Key points:
- The Sand Creek Massacre Interagency Task Force aims to educate, build relationships and promote healing through sustained work.
- Proposal for United Nations initiative expands conversation to a global audience.
- Sand Creek Healing Run set for Nov. 25-29, along massacre route.
Repentance must become action. Healing must involve relationships.
Those two messages were among the key takeaways when members of the Sand Creek Massacre Interagency Task Force met Sept. 28-29 in Denver for its third annual gathering.
The group brings together descendants of the Sand Creek Massacre with United Methodist leaders and agency representatives to advance the denomination’s ongoing commitment to education, accountability and healing around the Sand Creek Massacre.
The UMC and Sand Creek Massacre timeline
Nov. 29, 1864: The U.S. Cavalry, led by Colonel John Chivington, a prominent Methodist minister, conducted a surprise attack on a peaceful encampment in the Sand Creek area, killing 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho people.
1996: General Conference passed a petition supporting restitution and offered an apology. A planned reconciliation service was canceled due to time constraints, leaving Sand Creek Massacre descendants, many who had attended dressed in full tribal regalia, excluded from the agenda.
2008: General Conference committed $50,000 toward a research center at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.
2012: An act of repentance was held during General Conference and delegates passed Resolution 3324, “Trail of Repentance and Healing.” The Council of Bishops and the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History committed to fully researching Chivington, Evans and the church’s involvement in the Sand Creek Massacre. The task force commissioned historian Gary Roberts to do this work.
2016: Roberts presented his report at General Conference, which coincided with the publication by the United Methodist Publishing House of his book, “Massacre at Sand Creek: How Methodists Were Involved in an American Tragedy.“ That same year, General Conference passed Resolution 3328, “United Methodist Responses to Sand Creek.”
2024: At the 2020 General Conference held in 2024, Resolution 3328 was reaffirmed with a renewed emphasis on healing relationships and addressing consequences of the massacre. The Sand Creek Massacre Interagency Task Force is a direct result of the reaffirmation in 2024, and annual meetings began that year.Details from the day, as well as the trauma that continues, are part of the church’s history that many United Methodists don’t know, said Otto Braided Hair of the Northern Cheyenne tribe and a member of the Sand Creek Massacre Interagency Task Force. He is also a leader for other Sand Creek Massacre-related work, including the Sand Creek Massacre Memorial Committee.
In fact, it was his challenge to retired Bishop Elaine Stanovsky in 2010 during a visit to the Sand Creek site that revitalized the denomination’s work toward education and healing.
“You Methodists need to learn your history,” Braided Hair told her.
On Nov. 29, 1864, the U.S. Cavalry, led by Col. John Chivington, a prominent Methodist minister, conducted a surprise attack on a peaceful encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho people. The tribes had been told to live in the Sand Creek area and fly a U.S. flag and white flag to maintain peace. Chivington’s troops attacked the group of primarily women, children and older adults, in a murderous rampage. After eight hours of brutality, more than 230 people had been killed.
Following the murders, Chivington’s troops paraded body parts from the dead through the streets of Denver. Colorado Governor John Evans, also a prominent Methodist, failed to hold Chivington and others accountable for the atrocities. For 150 years, little was done to address the crimes of Sand Creek and the denomination’s complicity in the massacre.
The harm from that day has created intergenerational trauma, Braided Hair said, citing his own family’s struggles with depression, anxiety and alcoholism.
“What’s been passed on to us and prior generations is the generational traumas and intergenerational traumas,” Braided Hair said. “It’s a deep subject. Is it DNA, genetics? We definitely feel pain … and it can be extreme and, for some people, debilitating.”
Gail Ridgely, a descendant from the Northern Arapaho tribe, echoed Braided Hair’s remarks.
“I grew up in a home of learned behavior. Everyone drank. Everyone drank because they were hopeless and most people died from alcohol. That’s the enemy that causes dysfunction among our people,” said Ridgely, who, along with Braided Hair, has been sober for decades.
Their testimonies underscored why acknowledgment and repentance by the church alone are insufficient. Deep healing is needed.
