Day 3: Sand Creek Massacre and Amache Internment Camp

Today is brought to you by racism. We learned about two events in American history that I didn’t know nearly enough about it. Learning about events like this, acknowledging the mistakes, and teaching others is a way to bring a small amount of justice to those who deserve it.

Sand Creek Massacre will forever be known as Big Penis Envy in my mind. After learning as much as I could in the 2.5 hours we were at the National Historic Site, including an hour lecture, and skimming the book I bought, there appears to be no other reason for the surprise attack to have occured. Colonel Chivington obviously needed to compenstate for a small dick and thought the best way to go about that was to lead his 675 soldiers to murder hundreds of peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho people, most of whom were women and children. These two Native American tribes had already been forced to move from their homes, not once, but twice though unjust land treaties that benefitted westward expansion. They had already agreed to peace and were among tribes who were actively in talks to comply to the land treaties that provided Indigenous Peoples less land, fewer natural resources, and the promise (which never came to fruition) of farm skill training. Yet, Chivington, looked down at has tiny weiner and thought “I’m not manly enough.” In his small ding dong mindset, it made sense to massacre hundreds of Native Americans. He didn’t have orders to do this and shortly after the massacre there were three investigations, one military, two congressional, and he faced no consequences even though the government condemned the event.

The next stop was equally as depressing. We went to Amache Internment Camp. I didn’t know about internment camps or the War Relocation Authority until I was an adult. I’m thankful Zoe had more knowledge from school than I ever received. 9 months after the Pearl Harbor attacks, Amache and nine other Japanese American concentration camps opened. We took a driving tour around the one square mile that housed some of the 100,000+ people who were relocated. Throughout the tour we listened to accounts of life in the camp from the downloaded audio tour. The hardships, confusion, anger were intertwined with perseverance, love, and a desire to find a new normal. We were able to get out of the car and wander in the desolate prairie, among the concrete foundations of barracks, schools, mess halls, and latrines. Although Amache is a designated National Historic Landmark, 2 US represatives have introduced the Amache National Historic Site Act (HR2497). This change in status would mean more resources (than the local high school club that maintains the site today) and preservation of the accounts of this very sad, but very important event in American history. Call your representatives today and ask them to support this bill. (Are you reading this Marie? I’ll call regardless!)