Commemoration of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre

On October 20, 2024, at 9:30 a.m., descendants of the 1864 Sand Creek massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho Native Americans gathered around a flagpole in Riverside Cemetery in Denver, Colorado. A fifty-two star American flag watched over rows of indistinguishable civil war era veterans’ grave markers.

Veterans were invited to lower the fifty-two star flag and raise a thirty-three star flag with a white flag hanging below it. This is the flag that Native Americans were instructed to raise above their tepees on November 29, 1864, so the American soldiers would know they were peaceful. The Native American people gathered at Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado believing they were at peace and cooperating with the U.S. government. What they didn’t know is that the governor of the Colorado territory, John Evens, and Colonel John Chivington, a commander of the U.S. Volunteers (a volunteer military force authorized for limited time periods as an adjunct to the Regular Army), had obtained permission to create the Third Colorado Cavalry of 100-day volunteer soldiers to fight Native Americans. The Cavalry needed Native Americans to fight. What they did on November 29 was not fighting. The women, children, and elders of the tribes were brutally slaughtered.

About twenty feet south of the flagpole is a stone with the name of a veteran, Captain Silas Soule. He and Lieutenant Joseph Cramer were officers who refused to lead their soldiers into the massacre. They were able to save the lives of some Native Americans. Captain Soule was remembered at the 2024 commemoration, by asking a descendant of his family to read the letter Soule wrote describing the horror he witnessed. The letter was difficult to hear with its descriptions of murder and mutilation.

I was moved the most by the drumming and singing of a Cheyenne warrior song. I didn’t know the words, but what I heard and felt was the emotion of resistance. The event was not just a commemoration and honoring of the soldiers who refused to participate in the unthinkable violence, it also showed the Cheyenne and Arapaho Native Americans are committed to preserving their culture and heritage.

This commitment to preserving Native American culture was evident during the presentations. Customs were explained, the young people particularly were challenged to follow the ways of the elders. A group of more than a dozen young people arrived on foot as things started. They were ending a four day run from Sand Creek to the Denver cemetery. They are part of a program to pass on Cheyenne and Arapaho values and culture.

We left the cemetery and drove to the History Colorado Center where there is an exhibition about the massacre, “The Sand Creek Massacre: The Betrayal that Changed Cheyenne and Arapaho People Forever.” I asked one of the Cheyenne elders how the people were “changed forever.” He explained there were two ways. First, they learned to never trust the American government. Second, they claimed responsibility for preserving their culture and traditions.

I told him about the vision of Ending Racism USA. “We envision a multicultural America where all identity groups empower each other, and this shared power is used to benefit all Americans.” He said, “That sounds like what we want.” The Cheyenne and Arapaho people are not waiting for the laws and the Constitution to change. As I saw at the event and the museum, they are demonstrating the way for America to be a multicultural nation today by preserving their values and way of life.