Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : Provided by Martha via triballaw Rogers calls for massacre reparations Payment sought for Sand Creek 'butchery' By Deborah Frazier Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Lt. Gov. Joe Rogers on Monday said reparations are long overdue for the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians. "The butchery of the tribe was unprecedented in U.S. history," said Rogers at a capitol ceremony commemorating the 135th anniversary of the massacre. "The body parts of women and children were paraded through Denver as war trophies." "We have not made reparations. We ought to do what is right." Dick Wadhams, spokesman for Gov. Bill Owens, said the governor sympathized with the survivors and descendants, but had no comment on reparations. Rogers' comments came as he honored about 40 Northern Cheyenne joggers from the Spiritual Healing Run who ran the 187 miles from the Sand Creek Massacre site to Denver to commemorate the anniversary. After the massacre, the Colorado militia, under the command of Col. John Chivington and other commissioned officers, marched to Denver with the bloody trophies and displayed them on stage at a downtown theater. In the years after the massacre, Congress investigated the U.S. Army's slaughter of nearly 164 Cheyenne and Arapaho, mostly women and children, and declared the so-called battle a disgrace and promised to pay the survivors and descendants of the dead for their losses. Payments have never been made. Before Rogers and other officials arrived at the west Capitol steps, a few of the young runners dashed along the circular drive carrying a ceremonial staff wrapped with otter fur and topped with feathers. At the statue there of a Civil War soldier, where a plaque honors Colorado soldiers -- including those at Sand Creek -- one youth climbed up, touched the statue's cap with the staff and jumped to the ground. "We call that counting coup," said Pascal Shoulderblade, 20, of Lame Deer, Mont. "It means we finally made it back here to Denver. We got it done for our ancestors." On Monday, many of the runners said they ran to Denver from Sand Creek to recreate the journey that soldiers made. LaForce Lonebear said his great-great-grandfather, White Antelope, was the first killed at Sand Creek. White Antelope was wearing peace medals given to him by President Lincoln and stood under a U.S. flag. Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. <><<<<<>>>>><><<<<> Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ <><<<<<>>>>><><<<<>
