And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 13:56:52 EST Search to pinpoint exact site of 1864 Sand Creek Massacre Copyright © 1999 Nando Media Copyright © 1999 Associated Press By DENIS M. SEARLES EADS, Colo. (February 20, 1999 1:26 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Within the fallow grain fields that checker this windy, high plains sage country, the Big Sandy Creek once ran red with the blood of Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women and children. Researchers want to find the site of that massacre. Scores were killed, scalped and mutilated by volunteers of the Colorado militia. Unknown to most Americans, the Sand Creek Massacre that cold morning of Nov. 29, 1864, is as fresh as yesterday to the Cheyenne and Arapaho. No one, however, is sure how many died or where the attack occurred. Now the National Park Service is working with tribal advisers to pinpoint the exact site so it can be nominated as a national park. The agency is using high-tech tools, aerial photographs and oral histories of the tribes. "Never has justice been done to satisfy the spirits" of those slain, said Robert Tabor, vice chairman of the Cheyenne-Arapaho in Oklahoma. "Sand Creek itself defined the United States' relations to all Indian people. It is time we set the ground aside and made it a national park," said state historian David Halaas. The bill to finance the Sand Creek study and search for the massacre site was pushed through Congress last fall by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Colorado Republican who's part Cheyenne. "The massacre was a shameful part of American history. The women and children slaughtered there, many of whom were my ancestors, should respectfully be remembered and honored," Campbell said last year. In 1864, two cultures - Indian hunters and pioneer farmers - had collided on the plains, with atrocities committed on both sides. Raids on wagon trains, ranches and farms were increasing. Far to the East, the Civil War was raging, leaving frontier Army posts lightly garrisoned and poorly equipped. On that bitter November sunrise, the Colorado volunteers, led by Col. John M. Chivington and supported by four howitzers, attacked the camp of Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle and 500 or more Cheyenne and Arapaho along the creek, now called Big Sandy. Chivington and his volunteers had been spurred to action by the slaughter of the Hungate family on a ranch southwest of Denver, an attack most believe was unconnected to Black Kettle and his people. Accounts of the day said the man was shot, the woman stabbed and "violated." Both were scalped; their two young daughters were nearly decapitated. Their bodies were put on display in Denver, rousing panic and vengeance in the populace, and the calling up of the militia by Territorial Gov. John Evans. The massacre toll at Sand Creek varies widely, from 63 to 500. Halaas believes about 160 were killed. Adding to the tragedy was Black Kettle's belief he had a peace agreement with the U.S. Army. Historians say when the first shots were fired, Black Kettle raised an American flag and a white cloth of truce. It only drew more fire. Black Kettle escaped with many others. If the slaughtered Hungate family was the battle cry of the Colorado volunteers, Sand Creek became the rallying cry of the plains tribes. Halaas said famously fierce Cheyenne Dog Soldiers united with Sioux and Arapaho. "About 2,000 warriors stayed together from January through October 1865. Hundreds (of white settlers) were killed" across the plains, Halaas said. "The impact of Sand Creek ended 12 years later at the Little Big Horn," where Lt. Col. George Custer and his 7th Cavalry unit were massacred, he said. The question of the site, long thought to be on the private property of James Dawson northeast of Eads, arose recently when a search by the state Historical Society failed to turn up conclusive evidence. Laird Cometsevah, a chief of the Southern Cheyenne in Oklahoma, is the great-grandson of a Cheyenne who escaped. "We know where it is ... but according to the National Park Service, they have to document ... the Sand Creek area," he said. "As far as the Cheyenne are concerned, the Dawson site was the main camp area of Chief Black Kettle when they were attacked." Tabor is not so sure. "Even nowadays you don't camp with the wind at your face. ... The way the bluffs are established (at the Dawson site) the camp would have been in the open. "The site we located is south. I visited that location and there are bluffs that would block the north wind, plenty of vegetation and water available," Tabor said. He has asked the park service to check that site. Periodic flooding has washed away evidence over the last century, but searchers are hoping to find tools, bone fragments or other relics by using core samples, maps, metal detectors and other methods. The search committee - Tabor, Cometsevah, Park Service coordinator Rick Frost and representatives of the Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho, landowners and the Colorado Historical Society - must report to Congress by August 2000. Tabor said the final determination will be made by the old ways. "We usually listen to the wind and watch the animals. There is a lot of eagle sightings there," he said. "Native Americans believe spirits come and visit" their death site, "especially when there's been sudden, unexpected or untimely deaths. The spirits are not ready to rest. The creator has a time for each of us. There is still a lot of unrest." http://www.nando.com/noframes/story/0,2107,20522-33653-243524-0,00.html &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
