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Sand Creek massacre

Coordinates: 38°32′51.75″N 102°30′22.86″W / 38.5477083°N 102.5063500°W / 38.5477083; -102.5063500
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Sand Creek Massacre
File:X-33805.jpg
Battle at Sand Creek by O. Y. Rookstool
LocationKiowa County, Colorado
DateNovember 29, 1864
WeaponsPrivate and armored guns. It was the first and only time forces fired cannon (4 twelve-pounders) on others in Colorado history.
Deaths~According to Southern Cheyenne Chief Laird Cometsevah, based on his oral history. After a brief battle, 400 men, children, and women, were killed at Sand Creek. 9 United States troops killed
Injured38 United States troops wounded
Perpetratorsmostly irregular Union forces commanded by John M. Chivington in the Colorado War.

The Sand Creek Massacre (also known as the Chivington massacre or the Battle of Sand Creek or the Massacre of Cheyenne Indians) was an incident in the Indian Wars of the United States that occurred on November 29, 1864, when Colorado Territory militia attacked and destroyed a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho encamped in southeastern Colorado Territory. Based on the oral history of Southern Cheyenne Chief Laird Cometsevah, around 400 Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women, and children were killed at Sand Creek. More than 700 American soldiers were involved.[1]

Background

By the terms of the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, between the United States and the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes[2] (according to the Southern Cheyenne Chief Laird Cometsevah, the Cheyenne and Arapaho people did not have legal counsel during the Treaty negotiations[3]), the Cheyenne and Arapaho were recognized to hold a vast territory encompassing the lands between the North Platte River and Arkansas River and eastward from the Rocky Mountains to western Kansas. This area included present-day southeastern Wyoming, southwestern Nebraska, most of eastern Colorado, and the westernmost portions of Kansas.[4] However, the discovery in November 1858 of gold in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado[5] (then part of the western Kansas Territory)[6] brought on a gold rush and a consequent flood of white emigration across Cheyenne and Arapaho lands.[5] Colorado territorial officials pressured federal authorities to redefine the extent of Indian lands in the territory,[4] and in the fall of 1860, A.B. Greenwood, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, arrived at Bent's New Fort along the Arkansas River to negotiate a new treaty.[5]

A delegation of Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Arapaho Chiefs in Denver, Colorado in September 28, 1864.

On February 18, 1861, six chiefs of the Southern Cheyenne and four of the Arapaho signed the Treaty of Fort Wise(The Cheyenne chiefs and Arapaho attendees were with legal counsel according the Southern Cheyenne Chief Laird Cometsevah) with the United States,[7] in which they ceded to the United States most of the lands designated to them by the Fort Laramie treaty.[4] The Cheyenne chiefs included Black Kettle, White Antelope, Lean Bear, Little Wolf, and Tall Bear; the Arapaho chiefs included Little Raven, Storm, Shave-Head, Big Mouth and Left Hand.[7]

The new reserve, less than one-thirteenth the size of the 1851 reserve,[4] was located in eastern Colorado[6] between the Arkansas River and Sand Creek.[4] Some bands of Cheyenne including the Dog Soldiers, a militaristic band of Cheyennes and Lakotas that had evolved beginning in the 1830s, were angry at those chiefs who had signed the treaty, disavowing the treaty and refusing to abide by its constraints.[8] They continued to live and hunt in the bison-rich lands of eastern Colorado and western Kansas, becoming increasingly belligerent over the tide of white immigration across their lands, particularly in the Smoky Hill River country of Kansas, along which whites had opened a new trail to the gold fields.[9] Cheyennes who opposed the treaty said that it had been signed by a small minority of the chiefs without the consent or approval of the rest of the tribe, that the signatories had not understood what they signed, and that they had been bribed to sign by a large distribution of gifts. The whites, however, claimed that the treaty was a "solemn obligation" and considered that those Indians who refused to abide by it were hostile and planning a war.[10]

