Past, Present, and Future Come Together

As the final shots faded throughout the valley and November 29 drew to a close, approximately 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho lay dead. Most of those killed were women, children, and the elderly, and the dead also included 13 chiefs and four society headmen. For the Cheyenne and Arapaho, years of hardship lay ahead. In the late 1800's, U.S. policy toward Native peoples shifted from removal and concentration to assimilation, denying many tribal people their culture, language, and traditional way of life. Despite these hardships, the spirit of the Cheyenne and Arapaho people endured. Today these tribes reside in Oklahoma, Montana, and Wyoming, where they maintain their traditional way of life. Cheyenne and Arapaho representatives, descendants, ceremonial leaders, and youth return to Sand Creek every year to offer prayers and remembrances for the land, for the spirits of those who perished, and for current and future generations. Through these acts of remembrance and healing, the landscape of the Sand Creek Massacre remains a living, hallowed place where the past is forever interconnected with the present and the future.

Brandon, Colorado · United States