Spiritual Healing Run Scheduled for November 25

By Alexa Roberts

November 5, 2004

The Northern Cheyenne Sand Creek Descendants from the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana announce the 6^th Annual Sand Creek Spiritual Healing Run scheduled for November 25-27, 2004, to commemorate and memorialize the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre 140^th Anniversary, "The Liberation of our Elders." The ‘Healing Run’ is also to call attention to the recent liberation and repatriation of the human remains of the Sand Creek victims.

There will be a community Thanksgiving dinner after the Spiritual Healing Run and more details will be forthcoming as soon as they are finalized.

On November 29, 1864, along the Big Sandy Creek in southeastern Colorado near the present-day town of Eads, federal troops commanded by Colonel John M. Chivington attacked a peaceful encampment under the leadership of Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle.

For protection of his people and as duly authorized and directed by the United States government, Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle raised the U.S. Flag and a white flag of truce.

Despite these flags, Chivington’s men slaughtered approximately 150 Indians, Cheyenne and Arapaho, most of whom were women, children, or the elderly.

The Colorado troops then desecrated the dead and plundered the camp. Later, they were greeted as heroes by cheering throngs in the city of Denver as they paraded the body parts of the women, children, and elders.

It remains one of the darkest episodes in American and Cheyenne history.

Over a century since the tragic event, the Cheyenne have finally begun to realize some sense of healing by honoring the memory of the Sand Creek Massacre victims through the on-going following efforts:

•The repatriation of human remains and artifacts held in museums taken during and after the massacre;

•Researching, gathering and archiving Cheyenne oral history of the Sand Creek massacre;

•Protecting and preserving the village site of the Sand Creek massacre through federal legislation the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site Act of November 7^th 2000;

•Assisting the State of Colorado in reinterpreting the Civil War monument at the State Capitol to affirm that what occurred at Sand Creek on Nov. 29, 1864 was a massacre of innocent men women and children a not a "Battle";

•Originating the First Annual Sand Creek Spiritual Healing Run of 1999 from the Sand Creek Massacre Site in Kiowa County to the steps of the state capitol in Denver.

For the last five years Cheyenne people have been returning to their ancestral homelands for healing. In a gesture of cross-cultural good will, the Northern Cheyenne cordially invites the public to support and attend the ceremonies and events surrounding the healing run and to share this opportunity of spiritual healing during the Thanksgiving holiday.

For more information or an opportunity to help contact: Otto Braided Hair, Director, Northern Cheyenne Sand Creek Office W.P.: 406.477.8026 Message Phone: 406.749.4325 email: info@sandcreek.org.

For the schedule visit: www.ncheyenne.net click on Notices.