What is it about?
Louis Kraft reconstructs the horrific 1864 Sand Creek Massacre by Colorado cavalrymen against Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne--mostly women and children--who at the time were living in peace with the United States. Kraft breaks down the story to the minutest of details (including his own maps) and presents the context and backstory as well as its aftermath. The book offers a rich portrait of white-Indigenous relations spanning several decades in what would become the states of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. In an epilogue, he notes the massacre's devastating cultural legacy for Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho. This is not a simple story of good versus evil, however, and the book details the complexities among white settler and Indigenous communities, including political tensions in Colorado Territory between Union and Confederate sympathizers. One of the book's major takeaways is that local relationships between whites and Indians were not purely conflictual: there were people on both sides who tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to foster cooperation and coexistence.
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Why is it important?
Sand Creek was a brutal and unrelenting slaughter, with ordinary men committing some of the most heinous crimes imaginable. Yet many Americans have never heard of it, and fewer still know of its backstory or its long-term impact on Indigenous peoples. This is an important, insightful, and educational contribution to America's understanding of its own history.
Perspectives
We need to acknowledge and remember our country’s history—including its darkest moments. Such is the duty of a mature democracy. One thing becomes clear after reading Sand Creek and the Tragic End of a Lifeway: not only was the conflict between Plains Indians and the United States uneven in terms of capacities, but it was also uneven in intent. The Cheyenne and Arapaho wanted to maintain their way of life on some part of their traditional lands—and many were even willing to adapt to "white ways" on their land—whereas the US government and American settlers had no intention whatsoever of allowing that to happen. They wanted the land, and nothing would stop them from taking it.
Pierre Atlas
O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Sand Creek and the Tragic End of a Lifeway by Louis Kraft, Great Plains Quarterly, January 2021, Project Muse,
DOI: 10.1353/gpq.2021.0016.
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