A history of atrocities against American Indians

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When Christopher Columbus and his men landed in the New World, he described in his log how the friendly Arawak Indians ran to greet them and offered food, water and gifts: “They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance… They would make fine servants… With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

He was looking for gold and he enslaved, mutilated and murdered countless Indians in his quest. He was once honored as a heroic explorer but increasingly has become a symbol of genocide and colonialism. This year, the cities of Minneapolis and Seattle changed Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day. Sixteen states didn’t celebrate Columbus Day.

Colorado was the first state to make it an official holiday in 1907. Italian Americans lobbied for this in reaction to discrimination against them by the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) elite who were supposedly 100 percent Americans. The WASPs looked down on people of southern and eastern European descent who were Catholics and Jews. They feared those swarthy troublemaking immigrant workers who were joining unions. Middle-class Italians felt they could gain respect by celebrating Columbus. Over the years, Columbus Day became a minor event.

Meanwhile, many Indians migrated to Denver. In the 1950s, the federal government created the largest movement of Indians in American history with a program to relocate them from reservations into nine cities including Denver. In 1940, 8 percent of Indians lived in cities. By 2000, their urban population had risen to 64 percent. In the 1960s, urban Indians started a militant civil rights movement.

In the 1990s, some Denver Italian Americans revived the celebration of Columbus Day. For two decades, there were fierce confrontations between them and Indian protesters.

While the controversy over Columbus Day has died down in Colorado for the time being, our state has been reviving the memory of the Sand Creek Massacre, which occurred 150 years ago.

The massacre was unprovoked. On November 29, 1864, more than 200 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho villagers (mostly elderly men, women and children) were gathered at Fort Lyon seeking a peace treaty with the U.S. government. They were living there under the protection of the U.S. Army when they were attacked by a volunteer federalized regiment of the U.S. Army. Babies were smashed onto the rocks, scalps were taken and then heads and other body parts were paraded as battle trophies to cheering Denverites.

Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle had just returned from Washington, D.C. where President Lincoln gave him a gigantic American flag. As the butchery commenced, he waved that flag and a white flag of peace. Arapaho Chief Left Hand (Niwot) told the soldiers — in English — that he was their friend before they killed him. For years, he advocated reconciliation with the white settlers and was well known in Boulder.

In 1865, two Congressional committees and one military commission condemned the massacre. That year, President Andrew Johnson forced John Evans, Governor of Colorado Territory, to resign because he attempted to cover up the massacre.

A member of Denver’s monied elite, Evans helped found the University of Denver and Northwestern University in Illinois. Two cities, a street, a mountain and a World War II battle ship were named after him.

This year, Northwestern and DU released devastating reports on John Evans’ culpability for the massacre. They concluded that he created the conditions that led to the massacre. He even invited all white settlers to kill any “hostile” Indians they came across and steal their property. In 1884, Evans reminisced about the “great benefit to the people of Colorado of the so-called Massacre” which “rid us of the roaming Plains Indians.”

DU historian Alan Gilbert played a crucial role in his university’s investigation. He is the “John Evans professor,” which is the highest honor bestowed on scholars at both DU and Northwestern. Gilbert told me he feels like “the Heinrich Himmler professor.”

It’s dangerous to only remember the positive events of the past. As James Baldwin put it, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

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