Remember Sand Creek

On the 160th anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre, United Methodists must remember our commitments to repent and repair

by Tara Barnes

On November 29, 1864, Methodist pastor Colonel John Milton Chivington led the brutal slaughter of more than 200 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho encamped at Sand Creek in Colorado Territory. This massacre, of mostly women and children, was enabled by prominent Methodist Governor John Evans. For more than a century the church failed to condemn the massacre, and these men were never held accountable. Many United Methodists do not know this history.

In 1996, the United Methodist General Conference passed the petition “Support Restitution to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma for the Sand Creek Massacre” and offered an apology to the Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples, doing both without fully consulting those most affected. A service of reconciliation was also cut from the proceedings.

In 2008, the General Conference committed $50,000 to a research center at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site with the resolution “Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site support.” In 2012, an act of repentance was held, and delegates passed Resolution 3324, “Trail of Repentance and Healing.” The Council of Bishops and the General Commission on Archives and History committed to providing a full disclosure of Chivington, Evans, and the church’s involvement in the tragedy. The task force commissioned historian Gary Roberts to do this work.

In May 2016, Dr. Roberts offered his report to the General Conference, the same month his book Massacre at Sand Creek: How Methodists Were Involved in an American Tragedy was published by the United Methodist Publishing House. The General Conference also passed Resolution 3328, “United Methodist Responses to Sand Creek,” in which United Women in Faith is named.

“Trail of Repentance and Healing” and “United Methodist Responses to Sand Creek” were supported by the 2024 General Conference and remain official work of The United Methodist Church.

In November 2024, to mark the 160th anniversary of the tragedy, United Women in Faith hosted a special episode of its Faith Talks podcast focused on the Sand Creek Massacre featuring Otto Braided Hair, a Northern Cheyenne descendant, and Bishop Elaine Stanovsky, who with Braided Hair co-chaired an advisory report on the Sand Creek Massacre during the 2016 United Methodist General Conference. The podcast also featured JuDee Anderson, who worked as a high school therapist on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and whose United Methodist church in Sheridan, Wyoming, began the denomination’s relationship with the Northern Cheyenne Sand Creek descendants.

We know members of United Women in Faith are women of action, but sometimes, there are no easy answers when it comes to the work of repentance, reparation, and reconciliation.

Now is the time to listen, learn, and pray. Our work has only just begun.

The following are resources to help you learn more.