Project Questions

1. Based on the letter from Black Kettle and the transcript of the meeting at Camp Weld, what would the Indians at Sand Creek have expected from the white authorities in Denver and the soldiers at Fort Lyon? How would you have described their situation?
2. Review the context for the events at Sand Creek via the timeline included in this unit. What changes over the previous twenty-five years help explain the conflict of 1864? The previous five years?
3. Briefly summarize the events of November 29, 1864, including their causes, from the point of view of the following: Black Kettle and Little Bear, John Chivington, Silas Soule, Scott Anthony.
4. What is the difference between a battle and a massacre? Which applies to the attack at Sand Creek?
5. Central Question: What can the nineteenth-century controversy over the events at Sand Creek teach us about the fundamental causes for the conflicts between white and native cultures in this period?