On the morning of 29th Nov, 1864, Col. John M. Chivington had led a band of volunteer soldiers to an American Indian encampment, on the Sand Creek Reservation near Eads. The troops surrounded a local Army base, Fort Lyon and arrested their officers, and brutally killed an estimated 230 people in the following hours.

Lt. Joseph A. Cramer, a solider at the massacre said, “Bucks, women, and children had been scalped, fingers cut off to get the rings on them, while begging for their lives” .

Beginning on Thursday, members of the Northern and Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes from Montana, Wyoming, Oklahoma and as far as Pittsburgh, has planned to gather at the site of the massacre to walk or run to Denver to commemorate the 152nd anniversary of the massacre.

Karen Wilde,the Tribal Liaison After the massacre, soldiers had mutilated the corpses and carried body parts back to Denver to parade them around the city for the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. The participants will follow the same route to pay homage to their ancestors.

The 18th Annual Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run, which has sponsored by the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana and the Northern Arapaho Tribe of Wyoming among others, will begin at 7 a.m. on Thursday with a sunrise ceremony at the monument in Eads.

Participants will walk or run towards Denver for the next four days. Organizers expected around 500 participants from American Indian reservations across the West.

Gail Ridgely, a coordinator for Wyoming’s Northern Arapaho tribe, after they completed nearly 200-mile journey from the national monument to the Colorado State Capitol, participants will be meeting with officials from Colorado’s state government. Participants will also present on American Indian history and issues the tribes now face.

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By Prakriti Neogi