this morning. But those letters were crucial because what they did is they prompted officials in Washington to begin a number of different investigations into Sand Creek. John Chivington never testified in person at those investigations, but he did send a long and very detailed account of precisely what he claimed his men had done at Sand Creek, and also what he believed his goals had been there, and Chivington articulated in this written testimony twin goals. First of all, to try and pacify the Plains. Chivington and Governor John Evans both had been engaged in a long process of trying to convince federal officials that white settlers in Colorado territory were facing mortal peril because there was a grand confederation, a huge alliance of tribal peoples in the fall of 1864, and so in the aftermath of Sand Creek, when Chivington testified about what had happened there, he continued this story. And again, in that testimony Chivington pointed back, in this case, to human remains that he said his men had recovered there, suggesting once again that the Native peoples at Sand Creek had been guilty of depredations, had been guilty of committing atrocities against white settlers in Colorado territory. Chivington also, though, in that testimony suggested that at Sand Creek he and his men had served nobly as part of the federal government’s effort during the United States Civil War. He suggested that George Bent, especially, had been acting as a Confederate agent and had been working with the Cheyennes and trying to foment insurrection among the Cheyennes, to try and have the Cheyennes join the Confederacy, to join the rebellion against the federal government. And so for Chivington these two processes, first of pacifying the Plains and also of trying to put down the Confederate insurrection, were intertwined. He saw these as being very similar processes. As, again, David talked about this morning, he did a much better job than I’d be able to do. Silas Soule disagreed with this rather vehemently, as did other people. Soule actually thought that what happened at Sand Creek reflected very badly on the service of Civil War soldiers. He was very upset that somehow what had happened at Sand Creek dishonored the otherwise honorable service of men who had been fighting to preserve the Union, and he believed that it cast doubt on the United States’ manifest destiny, as it was described at the time, the so-called God given right of the United States to settle the West as it saw fit. Soule, as David talked about, testified in person, but then shortly after testifying before federal investigators looking into Sand Creek, Soule was murdered in the streets of Denver. Soule’s assassination, his murder, call it what you want, was an extraordinarily important moment in terms of the way that we remember Sand Creek, and it was important because of the context in which it happened. It wasn’t just a matter that Soule had testified very recently. It was also that President Lincoln had been assassinated approximately a week earlier, and Lincoln’s assassination and Soule’s assassination were, in the minds of many, many observers, part and parcel of the same process. One of the federal investigators looking into Sand Creek said as much, that Soule’s murder was a by-product of Sand Creek in the same way that President Lincoln’s assassination had been a by-product of the fight against slavery. The result of this was that Silas Soule’s memories of Sand Creek, his depiction of what had happened at the massacre, persisted. These became extraordinarily important memories. In some instances they were sort of unassailable. These were the recollections of a man who had been martyred for speaking truth to power, and so people clung to these memories in many cases. One example of that is a so-called Indian reformer. In 1879 a woman named Helen Hunt Jackson, who went on to write a book called “Century of Dishonor,” Helen Hunt Jackson, in 1879, began writing what we would think of today as op eds or editorials, letters to editors around the United States. In those letters she characterized Sand Creek as a massacre. She drew on Silas Soule’s testimony before federal investigators. She talked about a number of the same details, the white flag flying over Black Kettle’s Lodge, the fact that John Chivington’s men had desecrated their fallen victims, had desecrated the bodies of women and of children, including infants. Helen Hunt Jackson, the way in which she engaged with memories of Sand Creek didn’t sit well for a number of different people, including William Byers, who, again, we heard about this morning, had been the editor of the Rocky Mountain News. And Byers began saying that Helen Hunt Jackson, not surprisingly, as he had in 1864 and 1865, he suggested that she was sort of out of place in the West. First of all, that she was an easterner and so she couldn’t possibly understand the necessity of an event like Sand Creek, couldn’t understand how this had been a noble battle. He also used what we would call today sexist language, suggesting that she was a woman and so she was just entirely, he said, “out of place in the rough and tumble West.” Now, Helen Hunt Jackson, for those of you who know anything about her, she was no shrinking violet and she gave as good