The beginning of the American Civil War in 1861 led to the organization of military forces in Colorado Territory. In March 1862, the Coloradans defeated the Texas Confederate Army in the Battle of Glorieta Pass in New Mexico. Following the battle, the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers returned to Colorado Territory and were mounted as a home guard under the command of Colonel John Chivington. Chivington and Colorado territorial governor John Evans adopted a hard line against Indians, who were accused by white settlers of stealing livestock. Conflicts between settlers and Indians in the spring of 1864 included the capture and destruction of a number of small Cheyenne camps.[11] On May 16, 1864, a force under Lieutenant George S. Eayre crossed into Kansas and encountered Cheyennes in their summer buffalo-hunting camp at Big Bushes near the Smoky Hill River. Cheyenne chiefs Lean Bear and Star approached the soldiers to signal their peaceful intent, but were shot down by Eayre's troops.[12] This incident touched off a war of retaliation by the Cheyennes in Kansas.[11]

Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians! ... I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians.

— - Col. John Milton Chivington, U.S. Army, Bury my heart at Wounded Knee, 1970[13]

As conflict between Indians and white settlers and soldiers in Colorado continued, many of the Cheyennes and Arapahos (including those bands under Cheyenne chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope who had sought to maintain the peace in spite of pressures from whites) were resigned to negotiate peace. They were told to camp near Fort Lyon on the eastern plains and that they would be regarded as friendly.

Attack

U.S. Army Colonel John Chivington's portrait.

Black Kettle, a chief of a group of around 800 mostly Northern Cheyennes, reported to Fort Lyon in an effort to declare peace. After having done so, he and his band, along with some Arapahos under Chief Niwot, camped out at nearby Sand Creek, less than 40 miles north. The Dog Soldiers, who had been responsible for much of the conflict with whites, were not part of this encampment. Assured by the U.S. Government's promises of peace, Black Kettle sent most of his warriors to hunt, leaving only around 60 men and women in the village, most of them too old or too young to participate in the hunt. Black Kettle flew an American flag over his lodge, since previously he had been assured that this practice would keep him and his people safe from U.S. soldiers' aggression.[14]

I saw the bodies of those lying there cut all to pieces, worse mutilated than any I ever saw before; the women cut all to pieces ... With knives; scalped; their brains knocked out; children two or three months old; all ages lying there, from sucking infants up to warriors ... By whom were they mutilated? By the United States troops ...

— - John S. Smith, Congressional Testimony of Mr. John S. Smith, 1865[15]

Setting out from Fort Lyon, Colonel Chivington and his 800 troops of the First Colorado Cavalry, Third Colorado Cavalry and a company of First New Mexico Volunteers marched to Black Kettle's campsite. On the night of November 28, soldiers and militia drank heavily and celebrated their anticipated victory.[16] On the morning of November 29, 1864, Chivington ordered his troops to attack. One officer, Captain Silas Soule refused to follow Chivington's order and told his men to hold fire. Other soldiers in Chivington's force, however, immediately attacked the village. Disregarding the American flag, and a white flag that was run up shortly after the soldiers commenced firing, Chivington's soldiers massacred the majority of its mostly unarmed innocent inhabitants.

Fingers and ears were cut off the bodies for the jewelry they carried. The body of White Antelope, lying solitarily in the creek bed, was a prime target. Besides scalping him the soldiers cut off his nose, ears, and testicles-the last for a tobacco pouch ...

— - Stan Hoig, The Sand Creek Massacre, 1974[17]

Fifteen members of the assembled militias were killed and more than 50 wounded.[18]

A few Indians were able to cut horses from the camp's herd and fled up Sand Creek or to a nearby Cheyenne camp on the headwaters of the Smokey Hill River. Others, including George Bent, fled upstream and dug holes in the sand beneath the banks of the stream. They were discovered by the militia and fired on, but many survived.[19]

