Hickenlooper Apologizes for Sand Creek

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

hicksandcreek
Image via Facebook

Posted today on Gov. Hickenlooper's Facebook page – and, I imagine, on other websites as well…

Today, as runners complete the 16th annual, 180-mile Sand Creek Spiritual Healing run, marking the 150th anniversary and commemoration of the Sand Creek Massacre, I offer something that has been too long in coming.

On behalf of the state of Colorado, I want to apologize.

To the runners, to the Tribal Leaders and to all of the Indigenous people and the proud and painful legacy you represent…

On behalf of the good, peaceful and loving people in Colorado, I am sorry for the atrocity that our government and its agents visited upon your ancestors. I want to assure you that we will not run from this history, and that we will always work for peace and healing.

This is, as the governor notes, a long time in coming – too long. Thank you, Governor.

17 Community Comments, Facebook Comments

  1. I've criticized Hick a lot, but this announcement – symbolic though it may be – is one of the best things I've seen a governor of Colorado do since I've moved here.

  2. FrankUnderwood says:

    This is one apology by Hick of which I whole-heartly approve!

  3. Moderatus says:

    Not to interrupt the Kumbaya, but the United States formally apologized to the victims of Sand Creek in 1867.

    http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/che0887.htm

    It's okay to apologize again, but let's not make myths. It was determined almost immediately that the Sand Creek Massacre was wrong, not 150 years.

  4. doremi says:

    Ah yes.  But too many of our predecessors in this state didn't see it that way.

    But for Silas Soule, who the Arapaho and Cheyenne attendees honored today,

    more would have been killed and little would have been known about it.

     

  5. RangeRider says:

    Will the Indians now apologize for massacring the Hungate family in June of 1864 thus instigating the Sand Creek massacre?  How about all the other innocent settlers scalped, tortured, raped, murdered and other wise butchered?  I ask the Indians to now apologize for these atrocities as they never have and allow for spiritual healing as they claim it to be their goal.  http://www.wakeupelbert.com/indians.html  The Great Spirit will not rest until the Indians come clean on their crimes.  The noble savage is for the most part a myth.

    • Progressicat says:

      You mean these Hungates?  It seems there is some question over who murdered them.  As for the rest, the apology was made by the governor for a particular act of deceit and murder by the government and its forces.  Individual atrocities on both sides will likely always go left unresolved.

      As for claims of "instigation," they made us angry so we massacred them wholesale, hasn't been accepted as an excuse for decades.

    • Duke Cox says:

      Fuck you, you sanctimonious pale-faced motherfucker.
      Why don’t you go back to where your landgrabbing, genocidal, ancestors came from?
      rarely in human history has a race been shit upon with the wanton savagery and thoroughness visited upon American natives by Europeans.
      no apology needed or forthcoming….

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