By Mike Bowen, co-author, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site
Historians and archaeologists, the Bowens, have been involved in Sand Creek for many years. Their discovery of the historic Black Kettle village site and Sand Creek battle areas deserves much recognition.
They were promised recognition by the National Park Service Sand Creek leadership in the late 90s and early 2000s for their monumental discovery that included over 4,000 battle and village artifacts. However, it was a former NPS Chief Historian that gave Bowens a tremendous compliment.
In the early to mid 2000s, Chuck and Sheri Bowen provided tours at their Lost Sand Creek Site, showing guests where many of the historical relics were found, including the cannonball area, tipi sites and running battle areas. The tours started at the Bowens’ home in Lamar where guests saw artifacts and continued at the site about 40 miles north, showing where artifacts were discovered. Chuck and Sheri often spent about seven hours giving a tour. One of the tour groups they hosted included the former NPS Chief Historian and NPS historian emeritus, Ed Bearss.
Bearss served as NPS Chief Historian from 1981 to 1994, and upon his retirement in 1995, he was given the honor of NPS historian emeritus. He was a Civil War historian and expert in that era of history—he appeared on many TV history specials.
The Order of Indian Wars was preparing for its National Assembly in 2003, and he was the keynote guest and tour guide for the group.
The OIW was scheduled to visit southeast Colorado to tour Bent’s Old Fort and Sand Creek. Their tour of the traditional site, now operated by the National Park Service (NPS), was canceled, and they were left scrambling, unsure if they could get to Sand Creek. However, if they had stopped there, they wouldn’t have seen the actual village site or battle areas. The area below the NPS bluff, where they allege the Indians were camped and killed, is void of period artifacts.
From our book, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site:
We’re going to the ‘real’ site of the Sand Creek battle – not the one the casino just bought. Recent discoveries point directly to the Bowen Ranch, and that’s exactly where Ed Bearss, and Chuck and Sheri Bowen will be taking us…even the Park Service ‘experts’ have told us that the Bowen Ranch, not the Dawson Ranch, was the site of the Cheyenne village…and that’s where we’ll be going…thanks to the scholarship of Chuck and Sheri Bowen, Jerry Russell said.
NPS historian emeritus Ed Bearss would be leading the group. He’s the premier Civil War historian, who authored many books and articles—His expertise led him to be featured on the Ken Burns specials. He wrote an inscription to us on an article he’d written for the Gettysburg Magazine. ‘To Chuck and Sheri Bowen, friends, historians, archaeologists, ranchers, hosts. With best wishes, Edwin C. Bearss 9/26/03.’
Ed Bearss, a renowned Civil War historian and NPS historian emeritus, was the first to name Chuck and Sheri as historians and archaeologists. That honor came from the best in his field.
Read the full account of the Order of Indian Wars Tour in chapter nine of our book, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site.
Chuck Bowen has spent over 50 years studying Sand Creek. He gave his first Sand Creek tour in ‘70, soon after graduating high school. After learning in the early 90s the stone monument at the traditional Sand Creek site likely marked the wrong site, he along with the assistance of his wife, Sheri, devised a plan to start looking for artifacts on the Bowen family ranch in ‘95.
It was imperative to learn about Sand Creek from eyewitnesses, as they would be the only ones that could provide descriptions of what the land looked like. Bowen was the right person for the job, and the only person that could understand and know the locations eyewitnesses described. He grew up on that part of Sand Creek, and he leased land there from his parents where he raised cattle. He knew the lay of the land like the back of his hand. No one else knows the land better than him, and no one else has spent as much time on that part of Sand Creek. He’s spent over 70 years there.
Chuck and Sheri decided that since no period artifacts had ever been discovered below that bluff, it was possible the village and events at Sand Creek were up the creek from the NPS site, on the Bowen family ranch. They set out to discover the location of Black Kettle’s village and battlefield. Sheri assisted with researching and studying eyewitness accounts. She would read accounts out loud and he would take notes.
This search went far beyond just taking notes from firsthand accounts. Bowens set up a “war room” complete with 1936 aerial agricultural photo maps that covered a wall. Another map showed distances from Fort Lyon to potential village locations. Three additional adjoining topography maps showed the NPS traditional site and all seven miles of Sand Creek that went through the Bowen family ranch, which helped identify the location of ridges and creek banks that may have been noted by eyewitnesses. The aerial maps clearly showed where three trails met, something that would prove invaluable to the Lost Sand Creek Site discovery.
There’s over seven miles of Sand Creek that go through the Bowen family ranch—it was a massive endeavor for the Bowens to narrow down places to search with a metal detector.
The Bowens’ search and discovery was not amateur work, it is deserving of an honorary Doctorate degree. Bearss was very impressed with the research and discovery Chuck and Sheri made. Their work doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Not only did the NPS Sand Creek personnel promise recognition, the NPS Sand Creek Superintendent told the Bowens they would tell their discovery which corroborates the running battle account by soldier Irving Howbert and not just the massacre claim at their Sand Creek historic site. That is yet to happen. The NPS only manages the land—the Cheyenne and Arapaho own it and get to decide the story that is told. The false massacre story is paid for by taxpayer money.
Through discovery, the Bowens learned that the Sand Creek eyewitnesses weren’t just accurate with their land descriptions, they were accurate with their account of events.
