Site of 1864 Sand Creek Massacre named national historic landmark
DENVER -- Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne signed the paperwork Monday to formally create the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, just days before its official dedication.
The memorial marks the massacre of nearly 160 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians by at least 700 volunteers of a Colorado regiment in an early morning raid on Nov. 29, 1864. Many of those killed in the unprovoked attack were elderly, women and children.
[The 12,500-acre site is] in Kiowa County, on the plains 180 miles southeast of Denver...
Col. John Chivington, a lay Methodist minister, led the attack on the village on the banks of Big Sand Creek, a spot the Indians were told to go by the U.S. Cavalry.
Colorado Territorial Gov. John Evans, who authorized the attack, was fired by President Lincoln, and Congress condemned the attack. Chivington and others involved were never punished.
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The memorial marks the massacre of nearly 160 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians by at least 700 volunteers of a Colorado regiment in an early morning raid on Nov. 29, 1864. Many of those killed in the unprovoked attack were elderly, women and children.
[The 12,500-acre site is] in Kiowa County, on the plains 180 miles southeast of Denver...
Col. John Chivington, a lay Methodist minister, led the attack on the village on the banks of Big Sand Creek, a spot the Indians were told to go by the U.S. Cavalry.
Colorado Territorial Gov. John Evans, who authorized the attack, was fired by President Lincoln, and Congress condemned the attack. Chivington and others involved were never punished.