The United Methodist Church has taken steps periodically toward acknowledging the harm and brutality, but efforts have been inconsistent. The task force’s goal is to turn the periodic work into sustained action.
At the recent gathering, Braided Hair and Chris Tall Bear, of the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes, shared about ceremonial practice, offered prayer and burned braided sweetgrass to invite positive energy. The gathered body was invited to participate in the ceremonial practice and prayer. After the healing ceremony, the participants shared a meal.
The activities took place at Trinity United Methodist Church, the site of Chivington’s memorial service in 1894. Mountain Sky Episcopal Area Bishop Kristin Stoneking, who convened the meeting, named the harm done at the location and the importance of the task force’s work.
Among the initiatives moving forward is a proposed delegation to the 26th United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, set for May 10-21 in New York. The initiative would bring the history of Sand Creek and the denomination’s ongoing work toward healing into a global conversation about Indigenous rights and justice.
The Rev. Liberato “Levi” Bautista, assistant general secretary for United Nations and International Affairs at the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, who introduced the proposal, called the plan “a big bold dream of what we can do together in New York.”
“I hope it will be perceived as something more than a programmatic endeavor,” Bautista said, “This can be a carefully discerned worship gathering, a remembrance. I hope at its heart it is an invitation to continue a journey.”
A subgroup committed to working on various components of the proposal, including assembling a joint delegation of United Methodist and Indigenous representatives, a Sand Creek history exhibit, a consultation on restorative and reparative justice, and a worship service. Global Ministries indicated funding was available to support the proposed United Nations gathering. Wespath also discussed providing financial support for travel by Indigenous representatives, while United Women in Faith offered assistance with logistics and possible meeting space in New York. The Board of Church and Society offered to work with History Colorado to bring the Sand Creek exhibit to New York.
The task force also discussed its support for the Sand Creek Spiritual Healing Run, an annual event organized by Sand Creek descendants aimed at promoting education and healing. Established in 1999, the Spiritual Healing Run retraces the path soldiers traveled into Denver following the massacre.
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This year’s event is set for Nov. 25-29, with a groundbreaking dedication of the memorial site scheduled for Nov. 29. The event has a fundraising goal of $40,000 to help cover food and lodging for participants. Wespath is providing grant funding and Global Ministries is sponsoring the event. The Mountain Sky Conference is helping coordinate logistics. Bishop David Wilson reported that the Great Plains Conference Committee on Native American Ministries also sent resources to support the run.
When Gary Roberts’ book, “Sand Creek: How Methodists Were Involved in an American Tragedy,” was published by the United Methodist Publishing House in 2016, proceeds were designated for building a memorial monument. The Rev. Rob Lee, connectional coordinator for the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History, reported that, earlier this year, more than $54,000 in book-sale proceeds have been sent to Sand Creek descendants for the monument, with an anonymous donor matching that amount.
Educating United Methodists about Sand Creek continues as a priority, the task force agreed. A dedicated resource hub at ResourceUMC.org is being planned with curation by United Methodist Communications, United Women in Faith, The Connectional Table and Archives and History.
The Rev. Bryan Tener, a descendant of Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, who represents the task force on behalf of Discipleship Ministries, proposed a pilgrimage to the Sand Creek Massacre site in 2027. Preparation could include a book study and conversations about generational trauma, Tener suggested. Braided Hair suggested the pilgrimage also may include Denver, which was a key site for hostility surrounding the massacre.
The United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race is developing a book study based on Roberts’ book with a target release date of November, which is Native American Heritage Month.
The task force also agreed to meet quarterly to maintain momentum.
With the various projects underway, the Rev. Betty Nguyen, superintendent of advocacy and community engagement for the Mountain Sky Conference and who coordinates logistics for the Healing Run, reminded the task force of its primary objective.
“As United Methodists, we like a good project,” Nguyen said. “There is a logistical piece, but we are moving at the rate of relationship.”
Caviness is team lead for agency and U.S. conference partnerships for United Methodist Communications and communicator for the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History.
News media contact: Julie Dwyer at [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
