Public Memory of the Sand Creek Massacre By Lindsay Calhoun

and performatively as an open yet contested field of possibilities for memory production.

The Sand Creek massacre is a complex and tragic event in North American history. Under the auspices of the United States government and governor John Evans of Colorado, colonel John M. Chivington and approximately seven hundred men attacked Sand Creek in the early morning hours of November 29, 1864.² The Cheyenne and Arapaho residents had surrendered most of their weapons to a nearby fort earlier that fall and moved to Sand Creek at the request of the regional authorities in Colorado; they had been given a white flag of surrender and an American flag of protection to signify their willingness to cooperate. Those killed were mostly women, children, and elderly individuals. The massacre was brutal and reportedly involved mutilation and scalping of victims.³ Many escaped or hid during the massacre, which lasted between one and two days. Contemporary estimates number the dead at 160, although Chivington boasted that as many as 500 had been killed.⁴ Chivington and his infantry returned to Denver as heroes with scalps and body parts from Sand Creek on display. As a point of comparison, the Third and First Calvary regiment lost nine men⁵; forty were wounded. Three separate congressional investigations into the attack declared it a massacre and a disgrace.⁶ The federal government, in the Arkansas River Treaty of 1865, promised reparations to the tribes involved in the massacre but never delivered.⁷ In fact, the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site Study Act of 1998 recognizes this and acknowledges that the government did not fulfill its treaty obligations to the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes.⁸ It is important to note that though the congressional investigation into Sand Creek involved political mudslinging, no one was ever legally punished for actions there.

In examining the Sand Creek massacre, this study does not focus on the events that led to the tragedy at Sand Creek; I am not a historian and my purpose is not to find out “what happened” at Sand Creek or why. Many authors in the fields of history, anthropology, rhetoric, and journalism