Sand Creek Massacre: Black Kettle and Left Hand (and a Giveaway)

Across the last several months, I’ve shared the history of The Sand Creek Massacre, as well as further details of some of the historical figures in my latest release—Sand Creek Serenade. Today, I’m sharing the last two historical figures—the Native American chiefs.

Black Kettle—Chief of the Southern Cheyenne

Chief Black Kettle

Around 1803, Black Kettle was born in the Black Hills of what is now South Dakota. He was originally from the Northern Cheyenne tribe but married into the Southern band where he rose to prominence. It is hard to know what his young life was like since Native American culture didn’t keep written records. It isn’t until the late 1840s or early 1850s when Black Kettle’s life was first chronicled.

In 1851, a peace treaty between the United States and eight Native American Indian tribes was signed. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 guaranteed that the Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Crow, Hidatsa, Mandan, and Sioux Nations would be given a large parcel of land, broken down into specific territories for each group, and they would receive a $50,000 annuity from the American government across the next 50 years. In return, the tribes would allow the government to build forts in their territory, allow settlers to travel the Oregon Trail unmolested, and other such arrangements. It also guaranteed peace between the eight tribes, as some were known to war between themselves.

Territory Map of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851

The treaty did its job for a short time, but by 1859, gold was discovered in the Pike’s Peak region of Colorado, and white settlers came in droves through the treaty lands in order to reach the newest goldfields. The gold seekers traipsed over Native American lands, they hunted the tribes’ game, they used their water, with no thought to the treaty or its promises. As you might expect, the tribes grew angry until finally, violence broke out. For a few years, the Indians raided settlements and wagon trains, and whites retaliated in kind. 

However, not all Indians sought violence. Black Kettle, by now a chief in the Southern Cheyenne band, had the foresight to see that nothing would stop the white man from coming, and the only hope of his people’s survival was to find ways to make peace. So came the Treaty of Fort Wise in 1861, which faltered quickly. He made his next move in 1864. Knowing that the Northern Cheyenne and some other bands of the Southern Cheyenne tribe had taken seven white captives, he approached Major Wynkoop at Fort Lyon with a proposal. He would broker the release of the white captives in exchange for further peace talks. If you’ve been following my series of blog posts these last several months, you know what happened. Wynkoop took Black Kettle and other chiefs to Denver to negotiate peace with the territorial governor and Colonel John Chivington. They were promised peace but told to camp along the banks of Sand Creek and wait for the army to come with final word of the peace agreement…and at dawn on November 29, 1864, the Army attacked a sleeping village who’d done nothing but hope for better times.

So what happened to Black Kettle in and after the massacre? During the massacre, he frantically called for his people to come to his tent and stand under the American flag and white flag in a show of surrender. The Army was not interested in their surrender that day, and very soon, everyone ran. Black Kettle and his wife raced for the river, but she was shot nine times in the attempt. Despite her injuries, both survived.

After the massacre, Black Kettle lost much respect among his people. He continued to advocate for peace, but other Cheyenne factions sought war. The militant parties got their wish. War erupted between the Cheyenne and whites. Black Kettle attempted to sign the Medicine Lodge Treaty in 1867, but this again led to his people losing land and being forced to move to Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma), which only further angered them. Tiring of the raids and battles, the Army stepped in. On November 27, 1868, almost exactly four years after the Sand Creek Massacre, Lieutenant Colonel George Custer’s 7^thCavalry attacked Black Kettle’s camp at dawn along the banks of the Washita River. This time, both Black Kettle and his wife were killed as they fled for safety.

Left Hand—Chief of the Arapaho Tribe

Chief Left Hand

Chief Niwot, or Left Hand, of the Southern Arapaho tribe, was born around 1825 near modern-day Boulder, Colorado. Just as the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush began in 1859, he and some of his fellow tribesmen came across one of the early settlers to the area. Left Hand greeted them in a friendly manner, but quickly told them to leave, that they were in traditional Arapaho lands. Stories vary on how that situation truly played out, but they all agree that tensions ran high for days between the two groups. However, one of the Arapaho shamans had a dream in which he saw a great flood cover the earth and sweep away the Arapaho people while the white men remained. Left Hand astutely interpreted the dream to mean that a flood of white men was coming and to survive it, the Arapaho must seek peace with them.

Left Hand sold out to peace then. He did all he could to learn English and other languages of the White Man. He went out of his way to greet the incoming settlers and extend friendship. And the settlers showed their appreciation with gifts, as well as naming counties and streets after the tribe.

But as we well know by now, that peace didn’t last. Just as with the Cheyenne tribe above, tensions grew. Communications degraded. Promises were broken. And in retaliation for the whites encroaching too much on their territory and way of life, the more warlike factions started raiding.

