A few years after the archaeologists brought in the professional metal detectors and found the five treasure caches containing jewelry and gold solidi, they returned to Sandby Borg to excavate. As I wrote yesterday, they have little funds and a small window of time each summer to dig at the ancient ring fort. Over the past three years, they have uncovered three houses and a small part of a street. Each summer, as they arrive to work at the site, and while they are working, local people return to inform them that the place is evil, is cursed, and that the dead of Sandby fort haunt the local cemetery. When cleaning the treasure caches, it was found that the newest gold solidi, which the Romans used to pay their mercenary troops, had been minted in 478; many other gold coins found in the area are dated between 350 and 455. So the archaeologists first decided the event, what ever it was, happened around 500. After three years of excavation, they have placed the date at about 480.
During the last day of the first dig, having traced the outlines of the first house, they cleared the doorstep - and found two feet sticking out into the street. So far, the dig has found 26 complete bodies, and a few bones from young child. There are two full skeletons of children, plus the part of the third, along with 24 males. The eldest man was between 50 and 60 when he died; the youngest was about 2 years old. Every single person met with a violent end. The were all attacked with axes or swords. None of the people killed have defensive wounds; all seem to have been struck down from the rear or the side. One teenager appears to have been killed while kneeling, as the roof of the house was extremely low at the entrance, where he was killed. The older man had received a blow that shattered the back of his skull, and he fell forward across the interior fire pit. His pelvis was scorched by the flames. Under the eldest man was discovered the femur of a child about two years old. The archaeologists wonder if the child's bone was the older man's grandson...
The dig has opened three houses and a small section of street, exposing twenty-six dead. Two dead were found in the street, and they had received their death blows from the side. One of them was carrying his scrip, with gold coins inside it. The fort contains 52 or 53 houses. How many more dead will be found? Where are the women? Are there more children to be found? At that point in time, slavery was common for people, clans and groups that were conquered - a very good profit could be made from women and children in local and foreign slave trade. Why were those two (or three) youngsters slaughtered? Why was the livestock - pigs, goats, sheep, cattle, and horses - left to starve? (Stealing livestock from the dead would have been easy, and then the person stealing the stock would have been that much richer...)
Usually after a village or borg had been raided, distant neighbors would have buried or cremated the dead; food, if still edible, would have been divided, as would the livestock. Whoever found any treasure trove was either (a) likely to keep it, or (b) turn it over to his/her overlord and hope for a portion as a reward. While (hopefully) the living mourned their neighbors, they would usually be enriched, even slightly, by their deaths.
But the borg at Sandby is completely mystifying - the dead were left to rot as they lay, they were never looted, and their livestock was shunned and left to starve. It seems to be without precedent. Thatched and wooden roofs fell into buildings, covered the dead, and the accumulation of wind-blown sediment and sand did the rest. At some point in time, the rocks used in the building of the protective wall were used to delineate new fields. But the entire area was still spoken of with dread... Why? I found one sentence in one article stating that the borg had built over a Bronze Age cemetery. Was this massacre a retribution for building on the cemetery? Was this borg, possibly, the home of tax-gatherers for the overlord?
Sandby Borg's massacre in 480 is a huge puzzle today. I really hope that much more funding will be made available to the archaeologists who are conducting this dig. It's silly, but I, personally, want to know why these people and all their belongings were left to rot; and why, 1,538 years later, the place is still considered evil. How did the massacre occur? Did an enemy open the gates in the middle of the night for an uncontested killing spree? Again - why and who? Where are the women? Where are the children?
What truly happened at Sandby Borg?
Showing posts with label massacre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label massacre. Show all posts
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Friday, April 27, 2018
Once, A Long Time Ago....
Once, a long, long time ago, around the year 480, something very strange happened on the Swedish island of Oland. Why it happened is still a mystery, but even today, 1,518 years later, the native-born in the area speak of evil and curses surrounding the area, as well as ghosts haunting the local cemetery. Archaeologists began excavating the ancient ring fort at Sandby in 2010, after reports of fortune hunters with metal detectors were reported digging in areas outside, but near the old borg. The Swedish government does not fund archaeological work unless the site is considered to be in imminent danger of destruction, so funding for this dig has been small and somewhat piecemeal.
