Report of the John Evans Study Committee University of Denver
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REPORT OF THE JOHN EVANS STUDY COMMITTEE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER November, 2014 Denver, Colorado Cover image: Sand creek massacre. | Brent Learned, Cheyenne and Arapaho descendant. Table of Contents Report Authors .............................................................................................. ii Executive Summary of Findings ................................................................... iii Committee Charge and Context ..................................................................... v Massacre At Sand Creek ................................................................................1 Introduction ................................................................................................12 Power in Office: The Coterminous Roles of Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs ..................................................................16 The Marshall Foundation and Federal Indian Law and Policy ......................................................................24 Treaty-Making with the Utes, Arapaho, and Cheyenne in Colorado Territory ....................................................................29 Federal Leadership in Neighboring Territories ..............................................35 John Evans and the 1863 Mandate .............................................................43 Negotiating Peace in the Mountain West: A Comparative Study ...................48 1864: A Timeline .........................................................................................52 Native Peoples and the “Hostiles”: The Road to Catastrophe .......................54 The June Proclamation ................................................................................59 The Second Proclamation ...........................................................................63 The Declaration of Martial Law ...................................................................66 The Camp Weld Conference .........................................................................68 Aftermath: Federal Investigations ................................................................77 1884 Interview with H. H. Bancroft ..............................................................86 Conclusion to the Main Body of the Report .................................................88 Reassessing Culpability: Departures from the Northwestern Report ............90 Report Authors Richard Clemmer-Smith Professor George E. Tinker Curator of Ethnology, (wazhazhe, Osage Nation) DU Museum of Anthropology Clifford Baldridge Professor of American Indian University of Denver Cultures and ReligiousTraditions Iliff School of Theology Alan Gilbert John Evans Professor Nancy D. Wadsworth Joseph Korbel School of International Studies Associate Professor University of Denver Department of Political Science University of Denver David Fridtjof Halaas Consultant to the Northern Cheyenne Consultant: Former Colorado State Historian Steven Fisher Associate Professor Billy J. Stratton University Historian Assistant Professor University of Denver Department of English American Indian Studies ii Executive Summary of Findings This report is the outcome of a yearlong inquiry he issued as governor; his actions at the Camp by the University of Denver John Evans Study Weld Council in September, wherein Native leaders Committee, a volunteer group of faculty, outside attempted to broker a peace; and his decisions to historians, descendant community representatives, surrender territorial authority to the military in the and students and alumni representing the DU late summer of 1864. Native American community, into the role of We conclude that John Evans’s pattern of the University of Denver’s founder in the Sand neglect of his treaty-negotiating duties, his Creek Massacre of November 29, 1864. The leadership failures, and his reckless decision- findings are offered, in part, as a supplement, but making in 1864 combine to clearly demonstrate also a response to a similar inquiry conducted by a significant level of culpability for the Sand Northwestern University, also founded by John Creek Massacre. While not of the same character, Evans. We submit the present document not as an Evans’s culpability is comparable in degree to academic trial of Evans in absentia according to that of Colonel John Chivington, the military today’s legal standards and conceptions of human commander who personally planned and carried rights, but rather in the spirit of an effort to assess out the massacre. Evans’s actions and influence, a legacy that neither university has, until this year, more than those of any other political official in made the effort to understand. Such a task requires Colorado Territory, created the conditions in which that the decisions and actions that John Evans the massacre was highly likely. Evans abrogated his undertook be situated in the context of the ideas, duties as superintendent, fanned the flames of war policies, expectations, and principles of territorial when he could have dampened them, cultivated leadership evident in the mid-nineteenth century an unusually interdependent relationship with the American West. military, and rejected clear opportunities to engage In his role as territorial governor from 1862 in peaceful negotiations with the Native peoples until his forced resignation in the summer of under his jurisdiction. Furthermore, he successfully 1865 John Evans held the position as the top civil lobbied the War Department for the deployment and political official in Colorado Territory. This of a federalized regiment, consisting largely of position was coterminous with the assignment as undertrained, undisciplined volunteer soldiers Ex Officio Superintendent of Indian Affairs. After who executed the worst of the atrocities during the a review of the roles and duties and responsibilities massacre. attendant to the superintendency, we compare the It is certainly difficult for the University of circumstances Evans faced and the leadership he Denver and the surrounding Colorado community evinced with that of contemporaneous officials in to confront this history. John Evans was a man two adjacent territories, Nevada and Utah. This of many proud accomplishments, a visionary is followed by an analysis of Evans’s leadership in leader whose influence shaped the university, the the crucial period of late-1863 until the massacre city of Denver, and the state of Colorado. This in November 1864. We attend in particular to the committee’s hope is that by understanding our nature and direct impact of the two proclamations founder’s role in this catastrophic event we can Executive Summary of Findings iii unite as a community and begin to forge a new also for the Arapaho and Cheyenne people, who relationship to the past for the benefit of the public have displayed an active sense of presence in the good. We offer this report as an initial step to face of victimization and, lest we forget, on whose promote empathy and healing, not only for those ancestral lands our campus sits. of us who have inherited this complex legacy, but iv Executive Summary of Findings Committee Charge and Context John Evans (1814-1897) was a man of many Cheyenne to Denver, a route that opened on talents and an important figure in the histories June 24, 1870. Evans continued to be the main of Euro-American settlement in Illinois and financier of Colorado’s railroad empire, a project Colorado. A physician by training, over the he was to which he was deeply devoted for course of his lifetime he was also a professor of the rest of his life. The Denver & South Park, medicine, a founder of hospitals and medical Denver & New Orleans, Denver Texas & Gulf, societies, an innovative businessman, a tireless Union Pacific, and Boulder Valley lines were institution builder, and a passionate advocate of all made possible by John Evans’s vision and general public education and higher learning. He capital investments. Denver’s claim to be the was a central figure in the founding of two private commercial capital of the Rocky Mountain Empire universities: Northwestern University in Evanston, could finally be substantiated by the end of the Illinois (1851), and the Colorado Seminary, which nineteenth century, due in large part to the efforts later became the University of Denver (1864). of Evans. He served as the first board president of both universities, and chaired the Colorado Seminary Report Context Board of Trustees until his death. Although much has been written about the details Evans devoted significant time and resources noted above, this report concentrates instead on to public service, as an alderman in Chicago, a the fateful decisions and events that took place delegate to the 1860 Illinois state Republican over a mere span of four years that mark some of convention, and an acquaintance and appointee the darkest moments in American frontier history. of President Abraham Lincoln. In 1862, Evans On November 29th, 1864, just two weeks after was sworn in as the second Governor of Colorado the Colorado Seminary opened its doors, an Territory, which also came with the position infamous event that became known as the Sand of ex officio Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Creek Massacre occurred, resulting in the deaths Evans’s many achievements garnered him great of an estimated two hundred peaceful Cheyenne respect and admiration—which is reflected by the and Arapaho people who believed they were safely honorary names of Evanston, Illinois, and Evans, camped under protection of the