By Mike Bowen
Co-author, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site
One of the biggest problems with labeling Sand Creek a massacre is the lack of period artifacts at the alleged massacre location.
The National Park Service claims Black Kettle’s village was camped below the bluff at what is now their Sand Creek historic site. That area below their bluff is void of period artifacts. The only items found there include barbed wire, fence staples, soda can tabs and other modern pieces.
Over two miles up the creek from there, on the Bowen family ranch, Chuck and Sheri Bowen discovered over 4,000 period artifacts.
In 1995, Chuck purchased a metal detector—he and Sheri formulated a plan and decided that since no period artifacts had been found on what was the Dawson ranch, now the NPS site, it was possible the village and fighting locations were further up the creek on the Bowen ranch.
After about two years of extensive research and searching Sand Creek with a metal detector, the Bowens started finding hundreds of period artifacts.
“I began to find a significant number of artifacts. Precisely where the square nails were, I found items on the request for goods list, including hairpins, spoons, knives, cast iron kettle fragments, tin cups, needles, pocket knives, a brass kettle, awls, water barrel hoops, and coffee mill pieces.
I found a brass kettle that appeared to have the imprint of the heel of a soldier’s boot where he turned it over and stomped on it. I also found fragments of broken cast-iron kettles. Soldiers went through the camp and destroyed kettles, coffee grinders, and other items so they couldn’t be used again.
I found tin cans, the type heavily soldered with a small hole in the center of the top of the can that had been filled with lead. There were also several sardine cans. The tin cans had been opened with a knife—can openers hadn’t been invented,” Chuck Bowen said. (We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site, page 80).
The hundreds of period artifacts soon turned into over 3,000 battle and village artifacts Chuck and Sheri found. By the early 2000s, they had found over 4,000 artifacts and stopped counting.
The artifacts Bowens were finding were consistent with items that would be in an Indian village and matched items from the list of goods the Indians received from the government. Chuck documented the GPS coordinates of the artifacts he found and took a photo of each item. The GPS coordinates were loaded into satellite imagery which shows how scattered the artifacts were.
Chuck made a discovery that could not only be from Black Kettle’s village, but from multiple tipi locations.
“The most poignant discovery was the tipi fire pits. They were about eight inches deep and eight inches across. The ash felt soft and smooth like talcum powder. I found them because they contained a piece of iron. Some of them had chunks of charred wood and some had bones from their last meal—an eerie feeling realizing the last time they burned. I marked their GPS coordinates. I found the fire pits starting about two miles up the creek from the monument” (We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site, pages 80-81).
On that bluff is a ridge, and that is where the soldiers rode up and first saw the Indian village. Contrary to the massacre story, the Indians were not camped below that bluff, but over two miles up the creek from there, per soldier Irving Howbert. His account is verified by where village and battle artifacts were found. Had the Indians been camped below that bluff, that area would have been littered with bullets, arrowheads, kettle fragments, cannonball shell fragments, the lead balls that went inside the cannonballs, and much more. But as stated prior, no period artifacts were found there.
The tipi sites the Bowens found were scattered for about three miles along the creek. Though Sand Creek is a dry creek and rarely has running water, there would have been small scattered pools of water, fed by underground aquifers. The Indians would have camped scattered along the creek, near these small pools of water.
Chuck and Sheri met two Northern Arapaho Indians, Eugene Ridgely and his son, Gail, in ‘99 during the National Park Service archaeological search.
“Chuck told Eugene about a fire pit he found. He asked Chuck to cover it up so nobody would know where it was. He did but first documented the GPS coordinates. He discovered a lot of fire pits because of the square nails or broken pieces of cast-iron kettles. The Indians received annuities in wooden crates and may have burned them leaving the nails behind. The Ridgelys were friendly people; I liked them,” Sheri Bowen said (We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site, page 182).
We now know due to the location the artifacts were found, the alleged massacre site is incorrect. The discovery of the Lost Sand Creek Site, the real location of Black Kettle’s village and running battle locations, shows the Indians weren’t hidden below a bluff where they wouldn’t see approaching soldiers. In fact, the Indians were camped where they could see the soldiers from several miles away. See Little Bear’s account on page 44 of our book, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site. It wasn’t a surprise attack as far as the Indians not seeing the soldiers coming—the Indians fled the village, per artifacts and eyewitness accounts. See more about a surprise attack here: SurpriseAttack
How can we believe any of the massacre story? It becomes a house of cards.
There are many alleged Sand Creek scholars, but they often don’t get their information from primary sources. See page 147 of Stan Hoig’s book, The Sand Creek Massacre. He has a direct quote with no attribution or citation. When he did cite his sources, he routinely cited people who were not at Sand Creek such as George Grinnell and Major Wynkoop. He even refers to Sand Creek as a river on page 146 of his book. He was a college professor, and it’s highly unlikely he would have allowed one of his students to turn in a paper for a college class not citing their sources or providing an attribution to a quote. That’s an academic felony.
Our research comes straight from eyewitnesses such as George Bent, Little Bear, and soldiers including Irving Howbert, Morse Coffin and Lant Williams. And interestingly, none of them were called to testify. During the hearings following Sand Creek, Colonel Chivington was denied witnesses. It’s possible some of them were on his list to testify. It may be why Coffin and Howbert wrote about their experience at Sand Creek, both defending it as a battle. See page 252 in our book to see more about Chivington being denied witnesses.
It doesn’t matter how much someone loves the massacre story or how much it tugs at their heartstrings, that’s not how truth works. We don’t say that to be intentionally offensive, we’re only about the truth. But sometimes the truth offends.
There were no bullets found at the alleged massacre location. They were found elsewhere.
There were no cannonball shell fragments found at the alleged massacre location. They were found elsewhere.
There were no village artifacts found at the alleged massacre location. They were found elsewhere.
Bullets, cannonball shell fragments, arrowheads and village artifacts were found on the Bowen family ranch, over two miles up the creek from the Sand Creek Battle Ground monument, that once stood on the bluff at the NPS site. In fact, no cannonball shell fragments were found in the village site, they were found on the opposite side of the creek. There was very little fighting in the village as the Indians fled before the soldiers arrived.
The fire pits are a definitive proof of tipi sites at the Lost Sand Creek Site on the Bowen family ranch. It leaves no doubt where the Indians were camped. The village would have started about two miles up the creek from the NPS site, and the Indians fled the village from there, running up the creek and in various directions. The NPS historic site is several miles down the creek from where the Indians were camped or where any action took place at Sand Creek.
The truth needs to be known, and the truth needs to be taught.
The Sand Creek massacre story was created 160 ago years to destroy Colonel Chivington. It’s now conveniently used to destroy patriotism. The goal is for people that hear the massacre claim to hate America and to be ashamed of their white ancestors.
We don’t have a dog in this fight—we’re just following the evidence and telling the truth about the Lost Sand Creek Site discovery and how that changes and corrects the massacre story. And the evidence should be what’s used to shape what is told about Sand Creek. The 4,000 plus village and battle artifacts Chuck and Sheri Bowen found at the Lost Sand Creek Site is truly a preponderance of evidence and shows Sand Creek was a running battle.
The politically correct commentary needs to be dropped for correct commentary.
We’re about truth, not a narrative. And we’re about facts, not an agenda.
Truth matters. Truth wins!
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