By Alexa Roberts

This is the first in an attempt to update the public on the status and activities of the developing Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.

Community Potluck Dinner and Tribal Dances

On August 8, the Northern Arapaho Tribe will be holding its 2003 Sand Creek Spiritual Healing Run in honor of Native American Troops serving in the Gulf War and Iraq. On August 7, the evening before the run, the community is invited to a pot luck dinner to welcome the runners, and in turn will be treated to an evening of dances and drumming performed by Arapaho dancers and drum groups. The National Park Service will provide smoked brisket, so please bring a salad, side dish or dessert. There are about 100 runners/volunteers expected. The dinner will be at 6:30 pm at the community center, followed by dances at the rodeo arena. We look forward to seeing you there!

Fire Grant

The National Park Service and Kiowa County entered into an agreement to provide mutual assistance in wildland and structural fire suppression through the sharing of resources. Through the efforts of Ms. Fran Pannebaker, Natural Resources Manager at Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site, the NPS was able to secure a $6000 Rural Fire Assistance Grant for the Kiowa County Fire Department. The grant will allow Kiowa County to purchase some much needed protective clothing. In turn, the county will be able to assist NPS in the event of fire on lands within the boundaries of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. The NPS looks forward to development of many more cooperative assistance agreements with Kiowa County.

Colorado Department of Corrections

Mr. Karl Zimmerman, staff member of Bent’s Old Fort, also provided invaluable assistance by arranging clean-up activities on the Sand Creek site with the Colorado Department of Corrections. A community work crew from Fort Lyon Correctional Facility, with assistance from Bent’s Old Fort staff members, Mr. Bill Dawson, and Kiowa County performed many days of service cleaning up old fencing material and debris from the Sand Creek site, helping retain its 1864 appearance. These efforts have gone a long way to preserve the reverent nature of the site to Cheyenne and Arapaho descendents as well as future visitors when the site can eventually be opened to the public.

Natural Resources Meeting

To help plan for management of the National Historic Site once it is formally established, the NPS hosted a large meeting last April to discuss natural resources conditions on the site, what the natural resource conditions might have been in 1864 at the time of the massacre, and how the site should best be managed once it is established. In attendance were resource specialists from the NPS, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Farm Service Agency, the Colorado Division of Wildlife, Colorado State University Cooperative Extension Office, Kiowa County officials, representatives of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, private environmental consultants, and landowners. The meeting was well attended and resulted in some preliminary recommendations for resources management within the National Historic Site boundaries. A summary of the meeting is currently being prepared and will be available to review at the NPS office in the USDA building.

Land Status

As reported in the July 25 issue of the Press, The Conservation Fund recently purchased 40 acres of land belonging to Mrs. Rose Anne Cass. The Conservation Fund’s donation of the property to the National Park Service brings the NPS’s total holdings within the site boundaries to 920 acres. The Bureau of Land Management has completed a boundary survey and placed monuments at the corners of all NPS lands. In addition, signs have been posted along NPS property boundaries stating that the area is currently closed to the public and that hunting is not allowed. The conveyance of the former Dawson property from the new owner, Southwest Entertainment, Inc. to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma is still in process. Updates will be provided as new information becomes available.  In the meantime, NPS is working with Kiowa County to update the Kiowa County website with current information about Sand Creek and to link with the NPS website. In addition, updated site brochures will be available shortly and will be distributed to any businesses or offices that would like to have some.

For more information on the Sand Creek Massacre Site, please contact Alexa Roberts, Project Manager, at (719) 438-5916.