DENVER (CN) - Thousands of descendants of Arapahoe and Cheyenne Indians who the U.S. Army slaughtered at the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado never received the land and property promised them by treaty, a class action claims in Federal Court.
Lead plaintiff Homer Flute claims the United States has treaty obligations to as many as 15,000 descendants of the victims. He and three other named plaintiffs sued the United States, the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs for an accounting of what is owed to each victim's family under the Treaty of Little Arkansas.
The Treaty, signed in 1866, came after Army Col. John Chivington mercilessly attacked hundreds of unarmed men, women and children who were encamped peacefully at Sand Creek.
The 21-page complaint portrays Chivington, a Christian pastor, as a bloodthirsty Indian-hater who defied orders so he could brutalize the helpless tribes.
After he was put in command of the First Colorado Cavalry, Chivington declared: "I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians," according to the complaint.
It adds: "On the march, Chivington also commented on how he 'long[ed] to be wading in gore' at Sand Creek. Other officers under Chivington's command talked about the scalps they would take and how they would be arranged and displayed."
On Nov. 29, 1864, Chivington and his 800 cavalrymen came upon the encampment at Sand Creek, where Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle was flying an American flag with a white flag beneath it, "signifying that the encampment was under the United States' protection and under a flag of truce," the class says in the complaint.
The soldiers ignored the chief's peaceful overtures and opened fire.
"With the United States military firing on the Sand Creek encampment, [Cheyenne] Chief White Antelope ran towards the troops and tried to convince them to cease fire. As shots rang out, the elderly Cheyenne Chief stood in the middle of the village with his arms folded, signifying that the Indians at Sand Creek did not want to fight the United States troops. Unarmed, White Antelope was shot down in the bed of the creek. The plaintiffs still have the bullet hole-ridden blanket Chief White Antelope wore when he was murdered," the complaint states.
"As the shooting intensified, the Indians attempted to flee. Many ran up the creek bed, where the bank offered some protection from the soldiers' bullets. Those Indians frantically began digging into the ground to make holes in which to hide. Approximately two hundred soldiers surrounded those Indians seeking to hide - mostly unarmed women and children - and slaughtered them.
"As the massacre progressed, the United States cavalry scattered in different directions, chasing down small parties of Indians trying to escape.
"The massacre was over by 3 o'clock in the afternoon of November 29, 1864.
"The exact number of dead is unknown, but eyewitnesses stated that two-thirds of the dead were women and children."
What followed was just as bad.
"Simply murdering the Indians was not enough; next, the soldiers began looting, pillaging, and scalping plaintiffs' ancestors' remains.
"Indians' fingers and ears were cut off and made into jewelry.