Series: Understanding Sand Creek

The background of the Sand Creek Massacre lay in a whirlwind of events and issues registered by the ongoing Civil War in the East and West. Perhaps most importantly, the causes of the Sand Creek Massacre lay in the irresistible momentum of Manifest Destiny-the United States' objective to establish dominance over the lands between the Mississippi River and the Pacific coast. The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site was established in 2007, the culmination of a decade-long process.

• Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site

  Article 1: The Road to Sand Creek

  Learn more about the background of the Sand Creek Massacre. Perhaps most importantly, the causes of the Sand Creek Massacre lay in the irresistible momentum of Manifest Destiny-the United States' objective to establish dominance over the lands between the Mississippi River and the Pacific coast. Read more

• Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site

  Article 2: Overview of the Sand Creek Massacre

  At dawn on November 29, 1864, approximately 675 U.S. volunteer soldiers commanded by Colonel John M. Chivington attacked a village of about 700 Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians along Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado Territory. Read more

• Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site

  Article 3: Legacies of Sand Creek

  Despite the catastrophe that had befallen the people at Sand Creek, the Cheyenne and Arapaho nations survived. The stunned survivors related the nightmare that occurred along what they called the Little Dry River to their stunned audience in the camps on the Smoky Hill River. Challenges to Native people continued into the 20th Century leading to the eventual establishment of a unit of the National Park System at Sand Creek. Read more