When Left Hand’s Cheyenne friend, Black Kettle, approached Major Wynkoop with the idea of peace, Left Hand was quick to agree that his people also wanted it. He participated in the peace talks in Denver and camped at Sand Creek when the army and the territorial governor said a treaty was coming.

When the massacre began on that fateful November morning, Left Hand raced from his lodge to see the attack in full swing. He was so set on peace that he would not lift a hand against the soldiers to defend himself or anyone else. Instead, he held his head high, sang his death song, and died at the hands of the Army who’d falsely promised peace…

It’s Your Turn: Both Black Kettle and Left Hand believed so strongly in peace with the White Man that they risked ridicule by their tribes and lost favor in the eyes of their people. In your opinion, were they visionaries seeing a future of peace with the incoming culture, or were they foolish for holding out for peace when they’d seen so many treaties break down already? Leave your email address along with your answer to be entered in a drawing for an autographed paperback copy of Sand Creek Serenade.

Jennifer Uhlarikdiscovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list numerous times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.

Now Available

Sand Creek Serenade

Dr. Sadie Hoppner is no stranger to adversity. She’s fought to be taken seriously since childhood when her father began training her in the healing arts. Finding acceptance and respect proves especially difficult at Fort Lyon, where she’s come to practice medicine under her brother’s watchful eye.

Cheyenne brave Five Kills wouldn’t knowingly jeopardize the peace treaty recently negotiated between his people and the Army. But a chance encounter with the female doctor ignites memories of his upbringing among the whites. Too intrigued to stay away, tension erupts with the soldiers, and Five Kills is injured.

As he recuperates under the tender care of the pretty healer, an unlikely bond forms. However, their fledgling love is put to the test when each realizes that a much greater danger awaits—a danger they are wholly unable to stop and one which neither may survive.

The Sand Creek Massacre

Happy November, HHH fans! This year has flown by, and I’m shocked we’re nearly to December.

So—I’ve been waiting a while to write this post. On November 29, just four days from now, history will mark the 154^thanniversary of the event my upcoming novel, Sand Creek Serenade, centers on—the Sand Creek Massacre.

What was the Sand Creek Massacre? Well, it was a dreadful episode on the American frontier. But to truly understand what happened and why, we need to back up a bunch of years. The trouble starts long before 1864.

The Sand Creek Massacre--a depiction drawn by Howling Wolf

I’m sure you all know how the California Gold Rush brought white settlers pouring across the western frontier in 1848 and later. In 1851, a treaty was signed between the United States and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, giving a large area of land (including portions of present-day Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas) to these two tribes. However, in 1858, gold was discovered in Colorado—and with a new influx of settlers coming to dig treasure out of the Rocky Mountains, the United States felt they must act.

Seeing that the land once given to the Cheyenne and Arapaho had new and lucrative purpose, a different treaty was proposed in 1861. In it, the Indians were asked to give up much of the land they’d received a decade earlier. A group of peaceful chiefs led by Black Kettle of the Cheyenne and Left Hand of the Arapaho agreed to the terms, despite the treaty cutting their land down to 1/13 the previous size. The agreement angered the tribes, which hadn’t been consulted. Most rejected it, choosing instead to live and hunt on the lands given them in the previous treaty. But as wave after wave of settlers came, passing right through their lands, tension smoldered on both sides.

As the Civil War broke out in our country, many men joined the army, ready to do their part for the cause. However, once the Union forces in Colorado repelled an attempt at a Confederate take-over at the Battle of Glorieta Pass (in New Mexico), the war was pretty much over in that area of the country. Oh, it still raged elsewhere, but the most action those soldiers saw was standing guard at various remote outposts to be sure no more Confederate soldiers attempted another infiltration. So, with many bodies and little real work, the focus shifted to guarding the home front from Indian attacks, since the settlers had made complaints that the Indians were stealing livestock.

The Army began attacking various Cheyenne camps in the Spring of 1864. No word was given to the Cheyenne that they were under attack—the army would just show up and begin shooting. In mid-May of the same year, Lt. Eayre took troops into Kansas and found the Cheyenne at their summer hunting grounds. While Chiefs Lean Bear and Star rode out to talk peace with the army, they were gunned down.

Things were spiraling out of control, and it looked as if a war with the Indians couldn’t be avoided. However, something unusual happened. Major Ned Wynkoop—the commander of Fort Lyon, located in southeastern Colorado—got word that several Cheyenne wished to talk of peace. Not only that, but they were willing to give up several white captives in order to grease the wheels of the peace talks. Wynkoop, who had been just as avid for war with the Indians as those above him, suddenly saw things differently. He worked with Black Kettle to elicit the release of several white captives—including a couple of women and several young children. In working so closely with the chief of the Southern Cheyenne band, he realized that there was a great opportunity for peace. In September 1864, he and several of his trusted officers at Fort Lyon left their post to take a contingent of Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs to Denver to meet with Colonel John Chivington and the territorial governor, John Evans.

