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The cause of the Sand Creek Massacre
were rooted in the long conflict for control of the Great Plains of eastern Colorado. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 guaranteed ownership of the area north of the Arkansas River to the Nebraska border to the Cheyenne and Arapahoe. -
Native Americans Vs. Settlers
The tension between new settlers and Native Americans were rising -
Period: to
The Beginning
the Sand Creek Massacre lay in a whirlwind of events and issues registered by the ongoing Civil War in the East and West; the overreactions by whites on the frontier to Dakota uprising in Minnesota and its aftermath -
John Evans
governor of the territory of Colorado attempted to isolate
recalcitrant Native Americans by inviting "friending Indians."
to camp near military forts and receive provisions and protection -
The Meeting
Evans meets with black kettle and several other chiefs to
forge a new peace, and all parties left satisfied -
Black Kettle
moved his band to FortLyon, Colorado, where the commanding
the officer encouraged him to hunt near Sand Creek. -
John M. Chivington
Approximately 675 U.S. volunteer soldiers commanded by Colonel John M. Chivington attacked a village of about 750 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians along Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado Territory. -
the surviving
Black Kettle survived and continued his peace efforts. In 1865, his followers accepted a new reservation in Indian Territory. -
The Resigning
Chivington resigned from the military and aborted his budding political career that following year his followers accepted a new reservation in Indian Territory -
the killing
nine of Chivington men were killed 148 of black kettle's followers were slaughtered, more than half of them women and children