Several Sand Creek Healing Runs Held in 2005

The yearly tradition of Spiritual Healing Runs at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site continued in 2005.

A Northern Arapaho Run, A Northern Cheyenne Run, and a combined Run held in conjunction with the National Indian Education Association Conference, Denver CO.

Sponsors for the different runs included the tribes, the City and County of Denver, the Kiowa County Economic Development Foundation, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, Great Sand Dunes National Monument, Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site, Mr. Bill Dawson, Mr. Rod Johnson, and a number of local citizens throughout Kiowa County and the surrounding areas.

As part of the Runs, community feasts frequently take place in Eads, Colorado. In 2005 these were held at the High School and the Community Building. Additionally, the Northern Arapaho Run included basketball games between Eads High School athletes and the visiting runners.

The Runs have proven to offer tremendous cultural, historical, and educational awareness, especially for the tribal youth.  In 2005, approximately 100 runners participated, representing dozens of families.  The runners and their families traveled to the Sand Creek site from Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Montana. Some of the communities represented included Lame Deer and Busby Montana, Ethete and Riverton, Wyoming, and Canton and El  Reno, Oklahoma.

On each occasion, the runners are reminded and harangued as to the event's spiritual nature. Rather than athletic competition, the Run's are meant to commemorate and honor victims of the Sand Creek Massacre.  The great majority of runners are lineal descendants of Cheyenne and Arapaho people who were camped at Sand Creek in November,1864.  Among those running were great great grandchildren and other descendents of Chiefs White Antelope, One Eye, and Standing Water.

The runners generally depart the Sand Creek Massacre site by mid-morning and follow county roads, state highways, and interstates north and west toward Denver. The Run takes it's participants through a large section of eastern Colorado, all of which is considered, the tribes, to be an important part of Cheyenne and Arapaho ancestral homelands.

Photos courtesy  of NPS