In 383, Magnus Maximus withdrew all Roman troops from Great Britain, except for a few scattered auxiliary forts. (These forts were closed in 410.) The reason was a massive push of Germanic peoples against the Roman forces in Europe. The Germanic tribes had gained the upper hand completely by 455, and ruled the entire northwest European lands. It is uncertain whether the island of Oland was under the rule of the Germanic tribes, or a local island leader, or if they were under the rule of Sweden. What is definitely known is that Scandinavian mercenaries were in the employ of Rome - men from Norway, Sweden and Denmark all were recipients of gold Roman coins for their work in the Roman Legions. From the recoveries of treasure troves - but more importantly, grave goods - it is apparent that Scandinavian warriors hired themselves out well before the Viking era.
Oland is just over 85 miles long, and not quite 10 miles wide at the broadest place. In 480, it is believed that 15 or 16 borgs were in existence. The island people fled to them for safety from sea-borne raiders. This was well before the Scandinavians were known to go a-viking - and earned themselves the name of Vikings. It is believed that most of these raids came from mainland based Germanic tribes and Danes. Most of the people of Oland farmed a little - the ground was very rock strewn in the south - fished a lot, and about half of them had a goat, sheep, a pig or two, or cattle. Horses were luxuries.
Around 400, the people of southern Oland began building Eketorp Borg. Eketorp is the only one of the 19 known prehistoric fortifications on Oland that has been completely excavated, yielding over 24,000 individual artifacts. The Eketorp fortification is often referred to as Eketorp Castle, and is a huge tourist attraction for the island. The entirety of southern Oland has been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Sandby's ring fort is more oval than round in construction. There is a small earthen berm, and then a rock wall of 13 to 16 feet was built upon it. There were three, probably four, gates that were open except when the people were threatened. In fact, the archaeologists believe that Sandby Borg itself was only occupied for a total of four months or less, due to the small amounts of trash and midden heaps. There were 52 buildings inside the borg, most built against the walls, with a few in the center with a surrounding street. Food stores for entire families were kept inside the borg in case of trouble. The borg is quite close to the shore of the Baltic Sea. I was amazed at how close the shore-line is today, but I don't know if the shore has washed away, or filled in since 480.
After the archaeologists received reports of treasure diggers outside the walls of Sandby, they hired professional users of metal detectors, and had them check out the interior of the fort. They found five "treasure caches" inside five different houses, each placed under the floor to the left of the door. The caches include gold, silver and bronze brooches, silver bells, gold rings, amber beads, glass mille fiore beads, and even cowrie shells from the Mediterranean. Also found were Roman solidi, gold coins commonly issued as pay in the late Roman empire. The solidi found on the island are distinctive, and matching dies have been found in Rome. A lot of the coins are very fresh, in mint condition, without the characteristic wear of coins that have been passed from had to hand in trade. Through these coins, there is a direct link to Rome, and later to Milan and Arles.
Apparently, the warriors brought their pay home to Oland - and 36% of the Roman solidi found on Oland were found within a one mile radius of Sandby Borg. However, with the Romans losing their empire in the northwest, the warriors of Oland would have to travel almost all the way to Constantinople for employment with the Eastern Roman emperor. Seemingly, this was not acceptable to the men of Oland. Soon, there were a lot of unemployed men, trained to war, in somewhat closer quarters than they were used to.
But what triggered the seemingly unexplainable massacre at Sandby Borg, where bodies were never buried or cremated, where easy loot was never touched, and where livestock - including precious horses - were left to die of starvation, and not taken by neighbors or family, after the massacre occurred? Why was everything left untouched? Why did awful tales grow about evil and curses and hauntings? Why do local people still shun this place 1,518 years later?
More tomorrow....
In 383, Magnus Maximus withdrew all Roman troops from Great Britain, except for a few scattered auxiliary forts. (These forts were closed in 410.) The reason was a massive push of Germanic peoples against the Roman forces in Europe. The Germanic tribes had gained the upper hand completely by 455, and ruled the entire northwest European lands. It is uncertain whether the island of Oland was under the rule of the Germanic tribes, or a local island leader, or if they were under the rule of Sweden. What is definitely known is that Scandinavian mercenaries were in the employ of Rome - men from Norway, Sweden and Denmark all were recipients of gold Roman coins for their work in the Roman Legions. From the recoveries of treasure troves - but more importantly, grave goods - it is apparent that Scandinavian warriors hired themselves out well before the Viking era.
