We hear a lot about stories of 'The Wild West' but, unfortunately, most only hear the ACCEPTED versions. The history books and what is taught in schools is seldom the whole truth, if any truth at all. The victors write THEIR version and that is suppose to be taken as the truth.
American history is packed with stories of heroes fighting off the wild 'Red Man', which(according to the writers) did nothing but attack the innocent settlers without good reason. OK! That's one version...
Although it has been many years since all that passed, and I'm sure much of the world thinks the American Indians are all gone, nothing can be farther from the truth. A little bit at a time, more of the truth finds it's way to the surface. Truths, that never were meant to be known, and in time, hopefully forgotten or rendered unimportant enough for anyone to notice. If it were not for some good hearted souls that realized the Indians got the short end of the deal, in the settling of the western United States, the lies might have gone unnoticed.
In the mid 1800s a unit of the Colorado Militia, under the command of Colonel Shivington, rode down on a peaceful Cheyenne Indian village in eastern Colorado, along what is known as Sand Creek. Before attacking, he ordered his soldiers to remove their jackets, in anticipation of the blood he intended. He had already made up his mind to slaughter as many as he could. As the story goes, the Chief of the band was known as BLACK KETTLE. This particular band had made peace with the whites and he was given an American flag to fly over his village to keep them from harm. That meant nothing to Colonel Chivington. He only wanted DEAD Indians...
The battle raged, most of the village was killed; men, women and children. There were to be no survivors...
A few years ago I was driving down across a secluded back road in western Kansas and dropped down into a small ravine and as I crossed the bridge I saw some sort of home made monument off to the side of the road. I needed to take a break so I stopped in a wide spot there and decided to look. I was curious what this crude sign and park were all about. What could be so important that anyone would go to the trouble of erecting a monument; Monument to what? It was, for sure, home made; Nothing official, like the State would put up.
Was I ever surprised when I realized what some local historian had done here. I had never read anything about SURVIVORS, from the Sand Creek massacre...But apparently, many living locally had heard the story over the years, and one man decided to do something about acknowledging this lost band of Cheyenne survivors.
As the story goes, Chief Black Kettle and a few had managed to get away and made their way to this small, obscure valley, where they hid out for some time, before it was safe to move on.The sign was made of heavy, rough,sheet metal and the inscriptions were all roughly hand painted There was a list of the names of the Indians that survived. I have to say, I was amazed that this man went to all the trouble, and he was not even an Indian. Some descendant of one of the settlers that realized what the Indians had been subjected too.
In the above picture, the rough iron statue of an Indian on his horse, stands majestically atop the hill, for those who might forget. If this one man hadn't cared enough, this remembrance of a once proud people might have been lost. Obviously, it wasn't important enough to make mention of it in the OFFICIAL history books.
American history is packed with stories of heroes fighting off the wild 'Red Man', which(according to the writers) did nothing but attack the innocent settlers without good reason. OK! That's one version...
Although it has been many years since all that passed, and I'm sure much of the world thinks the American Indians are all gone, nothing can be farther from the truth. A little bit at a time, more of the truth finds it's way to the surface. Truths, that never were meant to be known, and in time, hopefully forgotten or rendered unimportant enough for anyone to notice. If it were not for some good hearted souls that realized the Indians got the short end of the deal, in the settling of the western United States, the lies might have gone unnoticed.
The battle raged, most of the village was killed; men, women and children. There were to be no survivors...
A few years ago I was driving down across a secluded back road in western Kansas and dropped down into a small ravine and as I crossed the bridge I saw some sort of home made monument off to the side of the road. I needed to take a break so I stopped in a wide spot there and decided to look. I was curious what this crude sign and park were all about. What could be so important that anyone would go to the trouble of erecting a monument; Monument to what? It was, for sure, home made; Nothing official, like the State would put up.
As the story goes, Chief Black Kettle and a few had managed to get away and made their way to this small, obscure valley, where they hid out for some time, before it was safe to move on.The sign was made of heavy, rough,sheet metal and the inscriptions were all roughly hand painted There was a list of the names of the Indians that survived. I have to say, I was amazed that this man went to all the trouble, and he was not even an Indian. Some descendant of one of the settlers that realized what the Indians had been subjected too.
In the above picture, the rough iron statue of an Indian on his horse, stands majestically atop the hill, for those who might forget. If this one man hadn't cared enough, this remembrance of a once proud people might have been lost. Obviously, it wasn't important enough to make mention of it in the OFFICIAL history books.
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