John Chivington

If there was one day that settled the minds of many native peoples in their attitudes towards the United States, it was the 29th of November, 1864, in a place called Sand Creek, Colorado.

At dawn, around 700 Colorado volunteer soldiers under Colonel John Chivington descended on a Cheyenne and Arapaho village along Sand Creek.

The people in the camp believed that they were under the protection of the United States.

They had been told that if they came to the area around Fort Leon and demonstrated their peaceful intentions, they would be safe.

It had a white flag over it in November 1864 on the banks of Sand Creek.

when volunteer cavalry came in and basically massacred them under the direction of Colonel Chivington.

And although Denver considered it a great triumph in 1864 because they were concerned about what was happening with the natives, even Congress during the Civil War recognized it as a massacre.

But we lost track of the site.

And I will be discussing some of that later on because I do think it's important.

What they did to other tribes occasionally was every bit as ugly as what Chivington did over at Sand Creek.

But as for who broke the treaty, it was both sides, just not really in the way you're describing.

The Lakota did attack survey crews in the early 1870s, which was in violation of the treaty.

That's according to the people who were alive at the time and who condemned it for the same reasons that people condemn it nowadays.

The government's own Indian agent for the Cheyenne, Edward Wynkoop, he resigned over the Ouachita and called it a massacre.

People also judged Chivington, right? A congressional committee referred to his actions over at Sand Creek as foul and dastardly and a massacre, and that he deliberately planned and executed it.

Even Kit Carson, same guy who defeated the Navajo and marched him off to a damn concentration camp, even he condemned Chivington.