Sand Creek, healing the wounds of a massacre

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Sand Creek Massacre site in Kiowa County, near Eads, where more than 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians were killed by the U.S. Army in 1864.

By Brenda Norrell
Human right editor
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report

Censored News

SAND CREEK, Colo. – Before first light, the Longest Walk arrived at the site of the massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho children, women and men. Some of the walkers had seen the spirit women dancing and clapping during the women’s walk toward Sand Creek. Other walkers heard the spirit women singing with joy as they arrived.

For the Cheyenne Arapaho on this journey, like Calvin Magpie, Jr., from Oklahoma, it was a time of profound sorrow, remembering the innumerable babies, children, women, men and elderly who were shot in cold blood and mutilated.

For others on the Longest Walk, like Jimbo Simmons, coordinator of the northern route, the assault at Sand Creek was one that has never ended, because now the National Park Service officials have positioned themselves in control and with authority at the site. It is now designated an historic site, with implications for tourism and exploitation.

In these killing fields, the Long Walkers walked up the hill overlooking the trees where Chief Black Kettle’s people camped. The trees are now bare and looked much like they would have on November 29, 1864, when the Colorado Militia carried out the murders of the innocents as the warriors were away from camp. Beyond Black Kettle’s camp site is a flat plain, without trees, where the people ran, where the bodies of the babies, women, children, men and elderly fell as the bullets pierced their bodies.

On the hilltop, the Long Walkers formed a circle, with the staff carriers facing east. Each Long Walker offered a prayer. Returning to the base of the hill, Long Walkers ate breakfast and reflected on this journey of mourning, sorrow and healing.

Rebecca Duncan, Wylacki from Round Valley, Calif., remembered the Cheyenne and Arapahoe massacred. “It was real hard because the spirits are alive.”

Duncan said two days earlier, she had an idea, to gather the women for a women’s walk toward Sand Creek. The women all joined her.

“We didn’t even get ten feet, it was like the women were clapping their hands and jumping around in a circle. The little kids seemed happy,” Duncan said of the massacred women and children.

The night before the memorial, a delegation from the Long Walk, including Cheyenne Arapahoe Calvin Magpie, spent the night at the massacre site. They prayed and introduced themselves to the spirits, before the other Long Walkers arrived.

Magpie said the healing begins this way, with respect, remembrance and prayers.

Gail Ridgely, Northern Arapaho from Wyoming and Sand Creek descendant, visited the Long Walkers here. Ridgely said it was an honor to be among the Long Walkers and the staffs they carry.

Before the memorial at the place of massacre, the Long Walkers watched the documentary, “The Sand Creek Massacre,” produced by Don Vasicek. Long Walkers viewed the film while camped by a reservoir earlier this week, and learned of the history of the massacre. Long Walkers said the film reveals the facts that they did not learn in school, details that do not exist in history books, including the shooting of young children.

Then, on Saturday, April 5, Long Walkers rose at 3 a.m. and traveled to the massacre site. They walked at first light the final half mile up the hill, overlooking the massacre site at Sand Creek.

On Saturday evening and Sunday morning, Marty Chase Alone, Oglala, representing the Red Cloud people and a Tiospaye of the Big Road Band, led ceremonies at the Sand Creek Massacre site to release the spirits and wipe the tears.

Chase Alone's relatives were descendants of White Antelope and Yellow Wolf, massacred at Sand Creek.

Long Walkers said they could hear and feel the unrest and agony when they first arrived. After the ceremonies, walkers said there was a feeling of peace and calm here. Chase Alone said the ceremonies were held to let the ancestors know that they could go on now.

During presentations to the Longest Walk Northern Route, Chase Alone also presented the Longest Walk with a staff representing Native American Prisoners to carry to Washington in their struggle to ensure the ceremonial rights for inmates.

Listen to Marty Chase Alone and others --- from Sand Creek at Earthcycles:
http://www.earthcycles.net/
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Longest Walk, reunited after 27 years

On the Longest Walk Northern Route, near Sand Creek, Paul Owns the Sabre and his mother, Thelma Franks of Denver, are reunited after 27 years in Eads, Colorado. Lee Plenty Wolf Drum Group sang an honor song and a birthday song for all the birthdays they had missed. (Click on arrow to watch brief video.) Video by Brenda Norrell.

