On a quiet hilltop in eastern Colorado, scarcely distinguishable from the plains surrounding it, lies a small granite monument. Adorned with the profile of a Native American with a feather headdress, it reads “SAND CREEK BATTLE GROUND / NOV 29&30, 1864”. However, what happened here in 1864 was hardly a battle. The name of the National Historic Site containing this monument bears a more accurate name for this event: the Sand Creek Massacre. By the 1951 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe held most of eastern Colorado and…
