Sand Creek Massacre

Chivington's Attack

With the permission of John Evans, the Territorial Governor, Chivington, who had been both a lay preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church and field commander—“the fighting parson”—during earlier Civil War engagements in the West, organized a volunteer militia unit whose sole purpose was to rid Colorado of its American Indian problem and gain political capital. Although relations between the races had been rocky for some time in the region, Colonel Chivington chose to assault an American Indian village, situated on the banks of Sand Creek, led by its principal peace chief Black Kettle (Moketavato). The American Indians had been assured of U.S. Army protection from nearby Fort Lyon, but because of demands for personnel to fight in the Civil War, the regular Army commander there could not counter the territorial militia. Commanding some 750 men, cavalry, and artillery including the First Cavalry Regiment, Chivington hit the camp of 120 Southern Cheyenne and 8 Arapaho lodges with its herd of about 1,100 horses.

The troopers, many of whom had been recruited from Denver's saloons and mining camps in the Rockies for a 100-day enlistment had superior fire power, overwhelming the Natives, mostly older men, women, and children; many of the men (warriors) were away. Although the activity was described as chaotic, the force managed to kill almost 200 American Indians, although some sources indicate more than 310 dead. Chivington, who would be called the “crimson parson” by American Indian people, had told his men previously to take no prisoners and to allow no one to escape if that could be prevented.

Chivington became infamous for his counsel: “Kill and scalp all big and small; nits make lice.” Both Native men and women, including a group of warriors with rifles who took up a defensive position upstream from the main part of the camp had fought to the best of their abilities against the intruders. A number of natives had been able to elude death, including Chief Black Kettle who had displayed both U.S. and white flags on his lodge poles. His wife suffered nine gun shot wounds, but survived the encounter.

At the ruins of the tribal camp, the White men scalped most of the American Indian corpses and many of the bodies were mutilated. The body parts were packed on saddles, returned to Denver by the soldiers, paraded through the city's streets, and displayed on the stage of an opera house. The primary regiment, which became known as the “Bloody Thirdsters,” had 47 wounded, 7 of whom died afterward.

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