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Indian History Battlefield Walk... “The Fighting Cheyennes” of Colorado We will visit three unique battle sites in one
day on this driving trip: 1) The massacre of peaceful Cheyenne’s under
an American Flag (1864 Sand Creek) 2) A surprise frontal attack on entrenched
cavalry and scouts by mounted Cheyenne Dog Soldiers (1868 Beecher Island) 3) An attack by cavalry and Pawnee Scouts
against a large Dog Soldier and Lakota village that was tracked from burned
ranch houses in Kansas resulting in the death of the prominent Cheyenne Dog
Soldier leader, Tall Bull (1869 Summit Springs). While attacks on Indian Villages made pulp
novel heroes in the 1870’s the colorful Cheyenne are seldom described as
mounting attacks on the army but rather as simply attacking, killing, and
pillaging smaller groups of settlers and frontiersmen making Beecher Island a
unique occurrence because it truly was a planned attack. Sand Creek inflamed
the Plains frontier from Canada to Texas with angry Native Americans seeking
revenge that led to the final defeat of
the powerful and prestigious warrior society of the Cheyenne, the Dog
Soldiers. This defeat occurred at Summit Springs and helped to create the
legend of Buffalo Bill Cody, the famed showman. We will have two nights out with the first
night lodging and dinner at Bent’s Fort Inn Las Animas, Colorado just east of
Bents Fort NHP (a must stop for all in-route so as to best understand the
Colorado frontier of the period). The second day’s final
battlefield visit is located where we can easily have motel lodging or car
camping at Sterling Colorado (or at your personal option nearer to Denver). The first evening speaker is John Carson, a
Mountain-man, Trader, and Trapper who will dine with us and speak about the
economics and Indian relationships in the 1850’s on the evening of Tuesday
May 19th (see picture below taken at Bents Fort which is a
must see as you drive in on Tuesday).
We will begin our trip
with a 9 AM walk at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site lead by
Eunice Petramala, Southern Cheyenne Park Guide (pictured below).
The ghosts at Sand
Creek will welcome us with their avatar “Cheyenne Eunice” who regularly
answers questions and hears family stories from the Cheyenne descendants of
those slain that cold November morning in 1864 on the plains west of the Sand
Creek Indian Reservation. We will stop in route for lunch at
Burlington, Colorado just before arriving at Beecher Island Battlefield on
the Arickaree fork of the Republican River just west of the Kansas Border.
This famous battle is well described in books by Dee Brown, author of “Bury
My Heart at Wounded Knee” the Pulitzer Prize winning author whose western
history output included books on “Action at Beecher Island” and “Galvanized
Yankees”. We will need to be
in high axle vehicles only for the last miles of the trip into the Summit
Springs (also known as Susanna Springs) battlefield on private ranch land
where we will be welcomed by a family member of the ranch owners. This was
the scene of a cavalry charge, bugles sounding and guns blazing much like a
John Wayne western movie such as “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon”. The pristine
battlefield is easily visualized as the Pawnee Scouts chase a courageous
Cheyenne herder into and through the village. Next we will stand where Tall
Bull’s lodge hid the body of the slain captive Susanna Allerdice. The speaker
at a Sterling Historic Society meeting Paul
attended was Jeff Broome,
author of “Dog Soldier Justice” (which detailed the sad story of Susanna) one
of the best books on the effects of this battle on the Kansas frontier after
1868 and the final settlement of eastern Colorado. Our last stop of the
day, (or if after 6 PM perhaps the first on Thursday morning) is the Sterling
Colorado Overland Trail Museum across the street from our Best Western
Sundowner lodging for the night (group rate at $79). The museum has
several excellent classic books of the Summit Springs Battle in addition to
the aforementioned “Dog Soldier Justice” and a collection of items found in
the Indian Camp. Beverly and Paul
will spend the day of Thursday in Denver visiting the museums and then return
to Durango on Friday. Paul and Beverly Dittmer will guide and Paul
will lecture. Carpooling will be encouraged. Suggested reading for this trip
is “The Fighting Cheyennes” by George Bird Grinnell ISBN 0-7394-0373-7,
University of Oklahoma Press, 1915. For those interested below are listed additional reading on these
subjects: 1) ”Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” Dee Brown
(Sand Creek) ISBN-10: 0805086846 2) “Action at Beecher Island” Dee Brown, ISBN= 10: 999750285X 3) “Black Sun: The Battle of Summit
Springs, 1869” Terry Johnston ISBN=10: 0312924658 4) “The
Stalkers: The Battle of Beecher Island. 1868” Terry Johnston ISBN-10:
0312929633 5) “Dog Soldier
Justice” Jeff Broome ISBN=0-9742546-1-4 |
