Tribes Want Native Statue At State Capitol To Replace One Toppled Last Summer

DENVER (AP/CBS4) - Tribal members have urged Colorado lawmakers to replace a statue of a U.S. soldier who took part in the slaughter of Native Americans during the Civil War with the likeness of an Indigenous woman. The new statue at the state Capitol would replace the one depicting a generic Union Army soldier.

It was toppled over the summer amid the national reckoning over racial injustice and the movement to remove symbols from public spaces that are tied to military atrocities against people of color, typically the Confederacy.

According to the State of Colorado website, "This statue of a Civil War cavalryman, dismounted with rifle in hand, honors the Colorado soldiers who fought and died in the Civil War. The statue was designed by Captain Jack Howland, a member of the First Colorado Cavalry." Howland fought for the Union.

The First Colorado Cavalry is tied to the Sand Creek Massacre, a dark chapter in Colorado's history. Led by Col. John M. Chivington, 675 volunteer U.S. soldiers attacked 700 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians on Nov. 29, 1864, along Sand Creek on Colorado's Eastern Plains. Over 8 hours, the soldiers killed approximately 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho, mostly women, children and elderly, as they fled their camps and hid behind rocks and shrubs.

The statue is not of Chivington, but rather a generic union soldier. Many battles are commemorated on the plaque at the bottom of the statue, and included among those is the listing of the Sand Creek engagement.

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