Sand Creek massacre The Sand Creek Massacre ( also known as the Chivington Massacre , the Battle of Sand Creek or the Massacre of Cheyenne Indians ) was an atrocity in the Indian Wars of the United States that occurred on November 29 , 1864 , when a 700 - man force of Colorado Territory militia attacked and destroyed a village of friendly Cheyenne and Arapaho encamped in southeastern Colorado Territory , killing and mutilating an estimated 70 – 163 Indians , about two - thirds of whom were women and children . The location has been designated the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site and is administered by the National Park Service . Background . By the terms of the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie between the United States and seven Indian nations , including the Cheyenne and Arapaho , the US recognized that the Cheyenne and Arapaho held 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 . In November 1858 , however , the discovery of gold in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado , then part of the Kansas Territory , brought on the Pikes Peak Gold Rush . There was a flood of European - American migrants across Cheyenne and Arapaho lands . They competed for resources and some settlers tried to stay . Colorado territorial officials pressured federal authorities to redefine the extent of Indian lands in the territory , 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 . On February 18 , 1861 , six chiefs of the Southern Cheyenne and four of the Arapaho signed the Treaty of Fort Wise with the United States , in which they ceded most of the lands designated to them by the Fort Laramie treaty . The Cheyenne chiefs included Black Kettle , White Antelope ( Vó ' kaa ' e Ohvó ' komaestse ) , Lean Bear , Little Wolf , and Tall Bear ; the Arapaho chiefs included Little Raven , Storm , Shave - Head , Big Mouth , and Niwot , or Left Hand . The new reserve , less than one - thirteenth the size of the 1851 reserve , was located in eastern Colorado between the Arkansas River and Sand Creek . Some bands of Cheyenne , including the Dog Soldiers , a militaristic band of Cheyenne and Lakota that had evolved beginning in the 1830s , were angry at the chiefs who had signed the treaty . They disavowed the treaty and refused to abide by its constraints . 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 migration across their lands . Tensions were high particularly in the Smoky Hill River country of Kansas , along which whites had opened a new trail to the gold fields . Cheyenne 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 " . Officials took the position that Indians who refused to abide by it were hostile and planning a war . 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 , whom white settlers accused of stealing livestock . Without any declaration of war , in April 1864 soldiers started attacking and destroying a number of Cheyenne camps , the largest of which included about 70 lodges , about 10 % of the housing capacity of the entire Cheyenne nation . On May 16 , 1864 , a force under Lieutenant George S . Eayre crossed into Kansas and encountered Cheyenne 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 . This incident touched off a war of retaliation by the Cheyenne in Kansas . As conflict between Indians and white settlers and soldiers in Colorado continued , many of the Cheyenne and Arapaho , including bands under Cheyenne chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope , were resigned to negotiate peace . The chiefs had sought to maintain peace in spite of pressures from whites . They were told to camp near Fort Lyon on the eastern plains , and that their people would be regarded as friendly . Attack . Black Kettle , a chief of a group of around 800 mostly Northern Cheyenne , reported to Fort Lyon in an effort to establish peace . After having done so , he and his band , along with some Arapaho under Chief Niwot , camped out at nearby Sand Creek , less than 40 miles north . The Dog Soldiers , who had been responsible for many of the raids on whites , were not part of this encampment . Assured by the U . S . Government ' s promises of peace , most of the warriors were off hunting buffalo , leaving only around 60 men , and women and children in the village . Most of the men were too old or too young to hunt . Black Kettle flew an American flag over his lodge , since previously the officers had said this would show he was friendly and prevent attack by U . S . soldiers . Setting out from Fort Lyon , Chivington and his 700 troops of the 1st Colorado Cavalry , 3rd Colorado Cavalry and a company of the 1st Regiment New Mexico Volunteer Cavalry marched to Black Kettle ' s campsite . James Beckwourth , noted frontiersman , acted as a guide for Chivington . On the night of November 28 , soldiers and militia drank heavily and celebrated their anticipated victory . On the morning of November 29 , 1864 , Chivington ordered his troops to attack . Two officers , Captain Silas Soule and Lieutenant Joseph Cramer , commanding the First Colorado Cavalry companies D and K , respectively , refused to follow Chivington ' s order and told their 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 many of its inhabitants . Some of the Indians 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 trader George Bent , fled upstream and dug holes in the sand beneath the banks of the stream . They were pursued by the troops and fired on , but many survived . Cheyenne warrior Morning Star said that most of the Indian dead were killed by cannon fire , especially those firing from the south bank of the river at the people retreating up the creek . In testimony before a Congressional committee investigating the massacre , Chivington claimed that as many as 500 – 600 Indian warriors were killed . Historian Alan Brinkley wrote that 133 Indians were killed , 105 of whom were women and children . White eye - witness John S . Smith reported that 70 – 80 Indians were killed , including 20 – 30 warriors , which agrees with Brinkley ' s figure as to the number of men killed . George Bent , the son of the American William Bent and a Cheyenne mother , who was in the village when the attack came and was wounded by the soldiers , gave two different accounts of the Indian loss . On March 15 , 1889 , he wrote to Samuel F . Tappan that 137 people were killed : 28 men and 109 women and children . However , on April 30 , 1913 , when he was very old , he wrote that " about 53 men " and " 110 women and children " were killed and many people wounded . Bent ' s first figures are in close accord with those of Brinkley and agree with Smith as to the number of men who were killed . Although initial reports indicated 10 soldiers killed and 38 wounded , the final tally was 4 killed and 21 wounded in the 1st Colorado Cavalry and 20 killed or mortally wounded and 31 other wounded in the 3rd Colorado Cavalry ; adding up to 24 killed and 52 wounded . Dee Brown wrote that some of Chivington ' s men were drunk and that many of the soldiers ' casualties were due to friendly fire but neither of these claims is supported by Gregory F . Michno or Stan Hoig in their books devoted to the massacre . 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 infants . Chivington and his men dressed their weapons , hats and gear with scalps and other body parts , including human fetuses and male and female genitalia . 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 : George Bent ' s brother Charlie Bent , and two Cheyenne women who were later turned over to William Bent . 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 . Of about ten lodges of Arapaho under Chief Left Hand , representing about fifty or sixty people , only a handful escaped with their lives . After hiding all day above the camp , in holes dug beneath the bank of Sand Creek , the survivors there , many of whom were 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 Smoky Hill River . They soon met up with other survivors who had escaped with part of the horse herd , some returning from the Smoky Hill camp where they had fled during the attack . They then proceeded to the camp , where they received assistance . The massacre disrupted the traditional Cheyenne power structure , because of 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 . Among the chiefs killed were most of those who had advocated peace with white settlers and the U . S . government . The net effect of the murders and ensuing weakening of the peace faction exacerbated the social and political rift developing . The traditional council chiefs , mature men who sought consensus and looked to the future of their people , and their followers on the one hand , were opposed by the younger and more 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 . They 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 Dog Soldiers and military societies within other Cheyenne bands countered the influence of the traditional Council of Forty - Four chiefs who , as more mature men , took a larger view and were more likely to favor peace with the whites . To the Dog Soldiers , the Sand Creek Massacre illustrated the folly of the peace chiefs ' policy of accommodating the whites through treaties such as the first Treaty of Fort Laramie and the Treaty of Fort Wise . They believed their militant position toward the whites was justified by the massacre . The events at Sand Creek dealt a fatal blow to the traditional Cheyenne clan system and the authority of its Council of Chiefs . It had already been weakened by the numerous deaths due to the 1849 cholera epidemic , which killed perhaps half the Southern Cheyenne population , especially the Masikota and Oktoguna bands . It was further weakened by the emergence of the separate Dog Soldiers band . Retaliation . After this event , many Cheyenne , including the great warrior Roman Nose , and Arapaho joined the Dog Soldiers . They sought revenge on settlers throughout the Platte valley , including an 1865 attack on what became Fort Caspar , 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 warriors in the area . In January 1865 , they planned and carried out an attack with 1 , 000 warriors on the stage station