Waiting for first light at Sand Creek

By Brenda Norrell

SAND CREEK, Colo. -- It is still dark outside, at Sand Creek. The earth has not yet spun around to greet the morning sun. On this land the Colorado Militia murdered babies and children, butchered women and elderly. They were, they are, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe people. The Longest Walk is here early, waiting for first light. In front of us is the place of massacre. Behind us is California, Nevada, Utah and most of Colorado. The Longest Walkers and runners have crossed the land behind us on foot, ready to cross the land in front of us. I wonder who will hear the screams of the women, the mothers, who saw their children shot and bleeding, shot and dying. I wonder who will feel the old ones’ hearts when they saw their daughters and wives, mothers and sisters, dying in pools of blood with their babies clutched in their hands. One of the survivors’ descendants tells of the baby’s heart that stopped in the cold by the river. Then, suddenly, a ray of sunlight struck the child and this beam brought the child back to life. We are waiting for first light. We are waiting for first light to restore the sight of humanity. We are waiting for first light in a world that has grown dark with poison and ruin. We are waiting for the dead to make us alive again. We are waiting to remember, we are waiting for the world to remember.

Sand Creek, remembering the Cheyenne and Arapahoe women and children

On the Longest Walk, women walk to Sand Creek, remembering the Cheyenne and Arapahoe children, women and men who were massacred. Photo Brenda Norrell


Watch "Sand Creek Massacre" film online:
http://www.maxmouth.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ec8e48cf3d026e173a43


Longest Walk Northern Route Media contact:
Morning Star Gali
mstargali@gmail.com
Mano Cockrum(720) 276 7452
Aislyn Colgan(831) 295 2555

Indigenous Rights Prayer Walk, 'The Longest Walk 2' to hold Sunrise Gathering and Prayer Vigil at Sand Creek Massacre Site

EADES, CO- On Saturday, April 5, more than 50 participants of the Longest Walk 2 will embark on a spiritual walk and prayer gathering at the Sacred Sand Creek Massacre Site. An all night prayer vigil at the site will be held Friday night. Saturday morning the walkers will walk 8 miles to the Massacre site to hold a sunrise ceremony and gathering. They will make prayer offerings 4 times before arriving at the Site. The walkers are gathering at Sand Creek to remember the massacre of over 150 elderly men, women and children that occurred there and offer prayers. The walkers have asked for and received materials from the site for a sacred staff to carry on our journey across the country. The staff will be carried to honor the memory of those who were murdered and to bring awareness to the communities we travel through about the history of this country.

On February 11, 2008 Longest Walk 2 participants began our five month journey from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. The Longest Walk 2 is a grassroots effort on a national level to bring attention to the environmental disharmony of Mother Earth and the effects of environmental destruction on Native American people; as well as the need for the protection and preservation of Sacred Sites as a means for cultural survival. In our spiritual and historic walk, Native Americans and our allies from across the nation and world will walk carrying the message, "All Life is Sacred; Save Mother Earth."

Additionally Northern route walkers carry this mission: "Renewing the Spirit by Walking in the Footsteps of our Ancestors", as we cover the original route walked 30 years ago in the first Longest Walk. A southern route is walking simultaneously in the Clean Up Mother Earth campaign. Both routes will cover a combined total of 8000 miles on foot.We will be visiting communities along Highway 50 across Colorado sharing our message and inviting communities to contribute their stories of the issues they are facing, such as the need for greater protection and respect for Sacred Places and bringing about community awareness of the history and culture of this land.

The Longest Walk 2 will journey to the Sand Creek Massacre site for the weekend to offer support, prayers, and collect statements from descendants of the massacre as well as local Indigenous communities. These and all the issues expressed by the communities the walkers have passed through will be brought to the capital upon arrival in D.C. The Longest Walk 2 Northern Route visited Denver, CO on March 24th and stopped at the Sand Creek Massacre Plaque in front of the State Capitol, where Calvin Magpie, a walker and descendant of Cheyenne and Arapahoe who were massacred there, offered his prayers in honor of their losses. He recounted the tragedy in which Colorado Militia attacked peaceful tribes who had already surrendered and were heading to reservations in Oklahoma to settle.