Oland is just over 85 miles long, and not quite 10 miles wide at the broadest place. In 480, it is believed that 15 or 16 borgs were in existence. The island people fled to them for safety from sea-borne raiders. This was well before the Scandinavians were known to go a-viking - and earned themselves the name of Vikings. It is believed that most of these raids came from mainland based Germanic tribes and Danes. Most of the people of Oland farmed a little - the ground was very rock strewn in the south - fished a lot, and about half of them had a goat, sheep, a pig or two, or cattle. Horses were luxuries.
Around 400, the people of southern Oland began building Eketorp Borg. Eketorp is the only one of the 19 known prehistoric fortifications on Oland that has been completely excavated, yielding over 24,000 individual artifacts. The Eketorp fortification is often referred to as Eketorp Castle, and is a huge tourist attraction for the island. The entirety of southern Oland has been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Sandby's ring fort is more oval than round in construction. There is a small earthen berm, and then a rock wall of 13 to 16 feet was built upon it. There were three, probably four, gates that were open except when the people were threatened. In fact, the archaeologists believe that Sandby Borg itself was only occupied for a total of four months or less, due to the small amounts of trash and midden heaps. There were 52 buildings inside the borg, most built against the walls, with a few in the center with a surrounding street. Food stores for entire families were kept inside the borg in case of trouble. The borg is quite close to the shore of the Baltic Sea. I was amazed at how close the shore-line is today, but I don't know if the shore has washed away, or filled in since 480.
After the archaeologists received reports of treasure diggers outside the walls of Sandby, they hired professional users of metal detectors, and had them check out the interior of the fort. They found five "treasure caches" inside five different houses, each placed under the floor to the left of the door. The caches include gold, silver and bronze brooches, silver bells, gold rings, amber beads, glass mille fiore beads, and even cowrie shells from the Mediterranean. Also found were Roman solidi, gold coins commonly issued as pay in the late Roman empire. The solidi found on the island are distinctive, and matching dies have been found in Rome. A lot of the coins are very fresh, in mint condition, without the characteristic wear of coins that have been passed from had to hand in trade. Through these coins, there is a direct link to Rome, and later to Milan and Arles.
Apparently, the warriors brought their pay home to Oland - and 36% of the Roman solidi found on Oland were found within a one mile radius of Sandby Borg. However, with the Romans losing their empire in the northwest, the warriors of Oland would have to travel almost all the way to Constantinople for employment with the Eastern Roman emperor. Seemingly, this was not acceptable to the men of Oland. Soon, there were a lot of unemployed men, trained to war, in somewhat closer quarters than they were used to.
But what triggered the seemingly unexplainable massacre at Sandby Borg, where bodies were never buried or cremated, where easy loot was never touched, and where livestock - including precious horses - were left to die of starvation, and not taken by neighbors or family, after the massacre occurred? Why was everything left untouched? Why did awful tales grow about evil and curses and hauntings? Why do local people still shun this place 1,518 years later?
More tomorrow....
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
The First Thanksgiving and the Infamous 1637 Thanksgiving
The Mayflower, with it's group of 102 Puritans arrived at Cape Cod in September 1620. The ship had planned on arriving in Virginia, a far more temperate climate. In October, the ship sailed across Massachusetts Bay to what is now known as Plymouth Rock. Throughout that brutal first winter, most of the colonists remained on board the Mayflower, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy, and outbreaks of various contagious diseases. Only half of the Mayflower's original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March 1621, the surviving settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki native, who greeted them in English. Several days later, the Abenaki returned with a member of the Pawtuxet tribe, Squanto. Squanto had been kidnapped years before by an English sea captain, and had been sold as a slave. He learned English and Spanish, before he escaped to London, where he signed on as an interpreter for an exploratory expedition, so he could return to his homeland. English and Dutch traders had already been in contact with local tribes up and down the New England coast - and they spread contagious diseases which the Native Americans had no immunity against. The Puritans found an abandoned village near Plymouth Rock, and named it Plymouth - never realizing that the local Wampanoag tribe had named it Pawtuxet - before the majority of the native villagers succumbed to smallpox.
