6 westword.com WESTWORD APRIL 17-23, 2025 | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | CALHOUN | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Monumental Moves COLORADO COULD FINALLY PAY PROPER ATTENTION TO THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE. BY PATRICIA CALHOUN On Monday, April 14, a full decade after descendants of survivors of the Sand Creek Massacre were promised a memorial at the Colorado State Capitol, the Senate unani- mously approved a resolution to place such a memorial at the Capitol; the House ap- proved the resolution the previous Friday. And at least one thing had improved in the intervening years: Colorado lawmakers now agreed to put the memorial in a space of prominence, on the west side of the Capitol facing the mountains and the land taken from the tribes, in a spot where the statue of a Civil War soldier stood until it was toppled during the George Floyd protests in 2020. A statue that once called the horrifi c events of November 29, 1864, a Civil War “battle.” They were anything but. On that day, 675 volunteer soldiers led by Colonel John Chivington staged a dawn raid on a chief’s camp on the banks of Sand Creek, the Big Sandy, where the occupants believed they were under the protection of the Army and even fl ew a white fl ag. But Chivington and his volunteers laid waste to the camp, which was largely occupied by women, children and elderly men, slaughtering at least 230 members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, includ- ing fourteen chiefs. They mutilated the bodies, taking human prizes to show off in the streets of Denver. Mean- while, the survivors ran through the creekbed, out on the plains, right out of the territory of Colorado. Today, their descendants live on reservations in Oklahoma, Wyoming and Montana. While the troops pa- raded through Denver, word of the slaughter spread. Captain Silas Soule, who’d refused to let his troops participate, sent a letter to Major Edward Wynkoop, a participant in treaty discussions, describing the atrocities in horrifying detail. Soule later gave testimony to military inves- tigators, even as Congress launched its own probes. Sand Creek became the most studied incident of the entire Civil War, and the feds declared it a massacre. Territorial Governor John Evans resigned his post; since Chivington had already resigned, he faced no charges. Soule was assassinated in April 1865 for daring to tell the truth. There’s a plaque at 15th and Arapahoe streets honoring his actions. But despite all of the investigations, when the Civil War monument was erected in 1909 at the Colorado State Capitol, Sand Creek was listed as a “battle,” not the massacre it was. Decades would pass before a new plaque was installed to give context to what really happened at Sand Creek, an explana- tion that was carefully negotiated between lawmakers, historians and the tribes. And even when the soldier’s fi gure was toppled, that plaque remained by the empty platform that still stands outside the Capitol. By then, Congress had authorized the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site outside of Eads. Descendents of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe had started their annual Sand Creek Massacre Healing Run, to honor their ancestors. The History Colorado Center had opened, then closed, Collision, its fi rst exhibit devoted to Sand Creek that looked like Walt Disney had been consulted more than the descendants, as required by Congress. And then Governor John Hicken- looper stood on the west steps of the Capitol on the 150th anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre and apologized to the tribes on behalf of Colorado. Plans for a memorial were put in motion then, with the goal of putting it near the Civil War monu- ment — but some lawmak- ers wanted it pushed to as obscure a spot as pos- sible. There were enough quibbles over the initial design that the original artist withdrew. And, once again, there were concerns that the descendants were not being heard. Finally, in November 2023, the History Colorado Center opened a new exhibit: The Sand Creek Massacre: The Betrayal That Changed Cheyenne and Arapaho People Forever. It’s told in the words of the de- scendents, agreed to after careful consul- tations. And similar collaborations led to a new design for the Sand Creek memorial, one that will show chiefs from both the Cheyenne and Arapaho, fl anking a mother with her child. And above it all, an American fl ag. ■ CALHOUN KEEP UP ON DENVER NEWS AT WESTWORD.COM/NEWS This statue was toppled in 2020; the Sand Creek Massacre monument would take its place. HISTORY COLORADO PICTURE PERFECT The night that Donald Trump’s complaints over his “purposefully distorted” portrait in the Colorado State Capitol went global, the painting was quietly removed by History Col- orado and stored in some out-of-sight spot. But that’s a mistake. It should be on full display, given the treatment of the soldier who was toppled from “On Guard,” the Civil War monument in front of the Capitol, on June 25, 2020, during the George Floyd protests. For the past four-plus years, that soldier, in all its graffi tied glory, has stood by the stairs on the fi rst fl oor of the History Colo- rado Center, surrounded by photographs and explanatory notes from historians and others that put the confl ict and the controversy in context. And opposite the fi gure, viewers can share their own Post-It opinions about what should be done with the fi gure (it’s currently slated to be moved to a spot at the Depart- ment of Military and Veterans Affairs). Why not give the public the same op- portunity to suggest what should be done with Trump? The President fired the first shot on March 23, posting this on Truth Social: “Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before. The artist also did Presi- dent Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one on me is truly the worst. She must have lost her talent as she got older. In any event, I would much prefer not having a picture than having this one, but many people from Colorado have called and written to com- plain. In fact, they are actually angry about it! I am speaking on their behalf to the Radical Left Governor, Jared Polis, who is extremely weak on Crime, in particular with respect to Tren de Aragua, which practically took over Aurora (Don’t worry, we saved it!), to take it down. Jared should be ashamed of himself!” In a History Colorado display, that gob- bledygook could be followed by a response from Polis, who had nothing to do with the portrait (Colorado Republicans commis- sioned it after raising $10,000 through a 2019 GoFundMe campaign). The governor said that he “was surprised to learn the President of the United States is an afi cionado of our Colorado State Capitol and its artwork. The State Capitol was completed in 1901, and features Rose Onyx and White Yule Marble mined in Colorado, and includes portraits of former Presidents and former governors. We appreciate the President and everyone’s interest in our Capitol building and are always looking for any opportunity to improve our visitor experience.” Then there’s the April 5 statement from Sarah Broadman, the artist herself, who’d previously painted the Capitol’s portrait of Barack Obama and used a bland photo of Trump as the inspiration for his portrait: “President Trump is entitled to comment freely, as we all are, but the additional al- legations that I ‘purposefully distorted’ the portrait, and that I ‘must have lost my talent as I got older,’ are now directly and negatively impacting my business of over 41 years which now is in danger of not recovering.” Broadman said she would not discuss the matter again, but others aren’t as reticent. “If the GOP wants to spend time and money on which portrait of Trump hangs in the Capi- tol,” advised Colorado House Democrats, “then that’s up to them.” To save time and money, they can play off what the White House did this past weekend, and get a copy of the pop-up painting now hanging in the Grand Foyer that shows a blood-streaked Trump with a raised fi st seconds after the shooting in Butler, Penn- sylvania. An Obama portrait got pushed aside for that one; at the Capitol, the new Trump masterpiece would hang right by a painting of Obama by Boardman. We’d love to see the Post-Its. — Calhoun WESTWORD Anyone you know?
