Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run

     The Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 is one of the bloodiest days of Colorado’s past history. On the morning of November 29, 1864, the First and Third Colorado Cavalry under the leadership of Colonel John Chivington attacked Black Kettle’s peaceful camp on the banks of Sand Creek in Southeastern Colorado. Approximately 160 members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes were inhumanly massacred while peacefully camped under the United States flag and a white flag of truce. Very few individuals survived the attack and the brutal winter to tell the truth about what happened that day.
      Captain Silas S. Soule and Lieutenant Joseph M. Cramer ordered soldiers under their command not to fire. The following month Captain Soule and Lieutenant Cramer wrote to Major Edward Wynkoop and related the events of the engagement. Both the local military investigation and the subsequent congressional hearings concluded that the engagement was a massacre.
     December 22, 1864 – Chivington and the “Bloody Thirdsters” arrive in Denver and parade down 15th Street (then Ferry St.), waving Indian body parts and scalps at an adoring crowd.  The Rocky Mountain News reports:

“Among the brilliant feats of arms in Indian warfare, the recent campaign of our Colorado volunteers will stand in history with few rivals, and none to exceed it in final results . . .”
(Rocky Mountain News 12/17/64)

     Despite death threats, Captain Silas S. Soule testified. He was later shot to death near his home on 15th and Arapahoe Street.

     The annual run is the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes’ effort to remember and honor the deaths of over 160 members of their respective tribes. The annual healing run is an opportunity for both the members of the tribes and the citizens of Colorado to find some form of healing in a senseless tragedy. This event is also another way to bring about awareness to what happened at Sand Creek and to never forget and to pray that this will never happen again. In April 2007 the National Park Service formally dedicated the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic site.
     This Year’s Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run is in honor of LaForce “Lee” Lonebear who passed away last year and was a founder of the Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run.  Lee Lonebear was a fourth generation descendant of Chief White Antelope, one of the first chief’s that was killed at Sand Creek. The compassion that he felt for those that were killed, led him to become the Chairman of the planning committee for the Annual Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run and a founding member of the Fort Robinson Run. He was also a member of the Northern Cheyenne Sand Creek Committee. As a committee member he was invited to speak at congressional hearings and was instrumental in establishing the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, located in Colorado. While Lee served as Chair of the planning committee he was presented with the governor’s proclamation by Ernest House Jr., Executive Secretary of the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs. He also witnessed the signing of the Sand Creek Massacre Site Study Act of 1998, by President William Jefferson Clinton. [Read more]

Candlelight Vigil at the Colorado State Capitol on Colfax Avenue

     The 14th Annual Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run began Wednesday November 21, 2012 at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. The run is an annual event coordinated by the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana with support from the Northern Arapaho Tribe of Wyoming, the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, the National Park Service, Town of Eads, Kiowa County, the Denver organizing committee, and History Colorado to honor those killed at the massacre. This year’s event marks the 148th Anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre.   Activities associated with the run commenced with a Prayer Ceremony at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. The event concluded with a candlelight vigil on the afternoon of Sunday, November 25, on the steps of the west lawn of the Colorado State Capitol on Colfax Avenue.