On the morning of Nov. 29, 1864, Col. John M. Chivington led a band of volunteer soldiers to an American Indian encampment on the Sand Creek Reservation near Eads. The troops surrounded Fort Lyon, a local Army base, arrested their officers, and in the following hours brutally killed an estimated 230 people.
“Bucks, women, and children were scalped, fingers cut off to get the rings on them…while begging for their lives,” wrote Lt. Joseph A. Cramer, a solider at the massacre.
Beginning Thursday, members of the Northern and Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes from Montana, Wyoming, Oklahoma and as far as Pittsburgh, Pa., will gather at the site of the massacre to walk or run to Denver to commemorate the 152nd anniversary of the massacre.
After the massacre, soldiers mutilated the corpses and carried body parts back to Denver to parade them around the city, said Karen Wilde, the Tribal Liaison for the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. The participants follow the same route to pay homage to their ancestors.
The 18th Annual Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run, which is sponsored by the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana and the Northern Arapaho Tribe of Wyoming among others, begins at 7 a.m. Thursday with a sunrise ceremony at the monument in Eads, according to a news release.
Participants will walk or run toward Denver over the next four days. Organizers expect around 500 participants from American Indian reservations across the West.
After they complete the nearly 200-mile journey from the national monument to the Colorado State Capitol, participants will meet with officials from Colorado’s state government, said Gail Ridgely, a coordinator for Wyoming’s Northern Arapaho tribe. Participants will also give presentations on American Indian history and issues the tribes now face.
“The event is in memory of our ancestors who died at Sand Creek and the ones who survived,” Ridgely said.
Sunday’s event also will celebrate the lives of Joseph Cramer and Capt. Silas Soule, who were present at the 1864 massacre and declined to participate. Later, the men wrote letters to military officials that exposed Chivington and his troops, which led to investigations by two congressional committees and an Army commission. These investigations changed the public’s perception of Sand Creek from a battle to a massacre of men, women and children.
All of the events are open to the public, said Otto Braided Hair, an event coordinator who is a member of the Northern Cheyenne of Montana tribe. He encouraged participants to dress for inclement weather and to call him at 406-749-4325 for a location to join the walkers after Friday’s kickoff.
Next week the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site will hold a walking tour at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Researcher Jeff Campbell will lead a free presentation on the Sand Creek Massacre at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Crow-Luther Cultural Events Center at 1304 Maine St.in Eads.
