The Massacre of Sand Creek occurred when the Cheyenne and Arapaho people destroyed white settler's property. Chief Black Kettle, an Indian chief, tried for peace, but Colonel Chivington said that too much damage had already been done and there would be no peace. Chivington knew that in an attempt to demonstrate that they were no threat, the Indians of this village had voluntarily turned in all but their hunting weapons to the Federal government. He knew that the Indians were considered by the military to be prisoners of war. He knew further that nearly all of the Cheyenne men were away hunting buffalo. His response to all of this: "I long to be wading in gore."
"The Rocky Mountain News, the paper of record for the region, had ten times during the previous year used editorials to urge "extermination against the red devils," stating that the Indians "are a dissolute, vagabondish brutal, and ungrateful race, and ought to be wiped from the face of the earth." The paper worked closely with the governor, who proclaimed it was the right and obligation of the citizens and the military of the region to "pursue, kill, and destroy" all Indians."
"Two white men who happened to be visiting the camp spied the soldiers, and tied a tanned buffalo hide to a pole,
then waved it above their heads as a signal that this was a friendly village. Black Kettle, the Cheyenne's principle leader, raised first a white flag and, fearing the worst, a United States flag (given to him by Abraham Lincoln) in a desperate attempt to convince the soldiers not to attack."
"Next, Soldiers opened fire. Indians fled. Chivington ordered his artillery to shoot into the panicked mass of women and children. Troops charged, cutting down every nonwhite in their path. Women scratched at the creek's sandy bank, trying to scoop out shelters for themselves and their children. As one soldier later reported, "There were thirty or forty woman collected in a hole for protection; they sent out a little girl about six years old with a white flag on a stick; she had not proceeded but a few steps when she was shot and killed. All the woman in that hole were afterwards killed, and four or five men outside. The women offered no resistance. Everyone I saw dead was scalped. I saw one woman cut open with an unborn child, as I thought, lying by her side." 2/3 of the Indians who died were mostly women and children. In just 2 hours, 123 Indians died. There were 500 Indians at first, and 500-600 horses.
"The Rocky Mountain News, the paper of record for the region, had ten times during the previous year used editorials to urge "extermination against the red devils," stating that the Indians "are a dissolute, vagabondish brutal, and ungrateful race, and ought to be wiped from the face of the earth." The paper worked closely with the governor, who proclaimed it was the right and obligation of the citizens and the military of the region to "pursue, kill, and destroy" all Indians."
"Two white men who happened to be visiting the camp spied the soldiers, and tied a tanned buffalo hide to a pole,
then waved it above their heads as a signal that this was a friendly village. Black Kettle, the Cheyenne's principle leader, raised first a white flag and, fearing the worst, a United States flag (given to him by Abraham Lincoln) in a desperate attempt to convince the soldiers not to attack."
"Next, Soldiers opened fire. Indians fled. Chivington ordered his artillery to shoot into the panicked mass of women and children. Troops charged, cutting down every nonwhite in their path. Women scratched at the creek's sandy bank, trying to scoop out shelters for themselves and their children. As one soldier later reported, "There were thirty or forty woman collected in a hole for protection; they sent out a little girl about six years old with a white flag on a stick; she had not proceeded but a few steps when she was shot and killed. All the woman in that hole were afterwards killed, and four or five men outside. The women offered no resistance. Everyone I saw dead was scalped. I saw one woman cut open with an unborn child, as I thought, lying by her side." 2/3 of the Indians who died were mostly women and children. In just 2 hours, 123 Indians died. There were 500 Indians at first, and 500-600 horses.