(MENAFN- EIN Presswire) EINPresswire/ -- A new memorial will rise on the west side of the Colorado State Capitol building to commemorate the Sand Creek Massacre, the November 29, 1864 slaughter of more than 200 unarmed Cheyenne and Arapaho women, children and men in an attack by the U.S. Cavalry.

Unanimously approved by the Colorado State Legislature and by Governor Jared Polis, this memorial is important not only for Colorado, where the massacre occurred, but to the Cheyenne and Arapaho descendants of Sand Creek Massacre victims, now living predominantly in Oklahoma, Wyoming and Montana. The monument will be a source of healing for both the Tribes and the State.

"Building the memorial is important for our struggle for recognition, finally moving from invisibility to full acknowledgement,“ said Chris Tall Bear, Cheyenne, Sand Creek Massacre descendant and Sand Creek Massacre Memorial Committee member.

The monument will honor those who were killed, and celebrate the resiliency of the Tribes.

The effort to create the memorial is led by volunteer representatives of the Cheyenne and Arapaho descendants of the massacre, who form the Sand Creek Massacre Memorial Committee. The Sand Creek Massacre Foundation is supporting the committee's fundraising campaign.

“There's got to be some kind of acknowledgement. That's a beginning of healing,” shared Otto Braided Hair, Cheyenne, Sand Massacre Memorial Committee member.

The committee commissioned sculptor Gerald Anthony Shippen to create the memorial based on their collaborative design. Shippen is working closely with tribal cultural consultants and massacre descendants to create a large-scale bronze sculpture titled“Peace Keepers,” featuring Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle and Arapaho Chief Left Hand flanking a woman and a baby, standing proudly in front of a tipi frame.

The Sand Creek Massacre Memorial will fill a space left on the west plaza of the Colorado State Capitol where a Civil War monument stood for decades before it was torn down by social justice protestors in 2020.

For media inquiries, please contact... and please join the Foundation and the Sand Creek Massacre Memorial Committee at the Denver Public Library Central Library on Nov. 29, 2025 from 6:30-8:30pm for a candlelight vigil to commemorate the Massacre.

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