John Evans Study Committee Report
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Report of the John Evans Study Committee Northwestern University May 2014 Contents Chapter One: Introduction 5 Report of the Northwestern University John Evans Study Committee Chapter Two: The Life and Career of John Evans 11 Ned Blackhawk Andrew Koppelman (Western Shoshone) John Paul Stevens Professor Chapter Three: Professor of History, American of Law Studies, and Ethnicity, Race, Professor of Political Science Colorado Before Sand Creek 37 and Migration Northwestern University Faculty Coordinator, Yale Chapter Four: The Road to Sand Creek 58 Group for the Study of Carl Smith, Chair Native America (YGSNA) Franklyn Bliss Snyder Chapter Five: The Aftermath 76 Yale University Professor of English and American Studies and Loretta Fowler Professor of History Chapter Six: Conclusions 85 Professor Emerita of Northwestern University Anthropology Notes 96 University of Oklahoma Elliott West Alumni Distinguished Links to Key Documents and Websites 111 Peter Hayes Professor of History Professor of History and University of Arkansas, Chair of the Department Fayetteville Acknowledgments 113 Theodore Zev Weiss Holocaust Educational Foundation Laurie Zoloth Professor Professor of Religious Studies Northwestern University Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities Frederick E. Hoxie Northwestern University Professor of History Swanlund Professor of American Indian Studies Alexander Gourse University of Illinois at John Evans Committee Urbana-Champaign Research Fellow Doctoral Candidate, Department of History Northwestern University Chapter One: Introduction n the clear and fro- zen dawn of Tuesday, November 29, 1864, more than seven hun- Odred heavily armed United States cavalry approached an encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians by a large bend in a dry riverbed called Sand (or Big Sandy) Creek, in an open and isolated spot on the high plains of southeastern Colorado Territory. The sleeping Indians had no inkling of what was about to happen and had posted no guards. A few weeks earlier, follow- ing a spring and summer of some- times deadly encounters between the territory’s Native people and its settlers and soldiers, the inhabi- tants of the camp had declared their Detail from the elk hide painting by Northern Arapaho peaceful intentions and surrendered artist Eugene Ridgely Sr. (1926–2005) of the Sand Creek at Fort Lyon, on the Arkansas River about forty Massacre. Note the depiction of Black Kettle raising the two miles to the southwest of where the Cheyennes and flags to indicate to the attacking soldiers that the camp is Arapahos had pitched their tipis. The fort’s com- peaceable. (©1994 Elk Hide Painting, The Sand Creek mander, Major Scott Anthony, who was now part Massacre, Eugene Ridgely Sr., Northern Arapaho, Courtesy of the advancing force, had directed the Indians to of the Ridgely Family. ©1996 Photograph, Tom Meier) this site, and they thought they had been assured a safe refuge. The soldiers had ridden all night from Fort Colonel John Chivington, commanding officer of Lyon. Most of them were members of the Third the Military District of Colorado, headquartered in Colorado Cavalry, a volunteer regiment formed a Denver. A hulking bully of a man, Chivington was few months earlier to confront hostile Indians.1 The a Methodist minister who had taken up the sword Third was nearing the end of a period of service when the South rebelled. He had won glory for his limited to one hundred days, presumably enough role in repelling a Confederate attempt to invade time to deal with the danger. Accompanying these Colorado in 1862 but had accomplished little since troopers were about 125 men from the veteran First then to advance his goal of promotion to brigadier Cavalry. At the head of this combined force was general. Introduction 5 Upon arriving at a rise overlooking the encamp- “when he saw the soldiers shooting into the lodges, ment, Chivington directed his men to strap their made up his mind not to live any longer,” since he coats to their saddles to allow themselves more had not only trusted the soldiers himself but also freedom of movement in battle, and he dispatched a had persuaded his people to do so. White Antelope few companies to get between the Indians and their “stood in front of his lodge with his arms folded grazing ponies. Then he stirred up the troopers by across his breast, singing the death-song: reminding them of the brutal killings of white settler ‘Nothing lives long, families by Native Only the earth and the mountains.’”4 The soldiers became a savage, American warriors Some Indians fell to their knees and begged undisciplined, and murderous since the spring— for mercy. Others fled to the north and west or up “Now boys, I shan’t Sand Creek for as far as two miles before hastily mob. Some ran down individuals