Between the effects of the heavy drinking and the chaos of the assault, the majority of the militia casualties were due to friendly fire.[16] Between 150 and 200 Indians were estimated killed, nearly all elderly men, women and children (Over 400 children, women, mentally- and physically-challenged, and elders were brutally murdered according to Southern Cheyenne Chief Laird Cometsevah as based on his oral history)[1]. In testimony before a Congressional committee investigating the massacre, Chivington reported that as many as 500-600 Indian warriors were killed. [20]. One source from the Cheyenne said that about 53 men and 110 women and children were killed.[21] Before Chivington and his men left the area, they plundered the tipis and took the horses. After the smoke cleared, Chivington's men came back and killed many of the wounded. They also scalped many of the dead, regardless of whether they were women, children, or babies. Chivington and his men dressed their weapons, hats and gear with scalps and other body parts, including human fetuses and male and female genitalia.[22] They also publicly displayed these battle trophies in Denver's Apollo Theater and area saloons. Three Indians who remained in the village are known to have survived the massacre, Charlie Bent, brother of George Bent, and son of William Bent and two Cheyenne women who were later turned over to William Bent.[23]

Aftermath

The Sand Creek Massacre resulted in a heavy loss of life, mostly among Cheyenne and Arapaho women and children. Hardest hit by the massacre were the Wutapai, Black Kettle's band. Perhaps half of the Hevhaitaniu were lost, including the chiefs Yellow Wolf and Big Man. The Oivimana led by War Bonnet, lost about half their number. There were heavy losses to the Hisiometanio (Ridge Men) under White Antelope. Chief One Eye was also killed along with many of his band. The Suhtai clan and the Heviqxnipahis clan under chief Sand Hill experienced relatively few losses. The Dog Soldiers and the Masikota, who by that time had allied, were not present at Sand Creek.[24] Of about ten lodges of Arapaho under Chief Left Hand, representing about fifty or sixty people, only a handful escaped with their lives.[25]

After hiding in their holes dug beneath the bank of Sand Creek above the camp all day the survivors there, many wounded, moved up the stream and spent the night on the prairie. Trips were made to the site of the camp but very few survivors were found there. After a cold night without shelter the survivors set out toward the Cheyenne camp on the headwaters of the Smokey River. They soon met up with other survivors who had escaped with part of the horse herd, some returning from the Smokey Hill camp where they had fled during the attack. They then proceeded to the camp where they were aided.[26]

The massacre also devastated the Cheyenne's traditional power structure, thanks to the deaths of eight members of the Council of Forty-Four: White Antelope, One Eye, Yellow Wolf, Big Man, Bear Man, War Bonnet, Spotted Crow, and Bear Robe were all killed as were the headmen of some of the Cheyenne military societies.[27] Among the chiefs killed were most of those who had advocated peace with white settlers and the U.S. government.[28] The net effect of the murders and ensuing weakening of the peace faction exacerbated the social and political rift between the traditional council chiefs and their followers on the one hand, and the militaristic Dog Soldiers on the other.

Beginning in the 1830s, the Dog Soldiers had evolved from a Cheyenne military society of that name into a separate band of Cheyenne and Lakota warriors that took as its territory the headwaters country of the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers in southern Nebraska, northern Kansas, and the northeast of Colorado Territory. By the 1860s, as conflict between Indians and encroaching whites intensified, the influence wielded by the Dog Soldiers, together with that of the military societies within other Cheyenne bands, had become a significant counter to the influence of the traditional Council of Forty-Four chiefs, who were more likely to favor peace with the whites.[29] To the Dog Soldiers, the Sand Creek Massacre illustrated the folly of the peace chiefs' policy of accommodating the whites through the signing of treaties such as the first Treaty of Fort Laramie and the Treaty of Fort Wise[4] and vindicated the Dog Soldiers' own militant posture towards the whites.[29]

The traditional Cheyenne clan system was dealt a fatal blow by the events at Sand Creek. It had already been dealt a severe blow by an 1849 cholera epidemic which killed perhaps half the Southern Cheyenne population[30], especially the Masikota and Oktoguna bands,[31] and further weakened by the emergence of a separate Dog Soldiers band.[32]

Retaliation

After this event many Cheyenne, including the great warrior Roman Nose, and Arapaho men joined the Dog Soldiers and sought revenge on settlers throughout the Platte valley, including an 1865 attack on what became Fort Casper, Wyoming.

