US Acquires Land to Honor Native American Massacres

Improve the News Foundation -

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.
  • The ceremony occurred at the historic site alongside members of Colorado's congressional delegation as well as Native tribal leaders. Patrick Spottedwolf, chief of the Southern Arapaho tribe, stated "this is great. A step forward."
  • 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.
  • 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."
  • 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.

Sources: Al Jazeera, CPR, Axios, and Colorado.

Narratives

  • Left narrative, as provided by WCPO. 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 to strengthen the nation's education about the tragic history of indigenous peoples.
  • Right narrative, as provided by Science 2.0. Improving our understanding of historical events is always a good thing, but 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 also worth remembering that some of the most violent eras for Native tribes came long before Europeans arrived. History deserves nuance, not political correctness.