say who you shall kill, digging protective pits in the banks of the riverbed. or small groups of fleeing Indians, but remember our The violence lasted into the middle of the after- executing helpless women and murdered women noon, producing scenes of unspeakable brutality. and children”—and The soldiers became a savage, undisciplined, and children at point-blank range he ordered them to murderous mob. Some ran down individuals or and mutilating the victims. charge.2 small groups of fleeing Indians, executing helpless The ferocious women and children at point-blank range and muti- attack, backed by shells from two twelve-pound lating the victims. mountain howitzers—the only time the U.S. Army Captain Silas Soule of the First Cavalry, who employed such heavy artillery against Indians in had drawn Chivington’s wrath the evening before Colorado—took the encampment entirely by when he fiercely objected to the colonel’s plans, surprise.3 Some who had heard the hoofbeats of the ordered his men not to fire. Lieutenant Joseph heavy cavalry horses at first mistook them for buf- Cramer also refused, in his words, “to burn pow- falo. While the attacking force did not greatly out- der.” Soon after the massacre, they each wrote to number the Indians, the Cheyennes and Arapahos Major Edward “Ned” Wynkoop, Anthony’s pre- were far less armed, and many younger warriors decessor at Fort Lyon, of the horrors they beheld. either had decided not to join this group or had Soule told of a soldier who used a hatchet to chop gone hunting for the buffalo they would need to off the arm of an Indian woman as she raised it in survive the winter. The majority of those remaining self-defense and then held her by the remaining were women, children, and elderly men. arm as he dashed out her brains. Another woman, The Indians reacted to the merciless onslaught after realizing that begging for her family’s lives was with a mixture of confusion and terror. Cheyenne useless, “cut the throats of both [her] children, and chief Black Kettle, the most outspoken advocate of then killed herself.” Yet another, finding that her peace with the American settlers, thought that the lodge was not high enough for her to hang herself soldiers did not realize that the camp was friendly. from a suspended rope, “held up her knees and He desperately retrieved the United States flag choked herself to death.” that former Commissioner of Indian Affairs Alfred All the dead Indians’ bodies were “horribly Greenwood had given him a few years earlier as a mutilated,” Soule continued. “One woman was cut symbol of amity and hoisted it to the top of his tipi, open, and a child taken out of her, and scalped.” along with a white banner that he had been told Soule also reported, as did others, that the soldiers would signal to soldiers that his camp was peace- slashed away the genitals of women as well as men, able. George Bent, the mixed-race son of the trader including White Antelope and his fellow chief War William Bent and his Cheyenne wife Owl Woman, Bonnet, and displayed them as trophies. The per- was in the encampment and experienced the night- petrators included officers as well as enlisted men. mare first-hand. Bent later recalled that another These atrocities took place not only in the passion highly respected Cheyenne leader, White Antelope, of battle but also in the calm of the following 6 Chapter One Map of a portion of the Sand Creek encampment drawn from memory by George Bent, who was wounded but escaped. Note the key to the numbers in the lower right. (Oklahoma Historical Society) Detail from the George Bent drawing of the encampment. (Oklahoma Historical Society) morning, as the slain Indians lay upon the now- weather, the arduousness of the march, the size and quiet killing field. Some of the dead were scalped, resistance of the enemy, the number of slain Indians Cramer stated, four or five times. The “indignities” (he put it at over 400, more than twice the actual committed on the corpses, he told Wynkoop, were figure, which was likely around 150), and the valor “things that Indians would be ashamed to do.”5 of his men. He did not note that some of the few Bent, who was wounded but escaped and subse- casualties among the troops probably resulted from quently joined with other warriors in revenge raids, chaotic friendly fire. noted, “Of course the Indians did not have time to Of the Native American victims, about three- bury their dead,” whose bodies were left to wolves fourths were women and children. Among the and wild dogs rather than attended to as prescribed older men who perished were eleven chiefs, the by sacred custom.6 Arapaho Left Hand and ten Cheyennes. In addi- In his reports to military superiors, civil author- tion to White Antelope and War Bonnet, the dead ities, and the Denver papers, Chivington boasted of Cheyenne leaders included Standing in the Water, his achievement.