DENVER – We're approaching the 150th anniversary of what is often called the most shameful chapter in our state's history.
On Nov. 29, 1864, soldiers killed more than 160 Native Americans at Sand Creek.
In remembrance of the attack, Dr. Henrietta Mann, the president of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal college, spoke at the University of Colorado Denver Monday.
She's a descendent of two survivors of the massacre. One this year's anniversary, she hopes that people will pause and take away a valuable lesson.
"[People need] an understanding of an unfortunate dark page in the history of America, but it doesn't have to remain that way, because we have to make sure that this world that our children and our grandchildren come live in is based upon peace," Mann said.
DU headed up a report on the massacre and on John Evans, the founder of the university and Colorado's territorial governor at that time.
It found that Evans' leadership failures and negative influence regarding the Indian tribes was a mitigating factor in the bloodshed.
(KUSA-TV © 2014 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