Squanto, previously a slave of the English and Spanish, taught the group of English refugees, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate maize (corn), how to extract the sap from maple trees, how to catch fish in the local rivers, and which plants were poisonous and needed avoidance. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the local tribe, the Wampanoag. That alliance would endure for more than 50 years, and, tragically, remains one of the sole examples of harmony between the native tribes and the European colonists.
In November 1621, after the Pilgrims' first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the new colony's allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. This feast, which lasted for three days, was what is now called the "first Thanksgiving." It was a combined celebration of the Fall Harvest and a giving of thanks to God for the groups survival for the first year in their colony of Plymouth. While no record exists of the historic feast's exact menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow (my many, many-times Great Uncle) wrote in his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a fowling mission to prepare for the event, and that the Wampanoags arrived with a gift of five freshly killed deer. It is also suggested by historians that the menu included ducks, swans, geese, seals, and lobster. Many of the dishes were likely prepared using traditional Native American spices and cooking methods. The Pilgrims did not have ovens at that time, and it is assumed that sugar was not to be had, so pies, cakes, confections and desserts were probably not consumed.
The Pilgrims at Plymouth had their second Thanksgiving celebration in 1623 to mark the end of a long drought. The drought had threatened that fall's harvest, and it prompted Governor Bradford to call for a religious fast. Days of fasting and thanksgiving on an annual or occasional basis became common practice in other New England settlements as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let's skip ahead eleven years to 1634... There are quite a few new European colonies in the area around Plymouth. The native Narragansetts and Mohicans are allies of the English at Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth and Saybrook. The towns of Wethersford, Springfield, Hartford and Winfield are established between 1633 and 1636. The Pequot tribe is being squashed on all sides, and wants to expand into Wampanoag, Mohican, Narragansett and Algonquin territories. The native tribes are contesting the control of fur trading with the Europeans. The Mohicans traded with the English, the Pequot tribe with the Dutch.
There were a series of murders and retaliations between the Pequots and both the Dutch and English. Then the Narragansett joined in, and killed an English trader doing business with the Pequots. The Narragansett, however, convinced the English that the Pequots were responsible for the death of the trader named John Oldham. War broke out between the Pequots and the European settlers. Governor William Bradford, who organized the first two Thanksgivings at Plymouth, was still the leader of the Plymouth colony.
William Newell, a Penobscot tribal member and former chair of the anthropology department of the University of Connecticut, claims that the first Thanksgiving took place in 1637, and that it was not "a festive gathering of Indians and Pilgrims, but rather a celebration of the massacre of 700 Pequot men, women, and children." In 1637, the Pequot tribe of Connecticut gathered for the annual Green Corn Dance ceremony near (what is today) Mystic. Mercenaries of the English and Dutch attacked and surrounded the fortified village; everything was burned to the ground, and anyone attempting to escape was killed. The Governor declared a public day of Thanksgiving.
Governor William Bradford, in his famous History of the Plymouth Plantation, celebrated the Pequot massacre: "Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, other run through with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enemy."
The remaining Pequots were rounded up and sold into slavery in the Caribbean. It became illegal to say the word "Pequot" in New England.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, why do Americans celebrate Thanksgiving? Please give some thought to both sides of the history. After all, several of my ancestors came to what is now the United States as refugees, and they took the land and ways of life of the native peoples.
Personally, I just thank the powers that be for family, friends, enough to eat, a roof over my head,and my two loving felines.
Squanto, previously a slave of the English and Spanish, taught the group of English refugees, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate maize (corn), how to extract the sap from maple trees, how to catch fish in the local rivers, and which plants were poisonous and needed avoidance. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the local tribe, the Wampanoag. That alliance would endure for more than 50 years, and, tragically, remains one of the sole examples of harmony between the native tribes and the European colonists.
In November 1621, after the Pilgrims' first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the new colony's allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. This feast, which lasted for three days, was what is now called the "first Thanksgiving." It was a combined celebration of the Fall Harvest and a giving of thanks to God for the groups survival for the first year in their colony of Plymouth. While no record exists of the historic feast's exact menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow (my many, many-times Great Uncle) wrote in his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a fowling mission to prepare for the event, and that the Wampanoags arrived with a gift of five freshly killed deer. It is also suggested by historians that the menu included ducks, swans, geese, seals, and lobster. Many of the dishes were likely prepared using traditional Native American spices and cooking methods. The Pilgrims did not have ovens at that time, and it is assumed that sugar was not to be had, so pies, cakes, confections and desserts were probably not consumed.
