By: Andrew Austen, Benton
Duncan, and Sophia Hurley
In the 1850’s, the gold and silver rush in the
Rocky Mountains brought a lot of white settlers to
the mountains to find gold or silver.
 This got in the way of the life the Cheyenne's and
the Arapahos tribes.
 This brought tension to both sides.
 It was led by John M. Chivington.
 700 soldiers attacked.
 500 Cheyenne and Arapahos at Sand Creek.
 120 Indians were killed.
 2/3 of the Indians killed were women and
children.

WHEN



November 29, 1864
When gold and silver were
a big part of white settlers
lives.
The war broke out at dawn.
WHERE

The war broke out at Ft.
Lyon in the Colorado
territory.

It happened because of the silver and
gold rush in the Rocky Mountains and the
settlers were disturbing the tribes way of
life.
A
speech barrier
 The Indians were told to report to a fort to
give up their weapons.
 If they didn’t that would be considered
criminals.
 Indians didn’t understand what the
settlers meant so they stayed where they
were which caused the attack to happen.
 It
was a heavy lose of life to the
Cheyenne Indians.
 It disrupted the way of life for the
Indians.
 A lot of the elders in the tribe were killed
in the battle.
 The Cheyenne developed into a military
society to prevent another attack in the
future.
It caused the Cheyenne to attack the
soldiers at Fort Caspar, Wyoming.
 An investigation was issued because the
soldiers said that they were attacking the
Indians for self defense.
 But witnesses and survivors said
otherwise.
 They said it was a massacre and not an
act of self defense.

 “Sand
Creek Massacre.” History Net. Weider
History Group, 12 June 2006. Web. 7 Nov.
2011.
 Weiser, Kathy. “The Sand Creek Massacre.”
Legends of America. N.p., Aug. 2010. Web. 7
Nov. 2011.
 “What Caused the Sand Creek Massacre .”
The Sand Creek Massacre. Olympus Films, 5
Mar. 2010. Web. 7 Nov. 2011.