Memories, Memorials and Missteps

Painting of the Sand Creek Massacre by Lindneaux

Ari Kelman’s A Misplaced Massacre: struggling over the memory of Sand Creek is not just a retelling of the massacre that occurred in Colorado in 1864. Instead, it is an examination of the memorialization process that took place over one hundred and fifty years later and how the past is never static. Although we learn what happened under the charge of Colonel John Chivington, via his own testimony, (as well as from Silas Soule, a soldier and George Bent, a survivor,) it is how the tribes and the community and the federal government in the present, understood and related to it that is of paramount importance.

But what did happen in November 1864? According to Chivington, he and his troop of soldiers heroically battled over five hundred Indian warriors who were planning an attack on the local population and possibly America itself. Because of his brave and victorious struggle against these murderous tribes, the women, children and citizens of Colorado and afar were now safe from harm. Silas Soule, a Captain leading company D in Colorado had a different story. According to a letter he sent to a friend, Colonel Chivington had butchered the Indians and lied about the battle to save his own reputation [p. 22.] The Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes mown down by Chivington’s soldiers had included women and children and even unborn babies. George Bent survived the massacre and though he was neither asked to testify nor volunteered any information at the time, he later recalled the events and published his account in 1905 and 1906 which corroborated Captain Soule’s account.

In 2007, with the historic site unveiled, the tribes were angry and suspicious and the community of Kiowa County, (where the marker would be placed,) were also upset and anxious. There were still unanswered questions about the events and in particular, where the event had actually taken place. The Kiowa county residents worried that the possible bad press connected with the site of the massacre, (committed by federal troops of the time,) would create a negative impact on the small community. The tribes wanted to be sure the site would be honored correctly and in order to honor their dead they needed to re-inter the remains in the correct location. The problem was, no one knew for certain where the exact location was.

The creek where the massacre took place had shifted over time and most of the remains and artifacts had been scattered or scavenged. It took several more years and the help of a former crime scene investigator to determine where the events had most likely taken place. Jeff Campbell treated the site and the surrounding area as though it were a modern day crime scene and used all his training to map out the events of the time using the eyewitness testimony of Soule and Bent. With the help of another researcher, they pieced together the most likely coordinates and presented their findings to the tribes and the National Park Service.

Though it had taken several more years and there was still a great deal of mistrust from those tribes, both sides were finally in agreement and the site of the Sand Creek massacre was properly commemorated.