and fort , then called Camp Rankin , at present - day Julesburg , Colorado . They followed up with numerous raids along the $ 3 both east and west of Julesburg , and a second raid on Julesburg in early February . The associated bands captured much loot and killed many whites , 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 Country . Black Kettle continued to want peace . He did not join in the second raid or in the journey north to the Powder River country . He left the camp and returned with 80 lodges to the Arkansas River to seek peace . Official investigations . Initially , the Sand Creek engagement was reported as a victory against a brave opponent . Within weeks , however , witnesses and survivors raised a controversy about 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 : 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 mutilation 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 . " During these investigations , numerous witnesses came forward with damning testimony , almost all of which was corroborated by other witnesses . One witness , Captain Silas Soule , who had ordered the men under his command not to fire their weapons , was murdered in Denver just weeks after offering his testimony . However , despite the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the Wars ' recommendation , no charges were brought against those who committed the massacre . The closest thing to a punishment Chivington suffered was the effective end of his political aspirations . A monument installed on the Colorado State Capitol grounds in 1909 lists Sand Creek as one of the " battles and engagements " fought by Colorado troops in the American Civil War . In 2002 , the Colorado Historical Society ( now History Colorado ) , authorized by the Colorado General Assembly , added an additional plaque to the monument , which states that the original designers of the monument " mischaracterized " Sand Creek by calling it a battle . Reparations . After the actual details of the massacre became widely known , the United States Government sent a blue ribbon commission whose members were respected by the Indians , and the Treaty of the Little Arkansas was signed in 1865 . It promised the Indians free access to the lands south of the Arkansas River , excluded them from the Arkansas River north to the Platte River , and promised land and cash reparations to the surviving descendents of Sand Creek . The treaty was abrogated by the Government less than two years later , all major provisions ignored , and instead the Medicine Lodge Treaty reduced the reservation lands by 90 % , located in much less desirable sites in Oklahoma . Later government actions further reduced the size of the reservations . Sand Creek today . The site , on Big Sandy Creek in Kiowa County , is now preserved by the National Park Service . The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site 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 . It traces them to their supposed wintering on the Wind River Indian Reservation near Riverton in central Wyoming , where the Arapaho remain today . The trail passes through Cheyenne , Laramie , Casper , and Riverton en route to Ethete in Fremont County on the reservation . In recent years , Arapaho youth have taken to running the length of the trail as endurance tests 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 . An exhibit about Sand Creek , titled " Collision : The Sand Creek Massacre 1860s - Today " , opened in 2012 with the new History Colorado Center in Denver . The exhibit immediately drew criticism from members of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe . In April 2013 , History Colorado agreed to close the exhibit to public view while consultations were made with the Northern Cheyenne and Descendants of the Sand Creek Massacre . Depictions in popular media . The Sand Creek massacre has been featured in several western movies , including " Tomahawk " ( 1951 ) ; " The Guns of Fort Petticoat " ( 1957 ) ; " Soldier Blue " ( 1970 ) ; " The Last Warrior " ( 1970 ) ; " Little Big Man " ( 1970 ) ; " Young Guns " ( 1988 ) ; " Last of the Dogmen " ( 1995 ) ; and Steven Spielberg ' s miniseries , " Into the West " . In the 1957 episode " Old Jake " of the ABC / Desilu Studios western series , " The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp " , Francis McDonald is cast as Jake Caster , a former buffalo hunter who kills a soldier who had been a participant in the Sand Creek massacre and who was responsible for the slaughter of Caster ' s Indian wife and child . The massacre has also been written about in literature , such as " A Very Small Remnant " ( 1963 ) by Michael Straight ; " Centennial " ( 1974 ) by James Michener ; " From Sand Creek " ( 1981 ) by Simon Ortiz ; James Bradley ' s " " ( 2003 ) ; and Lauren Small ' s " Choke Creek " ( 2009 ) . The massacre is referenced by The Mandarin in one of his messages to the U . S . President in " Iron Man 3 " ( 2013 ) . Songs about Sand Creek include Iron Maiden ' s " Run to the Hills " and Fabrizio De André ' s " Fiume Sand Creek " ( Sand Creek River ) .