The nonbiding measure passed Wednesday in both Colorado’s Senate (22-12) and House (59-4), specifically citing the Trail of Tears and the Sand Creek massacre as examples of how early American settlers treated Indians with “cruelty and inhumanity.”
A few Colorado lawmakers, meanwhile, protested the resolution as too sweeping in its condemnation of European injustices against Indian people.
“It’s about time,” Flyingman said. “I would have thought this might have come sooner, but it’s never too late to say ‘sorry.’ I just wonder about the motive.
“I’m sure the older tribal members will really appreciate this, while the younger ones will probably be skeptical. I must say when I first read they had included the Trail of Tears, I became skeptical.”
4,000 Cherokee died
An estimated 4,000 Cherokee people died in the drought-plagued summer of 1838 after being forced from their homes in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama. Some people perished from disease in military stockades, while others died from hardship on the trail en route to Indian Territory.
The dead were sometimes left where they fell.
Colorado’s government played no role in that event.
Sand Creek is a different matter entirely. The Colorado Territorial militia led a surprise attack on Cheyenne and Arapaho villages Nov. 29, 1864, killing an estimated 150 to 200 Indian people.
Chief Black Kettle reportedly flew an American flag over his lodge with the understanding that his people would be protected from attacks.
“There are a lot of people out there — both Indian and white — who don’t know their own history,” noted Bob Blackburn, Oklahoma Historical Society executive director.
“So we have to be careful when these demagogues start making these blanket statements without an understanding of the historical circumstances. Is this Holocaust? In the case of Sand Creek, yes. That was an attempt to exterminate a tribe.
“If I were going to take anything positive out of this, I would say that this helps if it opens up dialogue. That never hurts.”
In Tahlequah, news of the resolution was met with open arms and an eye for the future.
‘We are pleased’
“Any time the federal government or a state government wants to apologize for the atrocities of the past, we are pleased,” said Mike Miller, a Cherokee Nation spokesman.
“We know our past. We know our history,” Miller said. “But ultimately, what we would like to see are governments which respect our sovereignty today.
We’d like to think in 100 years we won’t need a government to apologize for the way they treated Indian nations.”
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B, Geary. First, the research of Lawrence Keeley is but one example. Second, with sympathy and respect to the Arikara and Sioux people, the Crow Creek massacre. And finally, my Cherokee wife's great grandmother *who knows*. (She named my wife Nancy after Nanyehe and, bless her heart, told me later to my face that she almost regretted it because Nancy too married a white man.) I gave you three--four if you count Nanyehe at Talwia--to keep up my end of the "put up" (and in respect to you, B, I will do the "shutup" you requested also). From Crow Creek to Sand Creek up to yesterday itself, ignoring or blinding ourself to the past we don't like is disrespecting everyone's ancestors. I hold no grudge to any man....Let's live in peace today so our ancestors may rest in peace forever.
No one would want to re-live the tragedies that happened to the Cheyenne/Arapaho at Sandcreek. But, we can never forget what happened to the innocent woman and children who were slaughtered by what some have said "Got out of Hand"... It was a different era and it was a sad day for those families! Being a Cheyenne/Arapaho I say if the government want to apoligize for the terrible treatment to our people it should be accepted and we should hope that it is a sincere, heartfelt apology and we should go forward from here. We can't change the past but we can go forward with the hope that things have changed for the Native Americans.
I think the only hard pill I find to swallow is all the bs being passed around here as so called "historical facts". Here's the grisly facts of Sand Creek from the soldiers that participated:
Click on page AO57 for the beginning of the testimony. Guess you can't get much more reliable evidence than from the perpetrators themselves, huh? Now, if anyone has facts supporting their Indian vs Indian genocide claims, please putup or shutup.
Tribe on tribe violence was a way of life prior to the European invasion. There isn't a problem with *that* genocide, is there....? Or is that past a hard pill to swallow? European diseases killed half the Susquehannock tribe but the Iroquois killed the other half (and if you know history of 1675, you know the probable manner)....what...no reparations? The water stinks everywhere (Winnebago)....and we all drink from it. Oh, except all of us typing on here, that is....
