Guess she'd rather be in Colorado
On my way from Laramie, Wyoming to Boulder, Colorado I passed a series of signs pointing to sites related to the evocatively named Sand Creek Massacre Trail. I didn’t stop, because I really wanted to get to Colorado.
It turns out that the Sand Creek Massacre happened during the Indian wars in 1864 when the Colorado Territory Militia attacked and destroyed an entire village of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians encamped on the plains. The background to this story is, yet again, the story of lands granted to Indian tribes by treaty and then bullied, swindled or stolen back when white America realised that there was actually gold in them thar hills.
I'm glad I didn't stop. It would have made me sad and preachy. On the whole, I guess I'd rather be in Colorado.
2 comments:
I lived in Colorado once! I worked at a ski resort there (copper mountain) and I lived in a semi-adorable town called Leadville. I had an unfortunate brush with the law while I was there (which wasn't my fault at all) which led to me having to appear in the highest court in the land (as measured in terms of altitude that would be Leadville's local court). Apparently they had an ice palace there some time around the turn of the century, and there was once talk of Leadville ebing te capital of Colorado (I think). Oh, and wikipedia tells me that Oscar Wilde once went there (or near there). Hmm.
As you said, the same story over and over. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee covers many of them.
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