Major Ned Wynkoop (kneeling--front row left) and the contingent of Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs
he took to Denver for peace talks in September 1864.

Under Wynkoop’s leadership, peace talks between the territorial government, the Army, and the Indians took place, and Black Kettle and Left Hand were told to return home, to fly both a white flag of surrender and an American flag over the chief’s tent, and await peace. The chiefs followed their orders to the letter. And Major Wynkoop returned to Fort Lyon victorious.

Or so he thought.

What he didn’t know was that his unexpected maneuver to bring the Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs to Denver for peace talks was not met kindly by those above him. Chivington and Evans had no intentions of peace. For weeks, they allowed the Cheyenne and Arapaho bands to camp—first beside Fort Lyon, and later on the banks of Sand Creek—all while expecting the Army to arrive with news of a new treaty. Meanwhile, charges were leveled against Major Wynkoop and his officers for leaving their post without permission. Major Scott Anthony was sent to the fort to remove Wynkoop from his position and begin an investigation into his actions. It wasn’t long before Wynkoop was sent to a fort in Kansas while the investigation continued.

On November 28, 1864, just days after Wynkoop’s removal, Colonel Chivington rode to the fort with 550 of his men from Denver. They arrived at Fort Lyon that morning, and by dusk, those 550 men, plus the 150 or so soldiers already stationed at Fort Lyon marched out to travel to Sand Creek and the waiting Cheyenne. Throughout the bitterly cold night, many soldiers passed whiskey around in an attempt to keep warm. By the time they reached the Cheyenne encampment before dawn, many of the soldiers were drunk. Chivington’s men from Denver had a desire for blood and vengeance, while the Fort Lyon soldiers adamantly disapproved of what was about to come. However, they were forced to participate, or they would face disciplinary actions.

Colonel John Chivington

Moments before dawn, the order was given. Fire! Seven hundred guns emptied into the sleeping Cheyenne camp—a camp that housed mostly women, children, and the elderly. The fighting-aged men had gone to Smoky Hill to hunt buffalo for their winter stores. So as dawn broke on November 29, the Indian camp was awakened to an attack of monumental proportions. The Cheyenne and Arapaho people burst from their tents in various states of dress and were forced to run for their lives. Many died in the first moments. Those who were fortunate enough to make it to the sand dunes along the creek did their best to hide. But the army had brought several cannons with them, and the cannons were fired into the dunes. 

Eye-witness accounts say that the drunken soldiers used young toddlers who’d been separated from their families for target practice and others cut the unborn babies from expectant mothers’ wombs. The bodies of the dead Indians were mutilated—fingers and ears cut off to get to the rings/earrings they wore, as well as for trophies. 

Somewhere between 60 and 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho died that day, while only 52 soldiers suffered injuries. Many of the wounded were forced to hide until dark—in frigid temperatures while wearing either little-to-no clothing or wet clothing, since they waded through Sand Creek in their attempts to reach safety. Those who did survive traveled through the night in below-freezing temperatures on foot to Smoky Hill, a day’s travel away, to reach the men who had gone to hunt. Only then did they begin to get the medical help they desperately needed.

Colonel Chivington and his men returned to Fort Lyon and attempted to spin the massacre as vindication for the various attacks the Indians had committed against the settlers and Army. Chivington and his 550 men returned to Denver and paraded themselves through the streets as mighty victors. However, it didn’t take long before the truth began to leak out and the population of Colorado Territory and beyond grew horrified and angry at the atrocities committed against the defenseless camp.

Starting in January, I’ll tell you more about the individuals involved in this terrible event—who they were, where they came from, and where they ended up afterward, so please look for my future posts on the topic.

It’s Your Turn: Have you heard of the Sand Creek Massacre? Where did you learn about it—from school as a child or later in life?

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list numerous times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.

The Mail-Order Brides Collection

What kind of woman would answer an advertisement and marry a stranger?

Escape into the history of the American West along with nine couples whose relationships begin with advertisements for mail-order brides. Placing their dreams for new beginnings in the hands of a stranger, will each bride be disappointed, or will some find true love?

The Brigand and the Bride by Jennifer Uhlarik

(2018 Selah Award Winner—Western Category)
1876, Arizona
Jolie Hilliard weds a stranger to flee her outlaw family but discovers her groom is an escaped prisoner. Will she ever find happiness on the right side of the law?