A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings with Some of the Indian Tribes

This section features a series of five letters to the editor of the New York Tribune, published in January and February 1880, an exchange of opposing views between Jackson and William N. Byers, former editor of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. The letters discuss the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 (see Chapter 3), and a recent policy adopted by the Secretary of the Interior in relation to Colorado’s Ute tribe.

In the first letter, Jackson compares the treatment of white and Indigenous aggressors. US Colonel J.M. Chivington and the members of the First Colorado Cavalry who carried out the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre were treated as heroes upon their return to Denver. However, although out of 4,000 members Colorado’s Ute tribe only 12 committed atrocities and only three to four hundred took up arms against the US government, the Secretary of the Interior denied rations to 1,000 peaceful Utes. Jackson wonders if the principle of punishing all Utes for the crimes of a handful should also apply to the citizens of Colorado who did not participate in the Sand Creek Massacre.

In the second letter, Byers replies that evidence recovered from the Sand Creek encampment proves the Cheyennes of 1864 to be robbers and murderers, so the Sand Creek Massacre “saved Colorado, and taught the Indians the most salutary lesson they had ever learned” (348).