Massacre Site Open to the Public
Cheyenne senator finally wins his Sand Creek battle.
By: Jana Bommersbach 11/01/2007
Many Old West Saviors helped create the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. Prime among them is former Sen. Campbell, who has worked for recognition of Sand Creek since he was elected to the Colorado Legislature in 1982. “The best I could do in the Legislature was get a sign erected on the highway to mark the site,” he says.
Once in Congress, Campbell sponsored a bill to create a national site and to conduct archaeological tests to correctly pinpoint the location of the massacre. Tribal oral history differed with the Park Service locations. As it turned out, the oral histories were more accurate.
Campbell’s efforts were helped by Chief Laird Cometsevah, president of the Sand Creek Descendants Association and a leader of the Southern Cheyenne tribe, and his wife, Colleen. Doing the leg work for the senator was his aide James Doyle, who now heads the National Park Service in Colorado. Campbell’s bill passed Congress unanimously. In October 1998, President Bill Clinton signed it into law.
After studies found the actual site about a mile from where markers had placed it for decades, Congress, in 2000, authorized the acquisition of up to 12,500 acres. So far, some 920 acres have been purchased and another 1,450 acres gifted. The gift land started out as private property owned by rancher Bill Dawson. He sold it to Jim Druck, another savior, who then gave the land to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. The tribes conveyed title to the Park Service.
The site is so important because of the “lessons it holds for humanity—lessons in fear and cultural generalizations and misunderstanding. It’s relative to our everyday life because it is an example of what humans are capable of when driven by panic and fear,” Sand Creek Superintendent Alexa Roberts says.
To Ben Nighthorse Campbell, the significance goes far deeper. “Every Cheyenne has an ancestor involved at Sand Creek. It’s in our blood."
For another perspective on Sand Creek as a battle, see Gregory Michno's argument. For an in-depth look on the tragedy at Sand Creek, read Linda R. Wommack's article.
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