Following the massacre the survivors joined the camps of the Cheyenne on the Smokey Hill and Republican rivers. There the war pipe was smoked and passed from camp to camp among the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho camped in the area and an attack on the stage station and fort, Camp Rankin at that time, at Julesburg was planned and carried out in January, 1865. This successful attack, carried out by about a thousand warriors was followed up by numerous raids along the South Platte both east and west of Julesburg and a second raid on Julesburg in early February. A great deal of loot was captured and many whites killed, including women and children. The bulk of the Indians then moved north into Nebraska on their way to the Black Hills and the Powder River.[33]

Black Kettle continued to desire peace. He did not join in the second raid or in the plan to go north to the Powder River country. He left the camp and returned with 80 lodges to the Arkansas River intending to seek peace.[34]

Official investigations

The attack was initially reported in the press as a victory against a brave opponent. Within weeks, however, a controversy was raised about a possible massacre. Several investigations were conducted — two by the military, and one by the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. The panel declared[35]:

As to Colonel Chivington, your committee can hardly find fitting terms to describe his conduct. Wearing the uniform of the United States, which should be the emblem of justice and humanity; holding the important position of commander of a military district, and therefore having the honor of the government to that extent in his keeping, he deliberately planned and executed a foul and dastardly massacre which would have disgraced the verist [sic] savage among those who were the victims of his cruelty. Having full knowledge of their friendly character, having himself been instrumental to some extent in placing them in their position of fancied security, he took advantage of their in-apprehension and defenceless [sic] condition to gratify the worst passions that ever cursed the heart of man.

Whatever influence this may have had upon Colonel Chivington, 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, and then returned to Denver and boasted of the brave deed he and the men under his command had performed.

In conclusion, your committee are of the opinion that for the purpose of vindicating the cause of justice and upholding the honor of the nation, prompt and energetic measures should be at once taken to remove from office those who have thus disgraced the government by whom they are employed, and to punish, as their crimes deserve, those who have been guilty of these brutal and cowardly acts.

Statements taken by Major Edward W. Wynkoop and his adjutant substantiated the later accounts of survivors. These statements were filed with his reports and can be found in the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, copies of which were submitted as evidence in the Joint Committee of the Conduct of the War and in separate hearings conducted by the military in Denver. Lieutenant James D. Cannon describes the scalping of human genitalia by the soldiers, "men, women, and children's privates cut out. I heard one man say that he had cut a woman's private parts out and had them for exhibition on a stick. I heard of one instance of a child, a few months old, being thrown into the feed-box of a wagon, and after being carried some distance, left on the ground to perish; I also heard of numerous instances in which men had cut out the private parts of females and stretched them over their saddle-bows, and some of them over their hats"[22].

During these investigations, numerous witnesses came forward with damning testimony, almost all of which was substantiated by other witnesses. At least one of those witnesses, Captain Silas Soule, was murdered in Denver just weeks after offering his testimony. However, despite the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the Wars' recommendation, justice was never served on those responsible for the massacre. A Civil War memorial installed at the Colorado Capitol in 1909 listed the Sand Creek massacre as one of the Union's great victories.

Sand Creek today

File:X-32034.jpg
A stone marker commemorates the "Sand Creek Battle Ground."

The site, on Big Sandy Creek in Kiowa County, is now preserved by the National Park Service with the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in Colorado, which was dedicated on April 28, 2007, almost 142 years after the massacre.

The Sand Creek Massacre Trail in Wyoming follows the paths of the Northern Arapaho and Cheyenne in the years after the massacre until their supposed wintering on the Wind River Indian Reservation near Riverton in central Wyoming, where the Arapaho remain today. The Shoshones, the original inhabitants of the Wind River Reservation, call the Arapahos' continued presence "the Long Winter." The trail passes through Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper, and Riverton en route to Ethete in Fremont County in the reservation. In recent years, Arapaho youth have taken to running the length of the trail in an effort to bring healing to their nation. Alexa Roberts, superintendent of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, has said that the trail represents a living portion of the history of the two tribes.

