Hickenlooper is simply wrongly promoting collective guilt and reinforcing the divide and conquer tactic of racism. Will the Native Americans now apologize for their ancestors’ savage murdering of the Hungate and Dietemann families?

I challenge Gov. Hickenlooper and the Indian leadership to meet me in front of the monument to the murdered settlers at the Kiowa, Colorado courthouse, in Elbert County anytime. I reject the governor’s apology as racist and divisive.

Dan Mason

Kiowa

Editor’s note: The Hungate family was killed in June 1864 in Elbert County, Colorado. The Dieteman killings also took place in Elbert County, but in 1868. The Sand Creek Massacre occurred in November 1864 in what is now Kiowa County, Colorado. The town of Kiowa, however, is in Elbert County.