US Acquires Land to Honor Native American Massacres

OCT 6 2022·Updated OCT 17 2022

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Image credit: aljazeera

The Facts

In a ceremony on Wednesday, US Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland announced that the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site would acquire roughly 3.5K acres of additional land in southeastern Colorado.
Al Jazeera
The ceremony occurred at the historic site alongside members of Colorado's congressional delegation and Native tribal leaders. Patrick Spottedwolf, chief of the Southern Arapaho tribe, stated, "this is great. A step forward."
Colorado Public Radio
The site commemorates Native Americans who were massacred by US troops in 1864 after John Evans, considered the territorial governor by whites at the time, called on non-Natives to "go in pursuit, kill and destroy Indians on the plains." This led to the deaths of about 230 people, half of whom were women and children.
Axios
Haaland said the move was intended to "tell a more complete history of America" and that it was his "responsibility to raise the visibility of Indigenous peoples, our cultures, our heritage, and the traumatic history that we continue to live every day."
Colorado Newsline
The ceremony comes after the US Dept. of the Interior launched a "Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force," which last month announced the renaming of about 650 places whose names contain a slur used for Native American women.
Colorado Newsline

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The Spin

Left narrative

This land expansion by Haaland, the first Native American to serve as Secretary of the Interior, is a move that should be praised for not only providing more opportunities for Americans to learn about this massacre but for strengthening the nation's education about the tragic history of indigenous peoples.

WCPO 9 Cincinnati

Right narrative

Improving our understanding of historical events is always a good thing. Still, those who use a binary brush to paint the Natives as defenseless, peaceful tribes and the American settlers as blood-thirsty predators are doing a disservice. Nothing justifies or excuses the Sand Creek Massacre, but it is worth remembering that some of the most violent eras for Native tribes came long before Europeans arrived. History deserves nuance, not political correctness.