Sand Creek massacre

But standing in the way of that future was the Lakota Nation, led by formidable leaders such as Red Clown, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, who were determined to defend their land and way of life.

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.

The soldiers ransacked and burned the village.

Some of the dead were mutilated and their bodies displayed as gruesome trophies.

What happened at Sand Creek would reverberate across the plains for years to come.

He was a part of the Mexican-American War, the Seminole War.

He was in California for the Gold Rush, and then Colorado for their Gold Rush, and ultimately took part in the Sand Creek Massacre, uh, in a kind of surprising turn for him that makes his story very complicated.

The high school history classes we all had had that very singular story of Manifest Destiny at the exclusion o- of so much else.

So how difficult was it for you to assemble all the information about Beckwourth and Sacagawea and the others?

The battles of Opaquan, Fisher's Hill, Chaffin's Farm, and Cedar Creek were all fought in Virginia.

Johnsonville, Tennessee, the Sand Creek Massacre, the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, Fort McAllister, Georgia, and Nashville, Tennessee finished out the year.

All right, 1865, here we go.

The battles of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, Hacker's Run, Virginia, Bentonville, North Carolina, Fort Stedman, Virginia, Five Forks, Virginia, the third battle of Petersburg, Virginia, Fort Blakely, Alabama, Sailor's Creek, Virginia, Appomattox Station, Virginia, and finally, the decisive battle at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia on April 8th, 1865, which resulted in Lee's surrender to Grant.

Can you talk a little bit more about what happened there?

Well, so the Sand Creek Massacre, which was over 200 indigenous people, Arapaho and Cheyenne members, tribes, they were camped in a peaceful camp.

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.

Sure.

And I do want

to mention, too, like the Sand Creek Massacre was a historical event.

And this is something that we talk about within American history, but it's also a present context.

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.