On Wednesday, June 15,2005 approximately 50 graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison will be in Eads to hear a panel discussion on the establishment of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. The class, titled “The Santa Fe Trail: In Search of the Multi-Racial Past,” is traveling around the west learning first-hand about the complex, multi-racial history of the West and the lessons that the past holds for the twenty-first century.

After visiting various sites in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, the group will stop in Granada to visit Camp Amache and then travel on to Eads to learn about the Sand Creek Massacre. The focus of the visit will be a panel discussion about various perspectives on the establishment of the National Historic Site, discussed by Southern Cheyenne Sand Creek descendents Chief Laird Cometsevah and Joe Big Medicine, Southern Arapaho Sand Creek descendent William Lee Pedro, KCEDF Executive Director Janet Frederick, Kiowa County Commissioner Rod Brown, and Sand Creek Massacre NHS Superintendent Alexa Roberts.

The panel will be held from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. in the Kiowa County Courthouse meeting room and will be followed by lunch. The group will then proceed to the Sand Creek Massacre Site for further discussion. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend the panel discussion, and lunch can be purchased for $6.50 in advance or $7.00 at the door. If you are interested in attending or would like additional information, please call Alexa Roberts at 438-5916.