{"id":45091,"date":"2021-08-20T13:36:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T19:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/this-tribal-elder-helped-remove-157-year-old-proclamations-used-to-incite-sand-creek-massacre\/"},"modified":"2021-08-20T19:36:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T19:36:00","slug":"this-tribal-elder-helped-remove-157-year-old-proclamations-used-to-incite-sand-creek-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/this-tribal-elder-helped-remove-157-year-old-proclamations-used-to-incite-sand-creek-massacre\/","title":{"rendered":"This tribal elder helped remove 157-year-old proclamations used to incite Sand Creek Massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Rick
Rick Williams, a member of the Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne tribes, stands outside the Colorado Capitol on Aug. 17. (Moe Clark\/Colorado Newsline)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When tribal elder Rick Williams, a member of the Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne Tribes, started researching the history of his great-great grandfather, White Horse, in summer 2018, he stumbled upon a horrifying fact.<\/p>\n

He discovered that two proclamations signed 157 years ago that explicitly targeted Native Americans and incited the mass murder of at least 230 Native people during the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre had never been formally rescinded.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we wouldn\u2019t give up our land, they decided they were going to kill us however they needed to do it,\u201d said Williams, as he stood in the shadow of the Colorado Capitol on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday, alongside tribal leaders and state lawmakers, formally rescinded the two proclamations issued by former territorial Gov. John Evans during a public gathering at the Capitol.<\/p>\n

\u201cTerritorial Gov. Evans\u2019 horrific proclamation directing the non-native residents of Colorado to seek out and kill Indians is one of the many symbols from the disturbing chapter in our state\u2019s history,\u201d said Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera, who also leads the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs, during the public announcement. \u201cThe effects of that trauma have trickled down for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Various tribal leaders spoke at the gathering about the resilience of their people and how to heal from the harms of the past and build a better future. Reggie Wassana, governor of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, told Polis the \u201ctribes are going to come back to Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melvin Baker, chairman of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in Southwest Colorado, thanked the governor for helping to pass recent laws that ban the use of Native American mascots in schools and provide free state college tuition for Native students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my nine years, I\u2019ve never seen any bills come through like this,\u201d he said. \u201cI think other states can learn from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Proclamations led to mass murder<\/div>\n

The first proclamation issued by Evans in 1864 directed \u201cfriendly Indians\u201d to gather at specific locations and threatened violence against those who did not comply. The second authorized citizens to kill and take the property of Native Americans who were deemed \u201chostile.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proclamations directly led to the Sand Creek Massacre, where white settler soldiers murdered 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho people, mostly women, children and elders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great that the proclamation, or the law, was rescinded,\u201d said Donald M. Ragona, a member of the Matinecock Tribe who works with the Native American Rights Fund. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame that it took this long to do it, but it\u2019s a step.\u201d<\/p>\n

At dawn on Nov. 29, 1864, about 675 U.S. soldiers descended on between 700 to 750 Cheyenne and Arapaho people who had established a camp at Sand Creek \u2013 located in present day Kiowa County. Their camp was on a reservation established for them under the 1861 Treaty of Fort Wise, according to the Sand Creek Massacre Foundation, a nonprofit in partnership with the National Park Service.<\/p>\n

\"A
A sign that requests silence and respect stands next to a path that leads to an overlook at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site east of Eads in Kiowa County. (Quentin Young\/Colorado Newsline)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The soldiers continued their approach even after Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle raised an American flag and a small white flag signaling the tribe\u2019s peace with the United States. Two days after the slaughter, the soldiers rode \u201cin triumph\u201d through the streets of Denver, displaying scalps and other body parts, according to the foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, we didn\u2019t exist here anymore,\u201d said Williams. \u201cWhy are there no Indian reservations on the Front Range of Colorado or around the Eastern Plains? It\u2019s because one word: genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three federal investigations were initiated in the wake of the massacre, two congressional and one military, all of which denounced the actions, according to the executive order that officially rescinded the proclamations. But Evans never took responsibility for his role in the murders and resigned from his post in 1865.<\/p>\n

