The Sand Creek Massacre

The Sand Creek Massacre has special importance to the Northwestern community.  In recent years, Northwestern students questioned the role in the massacre of university founder John Evans, who served as governor of the Colorado territory during the time of the 1864 massacre.  A 2014 report by a university-commissioned John Evans Study Committee is available here. Also, the 2014 report of Northwestern’s Native American Outreach and Inclusion Task Force is available here.

Historian Ari Kelman, who will speak at Northwestern on February 3, 2016, contends that “so much uncertainty shrouds Sand Creek that seeking an unchallenged story of the massacre may not be merely futile, but also counterproductive.”  For other accounts of the massacre and John Evans’s role, see the 2015 report of the University of Denver’s John Evans Study Committee (Evans was also a founder of that university) available here and an hour-long documentary by Rocky Mountain PBS about the massacre available here:

 

Northwestern Activities and Resources

Learn about Northwestern's research on the Sand Creek Massacre by the Northwestern John Evans Study Committee and about next steps by the Native American Outreach and Inclusion Task Force. A timeline of activities and initiatives related to Native American inclusion at Northwestern can be found here. 

To read the Provost's Office status report (February 11, 2015), click here.