Sand Creek Papers: Documents of a Massacre (Annotated)

In one of the most shameful episodes in American history, Colonel John Chivington and his Colorado volunteers massacred a village of peaceful Native Americans on the banks of Sand Creek. Even at the time, the nation was horrified and an investigation ensued.

Here are contemporary documents that detail events leading up to the massacre, with correspondence between Governor Evans and Chivington and others. The transcripts of testimony of eyewitnesses is included, as are two letters from soldiers who refused to participate in the slaughter and wrote detailed accounts to their commanding major.

The names of Silas Soule and Joe Cramer should be known to every student of American history and yet their names are unknown to most. Like Larry Colburn, who intervened to stop the My Lai massacre in Vietnam in 1968, Silas and Cramer risked their lives to tell the true story of what they saw.

Every account of the American West provides us with another view of the westward expansion that changed the country forever.