The Pilgrims at Plymouth had their second Thanksgiving celebration in 1623 to mark the end of a long drought. The drought had threatened that fall's harvest, and it prompted Governor Bradford to call for a religious fast. Days of fasting and thanksgiving on an annual or occasional basis became common practice in other New England settlements as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let's skip ahead eleven years to 1634... There are quite a few new European colonies in the area around Plymouth. The native Narragansetts and Mohicans are allies of the English at Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth and Saybrook. The towns of Wethersford, Springfield, Hartford and Winfield are established between 1633 and 1636. The Pequot tribe is being squashed on all sides, and wants to expand into Wampanoag, Mohican, Narragansett and Algonquin territories. The native tribes are contesting the control of fur trading with the Europeans. The Mohicans traded with the English, the Pequot tribe with the Dutch.
There were a series of murders and retaliations between the Pequots and both the Dutch and English. Then the Narragansett joined in, and killed an English trader doing business with the Pequots. The Narragansett, however, convinced the English that the Pequots were responsible for the death of the trader named John Oldham. War broke out between the Pequots and the European settlers. Governor William Bradford, who organized the first two Thanksgivings at Plymouth, was still the leader of the Plymouth colony.
William Newell, a Penobscot tribal member and former chair of the anthropology department of the University of Connecticut, claims that the first Thanksgiving took place in 1637, and that it was not "a festive gathering of Indians and Pilgrims, but rather a celebration of the massacre of 700 Pequot men, women, and children." In 1637, the Pequot tribe of Connecticut gathered for the annual Green Corn Dance ceremony near (what is today) Mystic. Mercenaries of the English and Dutch attacked and surrounded the fortified village; everything was burned to the ground, and anyone attempting to escape was killed. The Governor declared a public day of Thanksgiving.
Governor William Bradford, in his famous History of the Plymouth Plantation, celebrated the Pequot massacre: "Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, other run through with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enemy."
The remaining Pequots were rounded up and sold into slavery in the Caribbean. It became illegal to say the word "Pequot" in New England.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, why do Americans celebrate Thanksgiving? Please give some thought to both sides of the history. After all, several of my ancestors came to what is now the United States as refugees, and they took the land and ways of life of the native peoples.
Personally, I just thank the powers that be for family, friends, enough to eat, a roof over my head,and my two loving felines.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Sand Creek Massacre Revisited
The cold has settled in for awhile, apparently. I have much more congestion, fever and chills, a headache and I feel like I've been run over by a truck - just squashed flat and with absolutely no energy. Rosie and Remy slept much better than I did last night. At least I stayed at home yesterday and did not go to Niwot and infect the extended family... It was 12 degrees this morning - supposed to stay clear and get up to freezing before noon, with clouds coming in and causing the temperature at the beginning of the Broncos game to be in the upper 20s (then the sun goes down behind the Rockies, and everyone will turn into icicles). I am still with Rosie and Remy so far this morning - I'll go home and watch most of the Jets game with Lovey and Nedi, and return here for the rest of the day (and the Broncos game, followed by the Redskins game).
I was a little miffed yesterday that the History page listed the anniversary of "the Battle of Wounded Knee" in 1890. Battle? It was a massacre performed by the US Army; there was no battle! Then in today's Denver Post, there was an article about the descendants of the survivors of the Sand Creek Massacre (here in Colorado, at dawn of the 29th of November 1864) still trying to collect the land and monies promised in a treaty in 1867. A mixed village of Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes were camped along the dry bottom of Sand Creek - the able-bodied men (or warriors, if you wish) were out hunting buffalo, antelope, deer for the community cook pots. Colonel Chivington of Denver led several hundred men in attack at dawn. The chiefs of these tribes were known to be friendly; the Natives were flying an American flag and a white flag (to show they were peaceful) when Chivington ordered his men to attack. One hundred and sixty two people were killed on the spot - all children, women, and elderly men. Some white traders were visiting the camp; they, too, were killed; Chief Niwot (or Left Hand) was killed. There were a little over 20 survivors, who buried themselves in the sand of the dry creek, or who managed to bury back into two caves. After the Indians were killed, atrocities were committed upon their bodies; both male and female genitalia were cut from bodies and taken by the Army men as "battle trophies." A pregnant woman was shot in the shoulder, and her abdomen and womb were ripped open by knives, and the child crushed against a rock. When the US Army conducted their military hearing about Sand Creek, Chivington had retired, and faced zero charges and paid no penalties. The other, still-enlisted, men received a dishonorable discharge; but that was the limit of their punishment. - This is the kind of horrific treatment that seems to be the basis for today's mass killings - "Hey! - It's fun! I'm gonna go kill a bunch of people!"
