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Jerry Pillarelli | profile | all galleries >> Travel and Nature; Sites by State >> US Travel; by Trip, by State >> Colorado >> Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site – Colorado tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site – Colorado

Images of Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site – Colorado, taken in June 2025.

After years of conflict the U.S. government signed the Fort Laramie Treaty in 1851, protecting tribes in exchange for safe passage for travelers through their lands. After gold was discovered in the Rocky Mountains, the U.S. reneged on the treaty and created the 1861 Fort Wise Treaty which was signed by six Cheyenne and four Arapaho chiefs, with many more chiefs refusing to follow suit. In 1864, Colonel John Chivington, a Civil War hero who reportedly said, “It is right or honorable to use any means under God’s heaven to kill Indians…”, attacked four Cheyenne villages. The Plains Indian Warriors retaliated, but yet another peace agreement was set up and the Indians who desired peace were told to set up their encampment at Sand Creek. On November 29, 1864, Chivington led the attack on the encampment killing over 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho, including women, children, the elderly and 13 Council and four Soldier Chiefs. After the massacre, soldiers loot, scalp and mutilate the dead.

Captain Silas Soule and Lieutenant Joseph Cramer defy Chivington and order their companies to stand down. They bear witness to the cold-blooded massacre against Chivington and others but no one was ever formally charged.

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site preserves the memory of those who were murdered (the site of the encampment is sacred ground to Native Americans), is a reminder of the attempt to eradicate the Native American Indian tribes and memorializes the event so it will never be forgotten.
Accounts of the massacre by Captain Soule and Lt. Cramer, who refused to engage, in Sand Creek Massacre NHS
Accounts of the massacre by Captain Soule and Lt. Cramer, who refused to engage, in Sand Creek Massacre NHS 		Sign posted along the Monument Hill Trail in Sand Creek Massacre NHS
Sign posted along the Monument Hill Trail in Sand Creek Massacre NHS		 U.S. flag of the time, with 33 stars, flying in Sand Creek Massacre NHS
U.S. flag of the time, with 33 stars, flying in Sand Creek Massacre NHS		 Wildflower in Sand Creek Massacre NHS
Wildflower in Sand Creek Massacre NHS		 Indian Village Site as seen from Monument Hill in Sand Creek Massacre NHS
Indian Village Site as seen from Monument Hill in Sand Creek Massacre NHS
Prickly Pear cactus on Monument Hill in Sand Creek Massacre NHS
Prickly Pear cactus on Monument Hill in Sand Creek Massacre NHS		 Indian Village Site as seen from Monument Hill in Sand Creek Massacre NHS
Indian Village Site as seen from Monument Hill in Sand Creek Massacre NHS		 Memorial with offerings at the Repatriation Site on Monument Hill in Sand Creek Massacre NHS
Memorial with offerings at the Repatriation Site on Monument Hill in Sand Creek Massacre NHS		 Brush which covers the landscape in Sand Creek Massacre NHS
Brush which covers the landscape in Sand Creek Massacre NHS		 Indian Village Site as seen from Monument Hill in Sand Creek Massacre NHS
Indian Village Site as seen from Monument Hill in Sand Creek Massacre NHS

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