as she got. And so they entered into what we would look back today and describe as a print war. They went back and forth over a period of weeks, increasing, upping the ante over time. As Helen Hunt Jackson was writing, she had one particular goal in mind. She was known, as I said earlier, as an Indian reformer because she wanted to reform the federal government’s policy toward Native peoples. Jackson wanted to see Indian Affairs in the hands of the Department of the Interior exclusively. And there were a number of people in the Interior Department at that time who were prime to accept this message for a variety of different reasons, not least because the so-called Great Sioux War had just taken place, including the Little Bighorn. And so there were a number of people in the federal government who recognized, in the late 1870s, that Indian Affairs weren’t being handled properly. At the same time though, many westerners still adhered to John Chivington’s depiction of Sand Creek. In 1880, I believe it was, editors at the Gunnison Democrat, which was a newspaper published out of Gunnison, Colorado, called for—the language they used was “another Sand Creek,” that’s a quote. What they were asking for was a war of extermination in the aftermath of the Ute uprising, and so the fights over Sand Creek were continuing. Now, George Bent, who, as David Halaas would tell you in his extraordinary biography of Bent, David has laid all of this out very, very well, George Bent was a keen observer of western history and also of politics. Bent knew what was happening in Colorado. Bent also understood that as the 19th century neared its close, that the American West stood at the center of discussions about the future of the United States; that historians like Frederick Jackson Turner at the Chicago World’s Fair were talking about the closing of the frontier and what that meant for the United States. Conservationists were talking about the impending extinction of the bison, what that might mean for the Indigenous people who relied on those animals for their survival in many instances; that readers were consuming piles and piles of dime novels in these years. In other words, again, in popular culture and in public policy, the American West was very much at the center of conversations about where the United States would head in its future. George Bent was dismayed that Native people seemed to have no voice in these ongoing discussions, and so at the end of the 19th century he began working with a group of scholars. Ultimately he struck a partnership with a historian named George Hyde, and he and Hyde produced a number of different documents in which Bent, with the assistance of Hyde, talked about Sand Creek. In 1906, just to give you one example, they published six articles in a magazine that at the time was called the Frontier, and in those articles George Bent talked about Sand Creek as having been a massacre. He very explicitly rebutted John Chivington’s portrayal of what had happened in November of 1864, again, pointing back to the way in which the Cheyenne and Arapaho people at Sand Creek had believed that they had struck a—perhaps a fragile, but nevertheless peace with white authorities in Colorado territory, the way in John Chivington’s men had butchered their victims, and on and on. Once again, though, this sort of revisionist history of Sand Creek met with some resistance. Coloradans, and especially John Chivington’s surviving troops, were not at all happy that George Bent was suggesting that they had engaged in a massacre, that they had massacred women and children and the elderly. Jacob Downing, especially, was very, very upset by these characterizations, particularly upset that a Native American man was calling white men uncivilized. And so Downing followed the lead of Byers and others and wrote letters to local papers in which he called George Bent all manner of names and said that Bent was lying, that John Chivington’s characterization of Sand Creek remained as true at the beginning of the 20th century as it had in 1864 and 1865. Downing then worked with a number of other people in Colorado, local heritage organizations, to try and memorialize the service of Coloradans in the United States Civil War; service that it’s important to understand for the most part overwhelmingly was very, very noble. That effort culminated in Denver in 1909 with the unveiling of a memorial on the State Capitol steps, a memorial that’s still there. That memorial lists the battles and engagements in which Coloradans had fought during the Civil War, and it includes on its base Sand Creek as a battle or an engagement, rather than as a massacre. And so it’s possible to look at Downing’s work, at the work of those other heritage organizations in Colorado at that time and see that what they really did is they smoothed away the rough edges of Sand Creek and they cast John Chivington’s story of the massacre in bronze. That memorial, by the way, was reinterpreted, what, about a decade ago. Nevertheless, it is still there. Flashing forward pretty quickly here to the era of World War II and the Cold War, in 1950 the state of Colorado and Kiowa County unveiled two memorials: one that Senator Campbell mentioned a moment ago, and another that was quite nearby. The