Part two of our series on descendants of Sand Creek:
“A group of Indians wanted to have a feeding the spirits ceremony and asked Chuck to be involved,” Sheri Bowen said.
The day before the ceremony, the group met at the Bowen home in Lamar, and they presented Chuck and Sheri with some hand-carved soapstone pipes, a colorful cloth, and shawls as a gift.
Chuck, Sheri, their son Michael, Chuck’s brother and his wife, and the Cheyenne Indians made their way to the Bowen ranch the next day—it was cold and overcast.
“They covered themselves from the head down with white fabric and passed a pipe around and smoked it. Chuck never smoked before this. It was passed around the circle until the tobacco was gone. This was early afternoon, and the very second this ceremony started, a coyote began howling. It howled throughout the ceremony. As soon as the ceremony was over, the coyote stopped. I asked the Indians what this was about, and they said the coyote is telling us this is the place where it happened,” Sheri said.
At the end of the ceremony, they left food and tobacco around the trees for the Indian spirits. They left tortillas, corn, and candy for the children.
“As we left the ceremony, two eagles flew over us side-by-side, and followed us up the creek,” Sheri said.
Sheri and Chuck later returned. “We were on the north side of the creek where Chuck found a lot of the tipi fire pits. We were close to one of them when a vivid image flashed before my eyes of a youthful Indian boy waist up and bare-chested, running, his hair blowing behind him, with an intense look on his face,” Sheri said.
See part one here: https://www.thelostsandcreek.com/index.php/2023/06/05/sand-creek-ancestors-visit-lost-sand-creek-site/
See the full story about this ceremony in our book.
If you haven’t picked up a copy of our book, you can get it at Amazon: We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site
Leave us a review and star rating at Amazon: Review
Give us a follow on Facebook: BowenHistory
Don’t forget to comment below and share this blog so anyone that would like to join our email list for blog updates can email us chuck@thelostsandcreek.com.
Thank you for sharing this story. My Dad was the Missouri Pacific Railroad agent at Eads, starting in 1916 through 1942. My Mom first posting on the Missouri Pacific was at Brandon in 1942. Since I was a young child, I had and still have a quest for knowledge about the Native American tribes in Colorado.
Bill Lawrence
Thanks for sharing this information. That’s very interesting.