Sand Creek Massacre
The Sand Creek Massacre (29 November 1864) was one of the most notorious atrocities of the American Indian Wars, distinguished by the explicit violation of a formal peace arrangement. Chief Black Kettle and the Southern Cheyenne had signed the Treaty of Fort Wise (1861) and had been directed by US authorities to camp at Sand Creek while hostilities between settlers and other Cheyenne bands continued elsewhere in Colorado Territory. Governor John Evans of Colorado Territory had been seeking a pretext for war to open more land for settlement and to boost territorial militia enlistments. The 3rd Colorado Cavalry had a 100-day enlistment that was about to expire; the men demanded action. Colonel Chivington — a Methodist preacher and Civil War veteran — had stated: 'I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians.' At dawn on 29 November, approximately 700 militiamen attacked the sleeping village. Black Kettle raised a large American flag and a white flag from his lodge — the standard signals of US Army protection. The militia fired artillery into the village and killed indiscriminately. Of approximately 500 people in the village (most men were away hunting), between 133 and 200 were killed — approximately two-thirds women and children. Soldiers scalped the dead and cut off fingers for rings; body parts were later displayed on the stage of Denver's Opera House. The congressional investigation (1865) condemned Chivington in strong terms: 'The truth is that he surprised and murdered, in cold blood, the unsuspecting men, women, and children on Sand Creek, who had every reason to believe they were under the protection of the United States authorities.' Chivington was never prosecuted — he had resigned his commission before the inquiry. Sand Creek accelerated the Plains Indian Wars: the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux launched major retaliatory raids; the US Army responded with escalated campaigns. The massacre established the logic of 'nits make lice' — the rationale for killing women and children as future enemies — that shaped military doctrine in the Plains Wars through 1890.
- Year: 1864 CE
- Category: Military