Wasn't Black Kettles band, I mean the ones that were able to escape Sand Creek, anyway, eventually wiped out on the Washita in Western Okieland by Custer's soldiers, with the assistance of Osage scouts?
Tunnelvision? Apologies? I really don't know why Colorado is doing this other than maybe trying to acknowledge that their state has national historic site in it that forces people to look at Colorado's less than honorable state history. Maybe this is their way of trying to address a shameful event. Sand Creek, unlike Jamestown was not even officially acknowledged in terms of national historic sites until last year. I'll bet that is when most Coloradoans first even learned of the event. But why they are apologizing for the Trail of Tears is beyond me.
Not really, I just thinks its ridiculus to for one group to apoligize while the other pretends American indians have nothing to apoligize for. That's all. I think you have "Indian activist" tunnel vision.
So what if both sides had blood on their hands? We've known about Jamestown for hundreds of years - it's in children's history books. But why has Sand Creek been so conspicuosly absent from those same texts?
Rufus, what are you talking about? We've been brought up all our lives learning about savages terrorizing and harrassing the peaceful and righteous European settlers. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, it's a hard pill to swallow, isn't it?
from first contact (1511) to the closing of the frontier (1890), and determined that 9,156 people died from atrocities perpetrated by Native Americans, and 7,193 people died from retaliations perpetrated by whites. Both sides had blood on their hands.
I don't care how you try to justify it, Sand Creek was not just a senseless massacre - it was shameful and cowardly. Chivington attacked a village of friendly Cheyennes and Arapahos that were flying an American Flag and certainly not expecting a fight. That fact along with the grisly scalping of human genitalia and removal of fetuses, certainly makes it stand out as one of the most despicable events in American history. I don't see why so many rush to try to defend it. I wonder if many of you even know what happened there.
What I'm trying to say is the depiction of all European Whites as evil murderers while conveniently forgetting about the many Indian atrocities is unfair.
Before the Europeans invaded, tribe fought tribe, tribe enslaved tribe, tribe drove tribe off land to starvation (convienant amnesia about tribe that collected noses from vanquished tribes). Man is evil. All of us. Oh, except all of us typing on here, that is....
Rufus - are you trying to compare the events you listed to Sand Creek? I'm trying to understand the intent of your post. Are you saying that Sand Creek was justified?
There are two sides to this coin. Jamestown Massacre, Indians killed 347 English men, women and children throughout the Virginia colony, almost one-third of the English population of Jamestown colony. Lachine massacre, Fifteen hundred Mohawk warriors attacked the small settlement of Lachine, New France and killed more than ninety of the village's three-hundred seventy-five French residents. Deerfield Massacre A force comprised of Abenaki, Kanienkehaka, Wyandot and Pocumtuck Indians, led by a small contingent of French-Canadian militia, sacked the town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 56 civilians and taking dozens more as captives. There were many more massacres in which one tribe killed off another tribe in ambush attacks.
Perhaps the 'other' Kevin has somewhat of a point. After the Jacobite rebellions in Scotland, the ruling English forbid the Scots to dress or act like Scots, until it became fashionable for the ruling English landholders to dress in tartans when vacationing on their Scottish landholdings. Hey, Maybe when Bush goes home to Crawford, he could dress as Natives of that region used to, and when Cheney goes home to Wyoming, he could dress as tribes in that region dressed!
Sounds like the "truth known the world over" just got thrown under a winnebago. Would Jeremiah Wright please assist in the last rites; we have someone dead wrong here.
Kevin you are an idiot and dead wrong! The Native Americans signed treaties as business agreements and some chose to undergo to a removal to land in Oklahoma
from their homelands but once oil was discovered some policies were enacted not in good faith and their land was stolen. That is not something to be proud of. Its called corruption, theft and greed, something you know a lot about most likely! The truth is known the world over. Time for you to learn it, too. You know when Oklahoma was incorporated it was the marriage of Miss. Indian Territory and Mr. Oklahoma just as your re-enactment shows. Not a European discovery or conquer or whatever your hot wind wants it to be. State the facts not revisionist history.
