Sand Creek Massacre

Helen was not the most popular person in Colorado with her championship of Native Americans. While researching injustices against them she read of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 in Colorado (Appendix I of A Century of Dishonor references this event). A large group of Cheyenne and Arapahoes were camped near Fort Lynch by invitation from a Major Wynkoop. He offered them protection and provisions. Instead of a safe haven over 150 Indians (the number of victims varies depending on the source) were massacred by troops led by Colonel Chivington. Most of the victims were women, children, old men and old women. Not only were they killed, but the bodies were mutilated from scalping to various body parts. Helen called these men "a regiment of demons" (Banning, p 153, 1973). Such was the outrage fueled by eyewitness accounts that there were investigations into the massacre.

One of the officers who refused to participate was a Captain Silas Soule (see photo above). His courageous act for refusing an immoral order and for testifying on behalf of the innocent victims, assures him a place as an heroic historical figure. Tragically, he was murdered several weeks after his testimony by a Chivington supporter. Ironically, none of the perpetrators of the massacre were ever punished. It was not until 1987 that a plaque was placed in remembrance of this ignoble event in U.S. history.

This was a time period when White settlers were moving into Indian Territory, with the resulting conflicts. It was also a time period when Western settlers believed in "the only good Indian was a dead Indian". That Helen would dare to defend Indians was a sacrilege for many Coloradans with memories of attacks on settlers in the area.

Perhaps too, if the perpetrators of this massacre had been prosecuted as they should have been, it might have helped prevent future massacres that have been perpetrated like My Lai.