The massacre claim alleges the Indians were camped below that bluff and the soldiers rode around the village and killed the Indians as they awoke and came out of their tipis. It seemed off to the Bowens the alleged massacre location was void of period artifacts. It’s well documented that about 700 soldiers with the 1st Colorado Cavalry and 3rd Colorado Cavalry were at Sand Creek. That many soldiers firing guns would have left hundreds of bullets, fired and unfired. It’s not that hundreds of bullets were picked up by people over the years. It’s that no guns were fired there and no Indians were camped there.
Artifacts do not lie. The location artifacts were found tells a complete story.
We’re just following the evidence. Before the discovery, the Bowens supported the massacre claim. The discovery provided truth and clarity to what happened at Sand Creek. The research opened up a new understanding to why soldiers went to Sand Creek and also provides clarity to what happened.
Hundreds of bullets were found, but not at the alleged massacre location. They were found starting nearly two miles up the creek from the NPS bluff. And they were found scattered over several miles, not in a small congested area. It wasn’t just bullets found scattered over several miles, it was also arrowheads and items likely used as tomahawks. It’s important to note that very little fighting took place in the village. The village area on the Bowen family ranch was thoroughly searched with metal detectors and only one tipi site had a lot of bullets around it. Many Indians that didn’t flee went to Black Kettle’s tipi, and reports state soldiers fired toward that tipi. Black Kettle wasn’t killed or injured at Sand Creek, but his wife was injured. He thought she was killed and fled the tipi, but he later returned to find that she survived (Bent to Hyde, 4-25-1906).
The spread out battle artifacts tell a clear story of a running battle, not a massacre. If the soldiers circled around the village and shot all the Indians as they came out of their tipis, Black Kettle would have at least been injured, but likely killed.
Village artifacts include kettle fragments, coffee grinder pieces, knives, and much more. Many tipi sites were found because of small pieces of metal in the fire pits like square nails, and the ground felt like talcum powder. It’s likely the Indians burned their annuity crates. Had it not been for the nails, the fire pits likely wouldn’t have been found.
There’s only one area where cannonball artifacts were found, across the creek to the south from the village site. The soldiers would have had a short window to fire cannons as they are only effective when there’s a large amount of the enemy in a clustered area. Soldiers would have fired the cannons at the start of the battle as Indians were fleeing from the village. They weren’t found in any other battle area.
Skirmish areas were found which shows a fight between soldiers and warriors. There were over 70 soldier casualties at Sand Creek. If the soldiers rode around the village and killed unarmed and defenseless Indians as they came out of their tipis, that would not have resulted in soldier casualties. It’s also well documented that Sand Creek lasted from just before the sun came up into late afternoon. The Indians saw the soldiers coming from several miles away and fled the village—soldiers chased after fleeing Indians which created skirmish areas. George Bent was half Cheyenne and lived among them as a warrior. Nearly forty years after Sand Creek, while working as an Indian agent in Oklahoma, Bent wrote letters to historians, answering their questions about his Cheyenne life and time at Sand Creek. He documented Little Bear’s account of seeing the soldiers several miles away. Cheyenne warrior, Little Bear, saw the soldiers over two miles away as a “long black line,” per Bent (Bent to Hyde, 4-14-1906).
One skirmish area was found that showed a fight between a soldier and a warrior who was camped further up the creek from the village. Read about Robert McFarland in chapter six of our book.
There is no physical evidence of a massacre. There can’t be a massacre location without evidence. It would have been littered with hundreds of bullets and cannon fire. Nothing was found there. The massacre claim alleges the Indians were unarmed and couldn’t defend themselves. Artifacts prove they were armed, and bullets wouldn’t only be from soldiers. Indians were also armed with guns (Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War 1865, Thirty-Eighth Congress, Second Session, Congress Of The United States, In The House Of Representatives, January 10, 1865).
The truth about Sand Creek is eye opening.
Knowledge is power. Learn more about the truth on this website and in our book. All of our conclusions are based on over 4,000 battle and village artifacts found, the location the artifacts were found, and on eyewitness accounts which line up with the artifact discovery.
You can see a sampling of Sand Creek artifact photos here on our website by clicking on the Artifacts tab at the top right, or by clicking on the link here: Artifacts.
Over 100 photos of artifacts and maps are in our book, detailing many of the artifacts found and where. There are also maps showing how far artifacts found in relation to the NPS site. There’s no refuting this discovery. But it will take more than us to get the truth out there. We have been silenced and minimized. One thing is certain, it’s truth that gets silenced. Please share this post on Facebook and through email.
The Sand Creek massacre story was created as a political attack on Colonel Chivington, without source material to back it up. The massacre story is now used to destroy patriotism—it’s the origin of the anti white soldier narrative. The goal is for people that visit the NPS Sand Creek site to leave feeling ashamed of their country and white American ancestors.
It’s the information that’s silenced and minimized that people need to hear and know. It’s time for people to wake up. Tax dollars are used to spread false information about Sand Creek. Ask your representatives to stop funding this false story. And if you ever visit the NPS site, ask them why the Bowens’ verified discovery showing a running battle isn’t told there.
Truth matters. Truth wins.
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Click on this link to get our book: WeFoundTheLostSandCreekSite.
