WESTERN SKIES - July 30, 2005

*** SAND CREEK HISTORIC SITE ***

ERIC WHITNEY: Congress was pretty busy last week, passing huge energy, transportation and trade bills.

But one hardly-noticed bill that was sent to the President last Tuesday will finally allow the National Park Service to develop the scene of the Sand Creek Massacre into a national historic site. Advocates for designating the piece of southeastern Colorado prairie as a national park have been trying to make it happen for some thirty years. But to understand why Sand Creek is important, you have to go back all the way back to the Nineteenth Century.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE #1: There's no [inaudible] that I can see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE #2: Nothing substantial at all, sir. Nothing at all. Just excellent, well done sir. What are you asking?

MALE #1: I figured three dollars a piece.

MALE #2: Three a piece sir? Done.

WHITNEY: Scenes like this played out often at Bent's Fort in the 1830s and '40s. A white hunter exchanges buffalo robes for cash and a little tobacco with the post's trade agent.

This scene was being re-enacted for a new interpretive film for Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site. That's just east of La Junta on the north bank of the Arkansas River. It's not far from where the Sand Creek Massacre happened in 1864.

Bent's Fort is where Anglos, Hispanics, and Native Americans came together peacefully to trade and learn from one another on the lucrative Santa Fe Trail. This was years before the major plains Indian wars.

In another scene for the new film, two painted Araphoe men arrive on horseback and communicate with the trader by signs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE #3: Good, good! Mister Duncan, [inaudible] come to trade for buffalo robes. Excellent. Come with me.

WHITNEY: This peaceful trade only lasted about a decade and a half. As the global economy changed, Bent's fort was abandoned. And the next wave of white settlers weren't the same as those the Cheyenne and Arapaho were used to. Mark Gardner teaches a summer course on the Sand Creek Massacre for Colorado College.

MARK GARDNER: All of a sudden you have different kind of people that come out after gold is discovered in 1858, and so they have a different mindset and when they rush out by the thousands and they start setting up homes and they start settling in areas that were traditionally their hunting grounds or camping places for the Indians, and again they're not interested in learning how to deal with them. But looked at them as something different than being human or the same as them. it's a set up for conflict, and a major one.

WHITNEY: Conflicts and misunderstandings between Indian people and whites led to bloodshed, and then retribution in an escalating cycle that led up to the November morning in 1864 when seven hundred soldiers led by the Colorado Militia approached Sand Creek. About five hundred Cheyenne and Arapaho people were camped there. Although the Indians believed they were under the protection of the U.S. Army, the Colorado troops attacked and killed about a hundred and fifty people, mainly women, children, and the elderly. Upon their return to Denver, the troops were hailed as heroes.

JOHN LUZADER: How could good citizens of Denver and the Denver surrounding areas become so, somewhat hedonistic in their behavior?

WHITNEY: John Luzader of Loveland is the historian who portrays the trader at Bent's fort in the new film being made. He says it's hard to judge the people of 1864 without understanding their mindset at the time. He draws a parallel to modern times.

LUZADER: Denver was basically under an act of terrorism in their own mind, and they were trying to eradicate that situation. And if you look at it the native, the tribal aspect of this, my God here's an act of terrorism for themselves. Innocent people just because they're different, don't fit in the norm of the civilized society around them and taking the word of people that they are trusting in many ways to take care of them. After their nations have been basically disrupted. So, yeah, it's a grand opportunity for us to see something to correlate to today. After all, are not looking at the same thing with different peoples coming from the Mid-East and the United States and acts of terrorism or threats of terrorism as we've seen in London. We've seen in the United States in the past few years and the reactions and consequence of those actions?

WHITNEY: Attempts to contact Cheyenne and Arapaho authorities on Sand Creek for this story were unsuccessful. But you have an opportunity to talk to some yourself this weekend. The Santa Fe Trail Encampment happening at Bent's Old Fort runs through Sunday afternoon. Tribal historians are slated to appear along with the dozens of historical re-enactors portraying plains life in the early 1800s, like these "Soldiers" from Fort Larned, Kansas, demonstrating period cannon use.

[sound of cannon being fired]

WHITNEY: Events like this make historic sites like Bent's Fort come alive. And many people, tribal and non-native alike, are excited that a place as controversial, important and wrenching as Sand Creek will soon be open to the public. Historian John Luzader.

LUZADER: I think it's grand that it's no longer going to be just a wayside just along the on the highway, that we have an opportunity now to see both sides of the story. And being able to envision what could have spurred such an action and the people that were involved on both sides of it. It would be nice to see what we can come together and display for the public in that poignant moment in Colorado history.

WHITNEY: You can find links to more information about the Sand Creek Massacre, and Bent's Fort, on the Western Skies webpage. Go to KRCC.org and look for the Western Skies button. We also have a phone number for more information on the Santa Fe Trail Encampment that's happening this weekend at Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site. That's (719) 383-5010.