Depiction in fiction

  • Mike Blakely's fictional account of the factual event in his book.."come sundown" chapters 53 and 54.
  • The Sand Creek massacre is the subject of the 1970 movie Soldier Blue and is portrayed in Little Big Man also from 1970. It is featured at the beginning of the 1957 Western, The Guns of Fort Petticoat, and forms one of the main plot devices in Tomahawk [1951], which is set a few years after the massacre but refers to it a number of times.
  • The massacre is portrayed in Steven Spielberg's mini-series Into the West.
  • Acoma Pueblo poet Simon Ortiz used the Sand Creek massacre as inspiration for his 1981 collection of poems From Sand Creek.
  • American novelist James Michener included a fictionalized account of the massacre and its aftermath in his book Centennial, moving the incident further north, near the South Platte River and making the victims primarily Arapaho.
  • American comic book artist Jack Jackson, aka Jaxon, told the story of the massacre in his 1975 story Nits Make Lice.
  • The song "Cheyenne Woman" by Michael Mc Ginnis appearing on his "Let'um Buck" album references the battle and the fictional aftermath of one lone child survivor of the massacre.
  • Italian singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André wrote a song about the massacre, Fiume Sand Creek (The Sand Creek River), included in his 1981 anonymous album, which has been dubbed The Indian because of the picture of a Native American on the sleeve. Fiume Sand Creek is one of De André's best known songs.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Smiley, B. "Sand Creek Massacre", Archeology magazine. Archaeological Institute of America. Retrieved 12/3/08.
  2. ^ "Treaty of Fort Laramie with Sioux, Etc., 1851." 11 Stats. 749, Sept. 17, 1851.
  3. ^ Sand Creek Massacre. Retrieved 12/3/08.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Greene 2004, p. 27.
  5. ^ a b c Hoig 1980, p. 61.
  6. ^ a b Greene 2004, p. 12.
  7. ^ a b "Treaty with the Arapaho and Cheyenne, 1861" (Treaty of Fort Wise). 12 Stat. 1163, Feb. 15, 1861, p. 810.
  8. ^ Greene 2004, pp. 12-13.
  9. ^ Hoig 1980, p. 62.
  10. ^ Hyde 1968, p. 118.
  11. ^ a b Hoig 1980, p. 63.
  12. ^ Michno 2003, p. 137.
  13. ^ Brown, Dee (2001). "War Comes to the Cheyenne". Bury my heart at Wounded Knee. Macmillian. p. 86-87. ISBN 0805066349. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |origdate= ignored (|orig-date= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ Brown 1970, p. 88.
  15. ^ PBS (March 14, 1865). "PBS - The West" (HTML). Retrieved 2009-05-20.
  16. ^ a b Brown, 1970, p. 91.
  17. ^ Hoig, Stan (1974). "Massacre at Sand Creek". The Sand Creek Massacre. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 153. ISBN 080611147X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |origdate= ignored (|orig-date= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ Michno 2003, p. 15p.
  19. ^ Pages 154 and 155, Life of George Bent: Written From His Letters, by George E. Hyde, edited by Savoie Lottinville, University of Oklahoma Press (1968), hardcover, 390 pages; trade paperback, 280 pages (March 1983) Template:ISBN-10 Template:ISBN-13
  20. ^ "Testimony of Colonel J.M. Chivington, April 26, 1865" to the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. New Perspectives on the West: Documents on the Sand Creek Massacre. PBS.
  21. ^ George Bent, the son of the American William Bent and a Cheyenne mother, was at Black Kettle’s village when Chivington’s men struck. Sand Creek Massacre National Historical Site has the following information: "On April 30, 1913, Bent wrote: "About 53 men were killed and 110 women and children killed, 163 in all killed. Lots of men, women and children were wounded."
  22. ^ a b United States Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, 1865 (testimonies and report) Cite error: The named reference "United States Congress. (1867)" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  23. ^ Pages 156 and 165, Life of George Bent: Written From His Letters, by George E. Hyde, edited by Savoie Lottinville, University of Oklahoma Press (1968), hardcover, 390 pages; trade paperback, 280 pages (March 1983) Template:ISBN-10 Template:ISBN-13
  24. ^ Hyde 1968, p. 159.
  25. ^ Hyde 1968, pp. 159, 162.
  26. ^ Pages 156 to 159, Life of George Bent: Written From His Letters, by George E. Hyde, edited by Savoie Lottinville, University of Oklahoma Press (1968), hardcover, 390 pages; trade paperback, 280 pages (March 1983) Template:ISBN-10 Template:ISBN-13
  27. ^ Greene 2004, p. 23.
  28. ^ Greene 2004, p. 24.
  29. ^ a b Greene 2004, p. 26.
  30. ^ Hyde 1968, p. 96.
  31. ^ Hyde 1968, p. 97.
  32. ^ Hyde 1968, p. 338.
  33. ^ Pages 168 to 195, Life of George Bent: Written From His Letters, by George E. Hyde, edited by Savoie Lottinville, University of Oklahoma Press (1968), hardcover, 390 pages; trade paperback, 280 pages (March 1983) Template:ISBN-10 Template:ISBN-13
  34. ^ Page 188, The Fighting Cheyenne, George Bird Grinnell, University of Oklahoma Press (1956 original copyright 1915 Charles Scribner's Sons), hardcover, 454 pages
  35. ^ "United States Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, 1865 (testimonies and report)". University of Michigan Digital Library Production Service. Retrieved 2008-03-19.