first of those memorials said, “Sand Creek Battleground.” That memorial is still there today. It’s on the so-called monument overlook. It overlooks the killing field at Sand Creek. Again, this was Sand Creek Battleground. It was a way of trying to make sure that John Chivington’s perspective on Sand Creek would remain vibrant into the future. But at the same time, in that same year, in fact, unveiled on the same day, the Colorado Historical Society put up another monument, and that one said, “Sand Creek Battle or Massacre,” which was obviously equivocal language, suggesting that the way in which people recalled Sand Creek had begun to change over time. Context matters in this case, and from my perspective what had happened is that by 1950, which was the year in which that memorial was unveiled, the federal government, for about a decade-and-a-half, had been rather aggressively engaged in its own memorialization efforts looking back to the United States Civil War as an emblem of the United States’ longstanding commitment to freedom and liberty. The federal government had used memories of the Civil War, which, up until the 1930s, were very much contested, had tried to use memories of the Civil War as a way to drum up support for internationalism, for the United States’ involvement first in World War II and then in the Cold War. And so in 1950 it made sense for Coloradans to begin to divorce memories of Sand Creek from memories of the Civil War, and also to begin to think about this tragedy in a more ambiguous light. That ambiguity shifted over time. By the late 1960s the United States, again, pointing to something that Senator Campbell mentioned a moment ago, had again confronted the capacity of American soldiers occasionally to murder innocent civilians, as in the case of the My Lai massacre. By the late 1960s the so-called modern Civil Rights Movement was also underway, and so people around the United States were becoming more and more familiar with critiques of racial injustice in this country. And at the same time it was the beginning of the New Age, and so many whites had become fascinated with traditional Indigenous ways of understanding the past and Indigenous cultures. It was in that cultural moment that Dee Brown wrote “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” a book that perhaps many of you have read. “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” draws on Silas Soule’s characterizations of Sand Creek, draws on the memories and the writing of Helen Hunt Jackson. It is a very, very hard-hitting depiction of Sand Creek. “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” has sold to date more than five million copies. That’s even a little bit better than the book that I’ve written, I’ll say, in terms of sales, and it’s had an immense influence on American culture. “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” is, I would say, the bestselling and the most popular, the best read history of the American West and it influenced a generation of American readers, but also of United States historians and historians of the U.S. West. And it’s “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” that created, I would say, a cultural climate in which the National Park Service, in which Senator Campbell, could create a Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, with no need to equivocate about what had happened at Sand Creek, but instead to use appropriate language to describe the massacre that happened there. I’m going to wrap up by suggesting a couple of things. First of all, that the process that we’re engaged in today, this process of memorialization, once again, is simply part of a very, very long tradition. I would say though that what’s happening today is unusual, perhaps extraordinary, and to my mind, really very, very hopeful and I say that because we’re speaking today in a space, and again, credit to Senator Campbell, to Senator Inouye, who’s no longer with us, and to many, many other people, we’re speaking in a space that is both federal and Indigenous. This is an extraordinary place to be having these kinds of discussions. I can’t think of a more appropriate place. And then I’ll conclude by saying that the people who created the National Museum of the American Indian drew on an idea that was first articulated, I believe, by a Native scholar, writer and activist, Gerald Vizenor. That was the idea of surviving. Not simply survival, but survival and resistance working together. And I think that what you’re seeing today is very much an articulation of that, and so I want to conclude, and you may have heard some of these names, but I just want to remember, because that is our function at this point, is memorialization, I do want to remember some people who aren’t here today. Luke Brady, Colleen Cometsevah, Laird Cometsevah, Lee Lonebear, Lee Pedro, Eugene Ridgely Jr., and Alonzo Sankey. All of these were representatives to the Sand Creek memorialization effort. They’re not with us today, but they’re very, very much in our memories, and for that reason I’d like to believe that—well, as I’m getting choked up, I’ll just say thank you very much. _Transcribed from the symposium recording at the Rasmuson Theater, National Museum of the American Indian, October 9, 2014._ ---