Mochi's War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek

Colorado Territory in wasnt merely the wild west it was a land in limbo while the Civil War raged in the east and politics swirled around its potential admission to the union The territorial governor John Evans had ambitions on the national stage should statehood occur--and he was joined in those ambitions by a local pastor and erstwhile Colonel in the Colorado militia John Chivington The decision was made to take a hard line stance against any Native Americans who refused to settle on reservations--and in the fall of Chivington set his sights on a small band of Cheyenne under the chief Black Eagle camped and preparing for the winter at Sand Creek When the order to fire on the camp came on November one officer refused other soldiers in Chivingtons force however immediately attacked the village disregarding the American flag and a white flag of surrender that was run up shortly after the soldiers commenced firing In the ensuing quotbattlequot fifteen members of the assembled militias were killed and more than wounded Between and of Black Kettlersquos Cheyenne were estimated killed nearly all elderly men women and children As with many incidents in American history the victors wrote the first version of history--turning the massacre into a heroic feat by the troops Soon thereafter however Congress began an investigation into Chivingtons actions and he was roundly condemned His name still rings with infamy in Colorado and American history Mochirsquos War explores this story and its repercussions into the last part of the nineteenth Century from the perspective of a Cheyenne woman whose determination swept her into some of the most dramatic and heartbreaking moments in the conflicts that grew through the West in the aftermath of Sand Creek.