In June 1864 four Arapahos killed a white family near Denver.
In this volatile atmosphere, any aggression, any raid, any theft was interpreted as the first volley of an uprising. Lean Bear, who a year previously visited Washington as part of a peace delegation, approached Lieutenant Eayre’s troops “intending to show his papers and shake hands.” The commander ordered his men to open fire, “then the troops shot Lean Bear to pieces, as he lay on his back on the ground” (Bent, quoted in Kelman A Misplaced Massacre). Eayre encountered a Cheyenne buffalo hunting camp near the Smoky Hill River. In April 1864, Colorado soldiers started attacking a number of Cheyenne camps, and in May Lieutenant George S. During his testimony before a congressional investigating committee Kit Carson stated “the authorities in Colorado, expecting that their troops would be sent to the Potomac, determined to get up an Indian war” (quoted from Calloway, Our Hearts Fell to the Ground). Colorado authorities actively fanned the flames of white panic. Rumors abounded, stating the Cheyenne and Arapaho would seize the opportunity to retaliate, or Confederate agents were rallying Plains nations to rise against white settlements. Fear only multiplied in 1863 with the transfer of troops east to Missouri to help with the war effort. Many Cheyenne and Arapaho refused to uphold a treaty signed by a small minority of chiefs, an act interpreted by Colorado authorities as prelude to war.Īfter the 1862 “Great Sioux Uprising” in Minnesota a shroud of fear engulfed Colorado Territory. The discovery of Colorado gold in 1858, and the unprecedented influx of European migrants violating Cheyenne and Arapaho territorial claims, prompted the contentious Treaty of Fort Wise in 1861 that diminished reservation land by over ninety percent. Sand Creek was not the first, nor the last, manifestation of our country's violent history, but a deep dive into the massacre may prove enlightening, and warn us how fear and dehumanizing rhetoric can so warp our hearts.īy way of background, the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie between the United States and the Cheyenne, Sioux, Arapaho, Crow, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara set aside the land between the Heart River in North Dakota and the North Platte River in Nebraska from the Rockies to western Kansas as Indian territory. The quick and dirty answer is that a toxic combination of a pervasive culture of fear, a history of total war as default Indian policy, and dehumanizing rhetoric of Native Americans as an infestation created a violent world where Chivington, an abolitionist and a Methodist preacher who moved west in hopes of stopping the spread of slavery to new states, could so fail to see the humanity of the men, women, and children seeking safety at Sand Creek that he bragged of the massacre in the years following. The following answer is modified from an earlier post. Previous AMAs | Previous Roundtables Featuresįeature posts are posted weekly. May 25th | Panel AMA with /r/AskBibleScholars Please Subscribe to our Google Calendar for Upcoming AMAs and Events To nominate someone else as a Quality Contributor, message the mods. Our flaired users have detailed knowledge of their historical specialty and a proven record of excellent contributions to /r/AskHistorians. Please Read and Understand the Rules Before Contributing. Report Comments That Break Reddiquette or the Subreddit Rules. Serious On-Topic Comments Only: No Jokes, Anecdotes, Clutter, or other Digressions. Provide Primary and Secondary Sources If Asked. Write Original, In-Depth and Comprehensive Answers, Using Good Historical Practices. Questions should be clear and specific in what they ask, and should be able to get detailed answers from historians whose expertise is likely to be in particular times and places. Nothing Less Than 20 Years Old, and Don't Soapbox. Be Nice: No Racism, Bigotry, or Offensive Behavior. Downvote and Report comments that are unhelpful or grossly off-topic.Upvote informative, well sourced answers.New to /r/AskHistorians? Please read our subreddit rules and FAQ before posting! Apply for Flair
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