Sand Creek Will Be Forgotten No More

November 29, 2014 1:40 PM

Remember the Sand Creek Massacre. "The 1864 murder of 200 innocent Indians is still largely forgotten. Many people think of the Civil War and America’s Indian wars as distinct subjects, one following the other. But those who study the Sand Creek Massacre know different." The Horrific Sand Creek Massacre Will Be Forgotten No More. "The opening of a national historic site in Colorado helps restore to public memory one of the worst atrocities ever perpetrated on Native Americans." [Previously]
posted by homunculus (16 comments total)

I'd love to see a list of the "worst" atrocities, because these seem par for the course in US history.

Check out this one out here in northern California- just one of many- that left 400-450 dead. (This is a wikipedia article that differentiates between Native Americans and "Americans", which struck me right off the bat.)

EDIT: Some more on California's bloody history (gets more interesting once you get past the Spanish missions, which we mostly learned about in school)
posted by small_ruminant at 1:51 PM on November 29, 2014 [8 favorites]

Wikipedia link to known massacres from 1830-1911, including the Sand Creek Massacre.
posted by small_ruminant at 1:56 PM on November 29, 2014 [2 favorites]

I like the part where Col. Jon Chivington, the US commander, brags “almost an annihilation of the entire tribe.” America: founded on intentional genocide.
posted by Nelson at 2:04 PM on November 29, 2014 [3 favorites]

Good. I wish we paid more attention to this shameful past. Of course, like all the sports mascots that "honor" Native American, the strategy of waiting and hoping everyone who cares will die off seems to be more popular.

As for California, I read that the largest line in the first state budget was paying for bounties on Native American heads. Which... words fail me.

One symbolic but necessary first step would be a National Day of Indigenous Remembrance and Survival, perhaps on Nov. 29, the anniversary of Sand Creek.

I'd propose replacing Columbus Day with this, myself....

(And for the "previously" link, the old advice of "don't read the comments" is surprisingly (for MetaFilter) apt.)
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:05 PM on November 29, 2014 [7 favorites]

(And for the "previously" link, the old advice of "don't read the comments" is surprisingly (for MetaFilter) apt.)

Oops. I misclicked the previously as a "more inside" and flagged years old comments, bewildered at the tone of the conversation. Sorry about that, mods.
posted by automatic cabinet at 2:24 PM on November 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

automatic cabinet, I did exactly the same thing, and then ashamedly confessed to the mods.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:28 PM on November 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

When I was researching the Apache Wars as part of writing a recent novella, I was profoundly amazed by how the United States official policy towards the Native Americans switched back and forth. We had good, understanding policy immediately followed by those who decided to crack down on Native American depredations, especially by lumping together various tribes and punishing them all.

A particularly egregious example was John Robert Baylor, the appointed Confederate governor of the New Mexico and Arizona territories who issued a decree:

...use all means to persuade the Apaches or any tribe to come in for the purpose of making peace, and when you get them together kill all grown Indians and take the children prisoners and sell them to defray the expense of killing the Indians. (quoted from David Roberts, Once They Moved Like the Wind).

Virtually the same ploy was used by the Union forces against the Navajo (minus the selling into slavery). Soon thereafter came a reformer who couldn't understand why the tribes people wouldn't negotiate.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 2:32 PM on November 29, 2014 [4 favorites]

Another civil war era massacre

"The Tonkawa Massacre (October 23–24, 1862) occurred after an attack at the Confederate held Wichita Agency, located at Fort Sill near Anadarko in Oklahoma, when a force of pro-Union tribes attacked the agency, home to 300 members of the Tonkawa, a tribe sympathetic to the Confederacy. During the attack on the Confederate held agency, the Confederate Indian agent Leeper and several other whites were killed."

Agency indeed.
posted by clavdivs at 2:36 PM on November 29, 2014

Weirdly, I know all about this incident because a reader with a wide variety of primary source documents on the Sand Creek Massacre was the required adoption (via strange departmental edict) the first time I taught English composition at Northern Illinois University. The experience was eye-opening for the hapless students, I'm sure.
posted by LucretiusJones at 3:35 PM on November 29, 2014

It's mentioned in the second link, but A Misplaced Massacre (about both the massacre and the attempts to locate it and set up the historic site) is really outstanding. (Disclosure: the author's a friend of mine.) For anyone who's interested in more detail than the op-ed or the Smithsonian article give, it's definitely worth your time.
posted by asterix at 4:26 PM on November 29, 2014

One bit of blowback from the massacre was the Fetterman Massacre.

Wikipedia link to known massacres from 1830-1911, including the Sand Creek Massacre.

NB the list includes massacres by natives of whites, which for this period gets you into the Dakota War of 1862, with plenty of gratuitous bloodshed.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:38 PM on November 29, 2014

One symbolic but necessary first step would be a National Day of Indigenous Remembrance and Survival, perhaps on Nov. 29, the anniversary of Sand Creek.

I second GaP's suggestion, but really any day of the year for such a day seems obvious to me, and well long overdue.

Also seconding the darkness in the "previously" link. Holy crap. What an apt barometer for how far this place has come.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:20 PM on November 29, 2014 [4 favorites]

Alluded to in the NYT link is the fact that John Evans was one of the founders of Northwestern University. A NU panel has recently recommended* removing Evans’ name from the the alumni center, a room and some professorships (there are other more positive recommendations relating to increasing Native American enrollment etc.).

Evanston, where NU is located, is also named after the man. The town has not yet tried to grapple with the issue, and probably never really will.

*There’s a link to the task force report in the news article.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 7:05 PM on November 29, 2014

What Led to the Sand Creek Massacre? Check Out This Timeline
posted by homunculus at 10:41 AM on November 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

like all the sports mascots that "honor" Native American, the strategy of waiting and hoping everyone who cares will die off seems to be more popular.

Another strategy is to sue them: Judge: Snyder Can Sue Over Loss of Trademarks
posted by homunculus at 10:42 AM on November 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

Another strategy is to sue them: Judge: Snyder Can Sue Over Loss of Trademarks

Can they counter-sue for emotional damages and then go on to sue for treaty reparations?

Christ, what a sportshole.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:18 PM on November 30, 2014