The Sand Creek Massacre (1864) was a tragedy inflicted on the Cheyenne village of Chief Black Kettle by local Colorado troops.Antagonized by Colorado officials, Cheyenne and other Plains tribes had raided settlements and travel routes throughout the summer of 1864. With the approach of winter, the peace chiefs, of whom Black Kettle was the foremost, sought terms. The commander of the military district was Col. John M. Chivington, a former Methodist clergyman with political ambitions who had entered the volunteer service at the outbreak of the
Civil War. He directed the chiefs to camp on Sand Creek until further arrangements could be made. Here Black Kettle believed himself at peace and under military protection.
Chivington, however, had raised a regiment of 100‐day militia to fight Indians, and citizens expected it to do so. With great secrecy, he concentrated a force of 700 men, consisting of the territorial militia and units of federalized volunteers, and at daybreak on 29 November, he launched a surprise attack on Black Kettle's village. On Chivington's orders, the troops took no prisoners and indiscriminately shot down men, women, and children. Of some 500 people in the village, 200 were killed and their bodies scalped and mutilated. About two‐thirds of the dead were women and children. A few, including Black Kettle, survived.
Sand Creek set off Indian warfare that engulfed the Great Plains through 1865 and 1866. It also prompted official investigations that exposed the perfidy of Chivington's actions and led to new Indian policies emphasizing diplomacy rather than war. Chivington, however, escaped court‐martial by leaving the service.
[See also
Militia and National Guard;
Plains Indians Wars.]
Bibliography
Stan Hoig , The Sand Creek Massacre, 1963.
Robert M. Utley
