The Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 remains one of the most horrific events in the history of the United States. Under the pretext of defending the growing city of Denver, Colorado, United States troops, under the command of Colonel John Chivington, attacked a camp of peaceful Cheyenne. The majority of Cheyenne warriors had left on a hunt, but the American soldiers slaughtered every Native American they could find, including women, the elderly and children. Chivington reported that between five and six hundred warriors were killed; in truth, about 53 men and over a hundred women and children were murdered. The battle has remained an ugly scar on the face of the southwest United States.

The Cheyenne subject of Don Crowley’s Sand Creek Memories pays tribute to the memory of his fallen tribesmen. This moving portrait is a memorial to the departed and a plea for peace, that we may not make the same mistake in allowing such atrocities again.