In iterest of full disclosure, this does not represent indianz.com
Land run reenactments? Look.. the down and dirty of it is that the Natives tried to fight the Europeans, they fought a war and they lost. We came in and imposed our culture. The very people who colonized the U.S. had ancestors who had been previously colonized and brutalized by Gauls, Moors, Arabs, Berbers, Romans, English, etc. Colonization and subjugation ain't pretty and they do happen. The winner owes the loser nothing. The land run, IMHO is a wonderful part of our history -- it's one of the things which makes Oklahoma truly unique. We went from grassy, empty fields to booming oiltowns to NBA-hosting cities in a little over a century. That's something to be proud of.
Has anybody reminded you lately we're gunna get an NBA team? Remember the effectiveness of Nancy Reagan's 'Just say no' campaign? If the gambling bothers you, Just Say No. I haven't lost a dime in casinos, though I haven't been...
I have a relative who's father stll lives on the reservation in Arizona where there is a casino. My relatve draws a casino royalty check in the amount of $14,000.00 a month from the casino.
The apologies will mean something when behavior changes. We are still at war with Gov. Henry and his muscle Scott Meachum. We still have to stand as silent witness to land run re-enactments which were nothing more than organized theft of our land. Telling lies about that land, that it was unassigned. We know better.
Our people are still assaulted in the highest numbers in the nation. One in three Indian women are raped. Indian women are the most physically assaulted and abused sector in society. We live the shortest amount of time, have the highest instances of premature death and we serve in the military in numbers greater than any other racial group. And still all people want to talk about is a few casinos. As if the revenue collected erases two hundred years of abuse. That is salt in the wound.
I appreciate the apologies. I wonder how sincere, but it is a good start and the right thing to do. Your welcome.
"But ultimately, what we would like to see are governments which respect our sovereignty today." Excuse me but how that is not happening in Oklahoma today? Tribes have their own governments in which a person can serve IN ADDITION to serving in the Congress of the U.S., tribes have their own license tags, their own "smokeshops" and laws protecting those, their own "casinos" and laws protecting those, their own territorial boundaries, their own housing programs, their own educational programs, their own museums, including those subsidized by the Oklahoma State legislature, their own statues, including one atop the State Capitol, their own police forces, their own inviolate languages, which are exempt from regulation in official state business matters, and they even have special laws spelled out by Congress to benefit their constituency in business, and continue to reap from the treasury of the United States, as well as their own. Nothing stops the tribes from putting up statues and memorials wherever they wish, including the top of the Capitol Dome. Exactly what else has to be done to accomplish tribal "sovereignty?"
This is for Jess in Warr Acres, if everyone else deals with their problems and moves on, sir, then the Memorial downtown wouldn't be there, the Vietnam Memorial would never have been made, nor would the hundreds of other memorials to acts of war and violence over the years. Not to mention the "Sooner" wagons that are everywhere to celebrate having taken land away 100 years ago, but then, everyone else has just moved on and forgotten all that stuff, huh?