References

  • Official Records of the War of the Rebellion.
  • Brown, Dee. (1970). Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, Owl Books. ISBN 0-8050-6669-1.
  • Greene, Jerome A. (2004). Washita, The Southern Cheyenne and the U.S. Army. Campaigns and Commanders Series, vol. 3. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806135514.
  • Hatch, Thom. (2004). Black Kettle: The Cheyenne Chief Who Sought Peace but Found War. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-47144-592-4.
  • Hoig, Stan. (1977). The Sand Creek Massacre. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-1147-6.
  • Hoig, Stan. (1980). The Peace Chiefs of the Cheyennes. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1573-4.
  • Hyde, George E. (1968). Life of George Bent Written from His Letters. Ed. by Savoie Lottinville. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1577-7.
  • Michno, Gregory F. (2003). Encyclopedia of Indian Wars: Western Battles and Skirmishes 1850-1890. Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing Company. ISBN 0-87842-468-7.
  • "Treaty of Fort Laramie with Sioux, Etc., 1851." 11 Stats. 749, Sept. 17, 1851. In Charles J. Kappler, compiler and editor, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties — Vol. II: Treaties. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1904, pp. 594-596 . Through Oklahoma State University Library, Electronic Publishing Center.
  • "Treaty with the Arapaho and Cheyenne, 1861" (Treaty of Fort Wise). 12 Stat. 1163, Feb. 15, 1861. Ratified Aug. 6, 1861; proclaimed Dec. 5, 1861. In Charles J. Kappler, compiler and editor, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties — Vol. II: Treaties. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1904, pp. 807-811 . Through Oklahoma State University Library, Electronic Publishing Center.
  • United States Army. (1867). Courts of Inquiry, Sand Creek Massacre. Report of the Secretary of War Communicating, In Compliance With a Resolution of the Senate of February 4, 1867, a Copy of the Evidence Taken at Denver and Fort Lyon, Colorado Territory, By a Military Commission, Ordered to Inquire into the Sand Creek Massacre, November, 1864. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Senate Executive Document 26, 39th Congress, Second Session. Reproduced in Wynkoop, Christopher H. (2004-08-13). "Inquiry into the Sand Creek Massacre, November, 1864." The Wynkoop Family Research Library. Rootsweb.com: Freepages. Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
  • United States Congress. (1867).Condition of the Indian Tribes. Report of the Joint Special Committee Appointed Under Joint Resolution of March 3, 1865, with an Appendix. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
  • United States Senate. (1865). Massacre of the Cheyenne Indians. Report of the Joint Committee on The Conduct of the War. (3 vols.) Senate Report No. 142, 38th Congress, Second Session. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
  • West, Elliott. (1998), The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-1029-4.
  • Winger, Kevin. (2007-08-17). "Trail Helps Mark 1864 Massacre." Cheyenne Wyoming Tribune-Eagle.

38°32′51.75″N 102°30′22.86″W / 38.5477083°N 102.5063500°W / 38.5477083; -102.5063500

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