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Sand Creek Massacre Research Paper

Decent Essays

Charles R Jones
Derek Stanik
History 225
July 9, 2015
Count Down to the Sand Creek Massacre
On November 29, 1864 approximately 700 U.S. troops attacked a village of 500 Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians. The village consisted of men, women, and children, who thought they were at peace with the U.S. government. The attack at Sand Creek was part of a chain of bad events and battles the Plains Indian tribes were experiencing with migrating settlers arriving from the east and U.S. soldiers. An 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie condensed Cheyenne and Arapaho land but promised them yearly payments in exchange for safe passage of settlers through their tribal lands. The discovery of gold in Colorado in 1858 brought a greater inflow of settlers coming in a hunt …show more content…

Signed by all 10 chiefs of the Cheyenne and Arapaho people, it significantly reduced the hunting grounds formerly agreed upon in the Treaty and created, once again less land for the reservation around the Sand Creek and Arkansas River. The treaty included an agreement to change these Native Americans from hunters to farmers. Many problems came out of this agreement. Although the Native people understood it as an agreement to each tribe, local settlers believed it to include all of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Natives, expecting them to give up buffalo hunting and to move within the reservation and farm. That did not happen, frustrating the plans of Colorado Territory Gov. John Evans and increasing resistances between the two nations. The Sand Creek Massacre would occur inside this reservation …show more content…

Approximately 200 people would die there, many disfigured by the soldiers. According to the Lone Wolf, a novel by Kevin Cahill, “When the smoke cleared, Colonel John M. Chivington’s troops returned to Denver, waving Indian scalps and body parts to an adoring crowd that hailed the conquering heroes as saviors of the territory”. The chiefs that were killed were, Standing-in-the-Water, Ochinee and War Bonnet, White Antelope, Tall Bear, Bear Robe, Little Robe, Spotted Crow, Big Man, Bear Man and Old Yellow Wolf. After this, the entire camp was burned. Many of the natives were left behind to be identified by their family members. Several men tried to stop the massacre, mainly a CPT. Silas, who on Apr 23, 1865 was found shot to death in Denver. According to the National Park Service, “The citizens of nearby Denver welcomed the troops when they returned as having helped to rid the Plains of hostile Indians, but Chivington’s actions were controversial almost

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