The Indians of the Pike's Peak Region: Including an Account of the Battle of Sand Creek, and of Occurrences in El Paso County, Colorado, during the War with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, in 1864 and 1868Howbert, Irving
History
The Indians of the Pike's Peak Region: Including an Account of the Battle of Sand Creek, and of Occurrences in El Paso County, Colorado, during the War with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, in 1864 and 1868
Howbert, Irving
El Paso County, Colo. -- History; Indians of North America -- Colorado; Sand Creek Massacre, Colo., 1864
whites, and a few worthless guns; and added that a week or two later he
returned the guns, and told the Indians that he could no longer feed
them and ordered them to go out on the plains, where they could kill
buffalo for food; whereupon they left.
The only Arapahoes that by any stretch of the imagination could be said
to have been under the protection of the military were the small part
of the tribe under the control of Left Hand, a sub-chief; while there
is no doubt whatever as to the hostility of the head chief Raven and
his followers, who constituted a large majority of the tribe. It is
generally conceded that the chief Left Hand and a few of his adherents
were peaceably inclined. But, unfortunately, he and the occupants of six
or eight lodges of his people, about forty persons in all, including women
and children, were in the camp of the hostile Cheyennes and Arapahoes at
the time the attack was made, and suffered accordingly. Left Hand knew
that the Cheyennes and a very large part of his own people were at war
with the whites, and of the chance he was taking in being in company with
the hostiles. If it resulted disastrously, he had no one but himself to
blame. It was utterly impossible to discriminate between Indians in the
midst of the battle. In those days, Indians seldom permitted themselves
to be taken prisoners in battle, and an attempt to do so, even if the
Indian was badly wounded, was a dangerous undertaking. This was the
reason that no prisoners were taken at Sand Creek. Major Anthony, who was
not friendly to Colonel Chivington, says that while in some instances
the Indians killed at Sand Creek were mutilated, he saw nothing to the
extent since stated.
Colonel Chivington's statement concerning the matter is:
Officers who passed over the field by my orders after the
battle, for the purpose of ascertaining the number of Indians
killed, report that they saw but few women and children dead;
no more than would certainly fall in an attack upon a camp in
which they were. I myself passed over some portions of the
field after the fight, and saw but one woman who had been
killed and one who had hanged herself. I saw no dead children.
In this connection, I wish to refer back to my own statement concerning
the matter, as Colonel Chivington's observations were identical with mine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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