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Reviewed by:
  • Finding Sand Creek: History, Archaeology, and the 1864 Massacre Site
  • John H. Monnett
Finding Sand Creek: History, Archaeology, and the 1864 Massacre Site. By Jerome A. Greene and Douglas D. Scott. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8061-3623-5. Maps. Photographs. Illustrations. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xxi, 241. $24.95.

Finding Sand Creek is an expanded treatise of the National Park Service official report on efforts to locate the disputed site of the infamous Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne men and women on 29 November 1864. The study utilized a multidisciplinary approach to locate the site, including historical documentation, Indian oral history, and archaeology. Participants included members of the Cheyenne Nation with input from the Colorado Historical Society. Regional National Park historian Jerome Greene compiled an excellent overview of the history of the massacre as well as of the methodology used to locate the site. Archaeologist Douglas D. Scott has done a fine job of documenting the research, cataloging the artifacts discovered, reconstructing likely events from those discoveries, and drawing expert, scientifically based conclusions through trained eyes.

Of particular interest is the compendium of photographs taken of the artifacts and the catalog of those items in the extensive appendix. Comprehensive notes and bibliographical material complement the study admirably. The site maps illustrating artifact locations are, likewise, quite useful in reconstructing events.

The Sand Creek Massacre has always been a controversial event. It has long been disputed as to both motives and factual events, politically charged, and freighted with ethnocentric overtones. There is even debate over whether it was a massacre at all or simply a battle that included Indian culpability. The site location itself has been similarly contested, including arguments based on traditional Indian beliefs of where events occurred and even reported supernatural haunting. Currently, an area of private land north of the current Sand Creek marker, put in place decades ago, has revealed hundreds of period artifacts as well as many post Sand Creek artifacts. These items were collected by Chuck and Sheri Bowen, son and daughter-in-law of the land owner, Charles B. Bowen. Neither of the Bowens are professional archaeologists. Currently the Bowens have a website advertising private tours of the property and many observers feel the actual site of the Cheyenne village was on the Bowen property although some distance north of the so-called "South Bend" of Sand Creek location below the original marker identified by the evidence of the official study as the actual site of the Cheyenne camp of Black Kettle.

The authors speculate that evidence clearly demonstrates that the Bowen site, although an area that witnessed military action on 29 November 1864 is quite possibly the site of the so-called "sand pits" where warriors, fleeing the village, entrenched and put up a defensive stand. The property might also be the site of the slightly detached Arapaho village that was situated north of Black Kettle's camp.

No doubt the controversy will continue historically and archaeologically [End Page 847] as long as Sand Creek is remembered. But the conclusions expressed in Finding Sand Creek are drawn from extensive systematic scientific inquiry and methodologically sound investigation by professionals in the field. In the opinion of this reviewer, until further evidence scientifically proves otherwise, the conclusions must stand. Besides, we must always be cognizant of the fact that while identifying the exact locations of events like Sand Creek is important, it is less important than what actually happened there.

John H. Monnett
Metropolitan State College of Denver
Denver, Colorado
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