A young man, recently returned from the Civil War, whose father was a trader and whose mother was a Cheyenne, witnessed the attack. Having no weapons, and seeing others being shot and killed without mercy, he managed to hide in a cave. This young man had been raised as a Cheyenne, in a tribal camp until the age of 7; then he was sent to a white school in St. Louis, Missouri, to learn the ways of his father and other white men. After the Sand Creek Massacre, this young man joined a band of renegade Cheyenne braves, and they pillaged and killed any white settlements or settlers they came across in Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. Several years later, the man decided to be an emissary for the local Native Americans - he did his best to record all of the "old ways" so that future generations would not forget an already disappearing way of life. He encouraged writers and photographers to visit and document the ways of the Native Americans of many tribes, and he, himself, wrote his own story. He regretted much - but what hurt him most was that he was forever branded a "half breed"; after the Sand Creek Massacre and his year with the rampaging braves, the white people didn't trust him. Because he was half white, and became an interpreter for the US Government, the native tribesmen did not trust him. He was truly a man between two peoples, and I wish I could have known him. His name was George Bent, and his father and uncle established Bent's Fort in Colorado in the early 1830s.
I was a little miffed yesterday that the History page listed the anniversary of "the Battle of Wounded Knee" in 1890. Battle? It was a massacre performed by the US Army; there was no battle! Then in today's Denver Post, there was an article about the descendants of the survivors of the Sand Creek Massacre (here in Colorado, at dawn of the 29th of November 1864) still trying to collect the land and monies promised in a treaty in 1867. A mixed village of Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes were camped along the dry bottom of Sand Creek - the able-bodied men (or warriors, if you wish) were out hunting buffalo, antelope, deer for the community cook pots. Colonel Chivington of Denver led several hundred men in attack at dawn. The chiefs of these tribes were known to be friendly; the Natives were flying an American flag and a white flag (to show they were peaceful) when Chivington ordered his men to attack. One hundred and sixty two people were killed on the spot - all children, women, and elderly men. Some white traders were visiting the camp; they, too, were killed; Chief Niwot (or Left Hand) was killed. There were a little over 20 survivors, who buried themselves in the sand of the dry creek, or who managed to bury back into two caves. After the Indians were killed, atrocities were committed upon their bodies; both male and female genitalia were cut from bodies and taken by the Army men as "battle trophies." A pregnant woman was shot in the shoulder, and her abdomen and womb were ripped open by knives, and the child crushed against a rock. When the US Army conducted their military hearing about Sand Creek, Chivington had retired, and faced zero charges and paid no penalties. The other, still-enlisted, men received a dishonorable discharge; but that was the limit of their punishment. - This is the kind of horrific treatment that seems to be the basis for today's mass killings - "Hey! - It's fun! I'm gonna go kill a bunch of people!"
A young man, recently returned from the Civil War, whose father was a trader and whose mother was a Cheyenne, witnessed the attack. Having no weapons, and seeing others being shot and killed without mercy, he managed to hide in a cave. This young man had been raised as a Cheyenne, in a tribal camp until the age of 7; then he was sent to a white school in St. Louis, Missouri, to learn the ways of his father and other white men. After the Sand Creek Massacre, this young man joined a band of renegade Cheyenne braves, and they pillaged and killed any white settlements or settlers they came across in Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. Several years later, the man decided to be an emissary for the local Native Americans - he did his best to record all of the "old ways" so that future generations would not forget an already disappearing way of life. He encouraged writers and photographers to visit and document the ways of the Native Americans of many tribes, and he, himself, wrote his own story. He regretted much - but what hurt him most was that he was forever branded a "half breed"; after the Sand Creek Massacre and his year with the rampaging braves, the white people didn't trust him. Because he was half white, and became an interpreter for the US Government, the native tribesmen did not trust him. He was truly a man between two peoples, and I wish I could have known him. His name was George Bent, and his father and uncle established Bent's Fort in Colorado in the early 1830s.
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