If your really wanted to get down and dirty about it, you would conduct a highly extensive investigation into exacty who did the massacres and go after the survivors. Oh, they did that in Tulsa and look what it got them. Bobbo is right, it does open up dialogue, but how can you have dialogue with Mr. Blackburn when his email listed at the Oklahoma History Center returns "error occured, user does not exist on our server." Its like the bobster does not want to have any dialogue on any matters. As for today its almost like it was 300 or so years ago when the tribes were at war with each other. Its also when the tribes enslaved other tribes. The freedmen are currently being enslaved by Mike Miller's Cherokees. its like they get to say, "You just sit there and be a quite little Black man and like what crumbs we throw at you (and by the way, you are not really a citizen, you are what in these parts call an un-person." The Cherokees were one of the worst at atrocities they did to rival tribes. They castrated males, raped females, abducted children, and this went on for centuries. One of the reasons white men came to this side of the ocean was to put a stop to all of that as the first settlers were missionaries. All they really wanted to do is beat the savages over the head with a Bible. As for casinos it is true that "certain" tribes are thriving. Others like the Absentee Shawnee Tribe has the oldest casino in the state and its going bankrupt. Why, because a rival tribe, the Chickasaws opened up a bigger and brighter one at I-35 and HW9. They went upstream and found the source of the trout. They snag them before people can turn East on HW9. Some Florida tribe members get casino royalty checks of millions per year. Some New Mexico tribe members get $500 per year and live in pallet houses (sounds bad but all the wood is from pallets - oak, pine, etc.) I think tribes are at more war today then in the past. They fight others by blocking gaming permits, they sabatoge through bomb threats (yesterday in Norman), and they lobby against each other in Washington.
Please, its an empty gesture to get these lawmakers names into the media cycle. There have been a lot of atrocities commited throughout history. These apologies are empty gestures at best and disingenuous at worst. The largest group of indians that died were due to disease brought over by 'european' settlers centuries before america was conceived. And there are lots of natives that are proud of this country. There are many that are disenchanted, but that is usually due to economic reasons. Again as I stated previously, this is a shallow attempt by govt officials to distract the public from their poor records and to try to provide some positive PR for these elected officials.
While I agree Jess that people shouldn't dwell on negative events from the past, it is still important to learn from those events to prevent a recurrence. An apology never hurts and shows our Native Americans a real committment to their interests. The casinos are making the tribes a lot of money but, considering the fact entire tribes were nearly wiped out, it doesn't replace what was lost. We have a great country that hopefully someday Natives can be proud to be a part of, but that requires their full inclusion in society and our admittance of past atrocities.
It's over with, everyone else deals with their problems and moved on. I personally don't need a apology for something that happened 100-150 years ago by someone that had nothing to do with it. They have casinos and making mega bucks. I think thats enough said.
Sand Creek massacre
The historical event that came to be known as the Sand Creek Massacre occurred Nov. 29, 1864.
Regiments of the Colorado Territory militia led by Col. John Chivington attacked an encamped village of Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians in what is now southeastern Colorado. They killed 140 to 200, most of them women, children and elderly men who were left behind while the able-bodied men of the encampment had gone out to hunt food.
The Cheyenne-Arapaho camp was thought to be safe from white attack due to treaties signed by both tribes with the United States government.
The massacre site has been designated as a National Historic Site and is located near La Junta, Colo.
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Leave a comment. Log in below or sign up (it's free).Editor's note: It is not our intent to offer comments on crime or fatality stories.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=ABB3022
Click on page AO57 for the beginning of the testimony. Guess you can't get much more reliable evidence than from the perpetrators themselves, huh? Now, if anyone has facts supporting their Indian vs Indian genocide claims, please putup or shutup.
from their homelands but once oil was discovered some policies were enacted not in good faith and their land was stolen. That is not something to be proud of. Its called corruption, theft and greed, something you know a lot about most likely! The truth is known the world over. Time for you to learn it, too. You know when Oklahoma was incorporated it was the marriage of Miss. Indian Territory and Mr. Oklahoma just as your re-enactment shows. Not a European discovery or conquer or whatever your hot wind wants it to be. State the facts not revisionist history.
In iterest of full disclosure, this does not represent indianz.com
Our people are still assaulted in the highest numbers in the nation. One in three Indian women are raped. Indian women are the most physically assaulted and abused sector in society. We live the shortest amount of time, have the highest instances of premature death and we serve in the military in numbers greater than any other racial group. And still all people want to talk about is a few casinos. As if the revenue collected erases two hundred years of abuse. That is salt in the wound.
I appreciate the apologies. I wonder how sincere, but it is a good start and the right thing to do. Your welcome.