\u2018We wouldn\u2019t have known without him\u2019<\/div>\n

The same summer Williams was researching his great-great grandfather, state Rep. Adrienne Benavidez, D-Denver, happened to attend a lecture by Williams at the Denver Indian Center. The talk was about the migration of Native American tribes throughout Colorado, during which Williams mentioned the two proclamations that he believed were never formally rescinded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked,\u201d Benavidez said. \u201cI had never heard of it, and most people there hadn\u2019t either.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the 10 years after that, I knew a lot of Indians left the state after Sand Creek,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I just thought they were worried because of that, of being killed. But I didn\u2019t realize there was this, effectively a law, that said it was open season on Indians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benavidez brought the issue to Megan Waples, a senior attorney with the Office of Legislative Legal Services at the Capitol, who confirmed that the two proclamations were still on the books but that they were superseded by state and federal laws established when Colorado became a state in 1876.<\/p>\n

\"Jeanvieve
Jeanvieve Jerome, a 10-year-old from Colorado Springs who is a member of the Turtle Mountain Ojibwe Tribe, sits on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol after singing a traditional song before an announcement by Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday. (Moe Clark\/ Colorado Newsline)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Benavidez brought that information to Primavera and asked that the governor formally rescind the proclamations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was sometime in 2019, because (Waples) had to do the research and we had a session going on. I can\u2019t remember why it didn\u2019t go forward,\u201d Benavidez said. \u201cBut it had never gone from her office to the governor\u2019s office, to my knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that, Williams continued contacting the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cA year and a half ago, I started approaching the governor, to try to get him to rescind it, and I never got a response,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI probably sent 15 emails and phone calls and nobody cared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conor Cahill, a spokesperson with the governor\u2019s office, said on Wednesday that Williams met with the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs and staff members last year, and that it was decided that more research needed to be done before action could be taken on the proclamations. He did not say when the issue came to the governor\u2019s attention, but applauded Williams for his leadership on the issue.<\/p>\n

Williams said he confronted Polis during a bill signing ceremony in late June about why he hadn\u2019t taken action on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd (Polis) said, \u2018I don\u2019t know anything about it,\u2019\u201d Williams said. \u201cClearly, nobody, none of his aides, were communicating with him about the issue and what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the lesson is that sometimes our political leaders don\u2019t get a message about what they should be doing,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThis should have been a no-brainer. It could have been done without any fanfare whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he\u2019s grateful it finally happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had to be done because it was putting people\u2019s lives in jeopardy, whether they think it or not,\u201d he said. \u201cOur Indian people were psychologically impacted by this. So, this is just the beginning. We\u2019re going to start healing now, and as part of this healing process, we\u2019re going to try to work getting our land back.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he would like to secure sacred locations in the state, such as the site of the Battle of Summit Springs, which took place near present day Sterling. The battle occurred in 1869 between the U.S. army and the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, led by Chief Tall Bull, who was killed in the fight.<\/p>\n

\"Gov.
Gov. Jared Polis, surrounded by tribal leaders, signs an executive order on Tuesday formally rescinding two proclamations issued by former territorial Gov. John Evans that sparked the Sand Creek Massacre. (Moe Clark\/Colorado Newsline)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe know of many, many other sacred sites that need to be reclaimed and taken care of. So, we have a big job ahead of us,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

Benavidez said although Williams wasn\u2019t recognized at the ceremony where Polis formally rescinded the proclamations, she credits him for bringing the issue to light.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have known without him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A push for reparations<\/div>\n

Sid Whiting Jr., a member of the Sican\u2019gu Lakota Tribe who works for Denver Public Schools, said he wants fewer news conferences and more financial compensation for the harms inflicted on Native Americans in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many of those ancestors of ours would have had children, and I could have been standing here next to one of them,\u201d said Whiting, who also sits on the Native American Community Advisory Board at the University of Denver. \u201cInstead, they\u2019re gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say reparations, I\u2019m talking about Isaac,\u201d he said, pointing to a student who is a senior in Denver Public Schools and will soon be attending the University of Denver. \u201cIt\u2019s about funding for our students to be able to get a proper education. And talking about getting our lands back so we can put a cultural center there and so that the direct assets that it gains go to the Indigenous communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ragona, with the Native American Rights Fund, would also like to see the lands that were stolen from Indigenous people returned to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for the tribes to start claiming and receiving the land that\u2019s rightfully ours,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Newsline, visit www.coloradonewsline.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Williams stumbled on a horrifying fact, he set out to change it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,629],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-southern-ute-indian-tribe"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45091"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}