Weekend remembrances drew 1,000 visitors to the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site to recognize those brutally killed 150 years ago on November 29.
Native participants came from the Northern Cheyenne Tribe (Montana), the Northern Arapaho Tribe (Wyoming), and the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes (Oklahoma).
Native Americans participating in the Healing Run arrived in Denver four days later to observe the anniversary at the Capitol reports The Denver Post. It was the 16th year of the Healing Run. No one announced ahead of time that the state of Colorado would make an official apology for the massacre.
Dean Toda wrote:
Members of the audience wept. Until that moment I had never guessed how important it was that this apology be made, nor fully appreciated the healing power of the words, "I'm sorry."
Toda goes on to write he watched as a thousand students from East High School rounded the corner of the Capitol and literally ran into the solemn Native People who were gathered. The students were protesting the shooting of Michael Brown. The young people quickly realized the situation, and listened respectfully.
I had never imagined a link between Sand Creek and Ferguson. But it dawned on me, and on others at the Capitol, that the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" chant of the Ferguson protesters was the same message conveyed 150 years earlier by the "peace chiefs" and their followers at Sand Creek.
The powerful editorial in its entirety can be found here.