The causes of
the Sand Creek massacre were rooted in the long conflict for control of the
Great Plains of eastern Colorado. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 guaranteed
ownership of the area north of the Arkansas River to the Nebraska border to the
Cheyenne and Arapahoe. However, by the end of the decade, waves of
Euro-American miners flooded across the region in search of gold in Colorado's
Rocky Mountains, placing extreme pressure on the resources of the arid plains.
By 1861, tensions between new settlers and Native Americans were rising. On
February 8 of that year, a Cheyenne delegation, headed by Chief Black Kettle,
along with some Arapahoe leaders, accepted a new settlement with the Federal
government. The Native Americans ceded most of their land but secured a
600-square mile reservation and annuity payments. The delegation reasoned that continued
hostilities would jeopardize their bargaining power. In the decentralized
political world of the tribes, Black Kettle and his fellow delegates
represented only part of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes. Many did not accept
this new agreement, called the Treaty of Fort Wise.
The new
reservation and Federal payments proved unable to sustain the tribes. During
the Civil War, tensions again rose and sporadic violence broke out between
Anglos and Native Americans. In June 1864, John Evans, governor of the
territory of Colorado, attempted to isolate recalcitrant Native Americans by
inviting "friendly Indians" to camp near military forts and receive
provisions and protection. He also called for volunteers to fill the military
void left when most of the regular army troops in Colorado were sent to other
areas during the Civil War. In August 1864, Evans met with Black Kettle and
several other chiefs to forge a new peace, and all parties left satisfied.
Black Kettle moved his band to Fort Lyon, Colorado, where the commanding
officer encouraged him to hunt near Sand Creek. In what can only be considered
an act of treachery, Chivington moved his troops to the plains, and on November
29, they attacked the unsuspecting Native Americans, scattering men, women, and
children and hunting them down. The casualties reflect the one-sided nature of
the fight. Nine of Chivington's men were killed; 148 of Black Kettle's
followers were slaughtered, more than half of them women and children. The
Colorado volunteers returned and killed the wounded, mutilated the bodies, and
set fire to the village.
The
atrocities committed by the soldiers were initially praised, but then condemned
as the circumstances of the massacre emerged. Chivington resigned from the
military and aborted his budding political career. Black Kettle survived and
continued his peace efforts. In 1865, his followers accepted a new reservation
in Indian Territory.
