A Chief’s Village

A Chief’s Village. . Chief's Village at Sand Creek , The Cheyenne and Arapaho Village at Sand Creek was a Chief's village with 33 chiefs and headmen present. To be a chief in the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes is to undertake a responsibility so vast only the greatest and most morally restrained are considered. Chiefs were advised above all else to be peace makers. The Chiefs gathered here believed they brought their people to a place of safety. , Several of the lodges display flags – gifts from American envoys, who desired peace with the Cheyenne and Arapaho in 1860. On the morning of November 29, 1864, as soldiers approached the village and fear spread through the camps, Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle tied a white flag of truce beneath his American flag and held it aloft - a sign that those gathered here were peaceful. Despite this gesture, the soldiers opened fire. , Many Chiefs were killed at Sand Creek, some of whom include Yellow Wolf, Little Robe Sr., White Antelope, Big Man, Two Thighs, Lone Bear (One Eye), Warbonnet, Niwot (Left Hand), and Bear Robe. Some of the chiefs who survived the massacre include Black Kettle, Whirlwind, Seven Bulls, Sandhill and Little Wolf (Big Jake). , "... There was one Arapaho chief killed – Left Hand.” , George Bent (from a letter written to George E. Hyde, March 15, 1905 , “White Antelope, when he saw the soldiers shooting into the lodges, made up his mind not to live any longer. He had been telling the Cheyennes for months that the whites were good people and that peace was going to be made...He stood in front of his lodge with his arms folded across his breath, death-song: , "Nothing lives long, Only the earth and the mountains” , George Bent (from The Life of George Bent by George E. Hyde) , Caption: Cheyenne/Arapaho Peace Delegation at Camp Weld Council, 1864: Cheyenne Chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope were encamped at Sand Creek on the morning of the attack.