The town of Eads, CO has offered its hospitality in hosting the walkers at their fairgrounds and community center from Thursday- Sunday nights. The Eads community, Chamber of Commerce, volunteers from Project Lighthouse in Monument, CO, and many more volunteers from Lamar, Denver, and Pueblo will travel there for the weekend to offer their support and help host feeds in honor of the occasion.

The art gallery Artists of the Plains in Eads will host an art show Saturday by Denver youth from the Indigenous Youth Sovereignty Project for a showing entitled "Healing Through the Next Generations" from 10:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon there will also be a showing of the 20 minute documentary detailing the Sand Creek Massacre at the community center.The walk will arrive in Washington, D.C. on July 11, 2008, bringing attention to issues of environmental injustice, protection of sacred sites, cultural survival, youth empowerment, and eroding Native American rights shared along the route. As a result of the first Longest Walk held in 1978, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978) was passed and 11 legislative bills that would have abrogated native treaties were defeated.

Saturday, April 5th
5:00 a.m. Longest Walk 2 will begin Spiritual Walk to Sand Creek Massacre Site
WHERE: Starting at 8 mi north of 96, on CO Rd 54WHO: Sand Creek Massacre Descendants, Longest Walk 2 representatives and other tribal and spiritual leaders.
6:30 a.m. Walk will arrive at Sand Creek Massacre Site. Sunrise Prayer in Honor & Protection of Sand Creek Sacred Site.
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Horror of the Sand Creek Massacre: “Captain Silas S. Soule/Lt. Joseph Cramer Letters”

By Don Vasicek

On November 29, 1864, about 700 Colorado 1st &†3rd Regiment troops and troops from New Mexico, slaughtered over 150 men, women, and children in the southeastern Colorado Territory. This act became known as the Sand Creek Massacre.Lt,. Captain Silas S. Soule wrote a letter dated December 19, 1864 from Ft. Lyon, C. T., to Major Ed Wynkoop, his commanding officer. It reads in part what he witnessed at Sand Creek, “…hundreds of women and children were coming towards us and getting on their knees for mercy. Anthony shouted, ‘Kill the sons of bitches’ ”The letter goes on to say in part, “…the massacre lasted six to eight hours…I tell you Ned it was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized. Some tried to escape on the Prairie, but most of them were run down by horsemen …They were all horribly mutilated. One women was cut open and child taken out of her, and scalped…”In a letter dated, December 19, 1863, Fort Lyon, C.T.,Lt. Joseph Cramer wrote to Major Ed Wynkoop, his commanding officer a letter about what he witnessed at Sand Creek. It reads, in part, “…“Dear Major, This is the first opportunity I have had of writing you since the great Indian Massacre, and for a start, I will acknowledge I am ashamed to own I was in it with my Co. Col. Chivington came here with the gallant third, known as Chivington Brigade, like a thief in the dark…marched all night up Sand, to the big bend in Sandy…and came to Black Kettle’s village of 103 lodges, containing not over 500 all told, 350 of which were women and children…We lost 40 men wounded, and 10 killed. Not over 250 Indians mostly women and children, and I think not over 200 killed, and not over 75 bucks. With proper management they could all have been killed and not lost over 10 men. After the fight there was a sight I hope I may never see again…Bucks, women and children, were scalped, fingers cut off to get the rings…a squaw ripped open and a child taken from her, little children shot, while begging for their lives (and all the indignities shown their bodies that ever was heard of)(women shot while on their knees, with their arms around soldiers a begging for their lives)…Most of the Indians yielded 4 or 5 scalps…”The letter continues in part, “…Black Kettle said when he saw us coming, that he was glad, for it was Major Wynkoop coming to make peace. Left Hand stood with his hands folded across his breast, until he was shot saying, ‘Soldiers no hurt me – soldiers my friends.’About 130 years after the Sand Creek Massacre, the 1990’s, Florence Blunt (1894-1969)was going through two stored trunks of a family member who was a rancher who was in the habit of taking supplies to Fort Lyon before and after the Sand Creek Massacre. She found Captain Silas S. Soule and Lt. Joseph Cramer’s letters. The lady’s daughter, Linda Rebek of Evergreen, Colorado, retains possession of the letters. She is seeking someone to appraise the letters to see what they are worth. The American Indian Genocide Museum needs help in locating an appraiser and funding to pay for the appraiser and acquisition of the letters to place in the museum.“