Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site is growing by nearly 3,500 acres/NPS file
Editor's note: This updates to include the purchase price of the land acquisition in graph 4.
Expansion of Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in Colorado will allow the National Park Service to better interpret the 1864 military assault on an encampment of roughly 750 Arapaho and Cheyenne Plains tribal members that led to the deaths of more than 200, according to an Interior Department release.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Park Service Director Chuck Sams visited the site on Wednesday. They participated in an event with leaders from the Northern Arapaho Tribe, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, Colorado Lieutenant Governor Dianne Primavera, and other community partners including The Conservation Fund, Great Outdoors Colorado and the National Park Foundation.
“It is our solemn responsibility at the Department of the Interior, as caretakers of America’s national treasures, to tell the story of our nation. The events that took place here forever changed the course of the Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho, and Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes,” said Haaland. “We will never forget the hundreds of lives that were brutally taken here – men, women and children murdered in an unprovoked attack. Stories like the Sand Creek Massacre are not easy to tell but it is my duty – our duty – to ensure that they are told. This story is part of America’s story.”
The ceremony included the announcement of the acquisition of 3,478 acres for the National Historic Site that was made possible through funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The cost of the aquisition was $3.3 million, which was $315,000 below the appraised value of $3,615,000, according to NPS staff.
The additional land will allow the Park Service to increase public opportunities to experience and interpret the site’s stories and history. In addition, the expansion of the historic site will contribute to one of the most intact shortgrass prairie ecosystems within the National Park System, providing habitat for a wide range of plants, wildlife and species of special concern.
The Conservation Fund was critical to facilitating the acquisition from a willing seller, with financial support from Great Outdoors Colorado and the National Park Foundation.
“The newly acquired property will help to protect the historic site and sacred Tribal lands,” said Janet Frederick, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site superintendent. “These new parcels include lands listed on the National Register of Historic Places for their significance to the devastating events of November 29, 1864. These lands also have significant archaeological remains of the massacre, including evidence of the village where Cheyenne and Arapaho families were camped, and an intact viewshed that is key to the historical integrity of the National Historic Site.”
On November 29, 1864, U.S. soldiers attacked an encampment of approximately 750 Native people. During the attack, the Native Americans took shelter in the high banks along Sand Creek. As they fled, many were wounded and killed. Well over half of the 230 dead were women and children.
Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site was established in 2007 in southeastern Colorado near the Town of Eads. The site preserves lands where the massacre took place and adjacent features critical to the historic cultural landscape. The Northern and Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes consider these lands sacred.
The LWCF was established by Congress in 1964 to fulfill a bipartisan commitment to safeguard natural areas, water resources and cultural heritage, and to provide recreation opportunities to all Americans. The Great American Outdoors Act authorized permanent funding of LWCF at $900 million annually to improve recreational opportunities on public lands, protect watersheds and wildlife, and preserve ecosystem benefits for local communities. The LWCF has funded $4 billion worth of projects in every county in the country for over 50 years.
Support Essential Coverage of Essential Places
Comments
. The events that took place here forever changed the course of the Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho, and Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes," said Haaland.
They sure did.
"We will never forget the hundreds of lives that were brutally taken here - men, women and children murdered in an unprovoked attack
Sadly, Sand Creek was preceded by dozens of unprovoked attacks against innocent settlers (men, women & children) by NAs, resulting in scores of civilian deaths. So, it's absolutely inaccurate to assert that Sand Creek was "unprovoked".
It's just so disappointing that the White-NA narrative has swung so far in the opposite direction that we cannot even acknowledge the entire, nasty, evil, tragic context.
And that's sad for NAs, the stories of settlers, the US, and this historical site.
"We will never forget the hundreds of lives that were brutally taken here - men, women and children murdered in an unprovoked attack
When will the NPS purchase the sites of Ruby Ridge or Mt. Carmel Center (Waco) so that those stories can be told and interpreted? (just to name a few)
When victims have to fit a mold, and perpetrators have to fit into another, we're not getting the whole story.
We need to fess up and tell all of it. Sadly, niether today's NPS nor Sec'y Haaland is up to the task.
Anybody who thinks Ruby Ridge should be a NPS site is ridiculous.
Is a monument to a domestic terrorist ridiculous? Becuase we have one for John Brown. The NPS is also looking into monuments for groups like the Black Panthers who killed far more people than died at Ruby Ridge.
Mainly the NPS should stick to preserving and protecting public lands rather than trying to "tell stories"
Many believe that a hookup bar named Stonewall Inn did not deserve to become an NPS property.
Again, we need to tell the ENTIRE narrative of US history, not just what some may consider ridiculous.
Again, the idea that Ruby Ridge should be a NPS site is perhaps the single dumbest comment ever made here.
While driving through Eads, CO in the fall of 2020 I was gutpunched by the Sand Creek Massacre display at the park. I had never heard of this horrendous crime. It wouldn't leave my head and heart. By the time I reached Kearney, NE this song was finished.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVYRWMBgWvo
#LookingBacktoMoveForward
#FeeltoHeal
Please Listen.
We live in a culture which wants to judge the past through the lens of today. But the past cannot be changed. So the NPS "interpretive" parks can only make people feel bad. On the other hand, a "historic site" can be an uplifting educational experience. People can do their own interpretation. Do we need NPS to tell us how to think?