Chief Niwot
Encyclopedia
Chief Niwot or Left Hand (c. 1825-1864) was a tribal leader of the Southern Arapaho
people and played an important part in the history of Colorado. Chief Niwot and his people lived along the Front Range
often wintering in Boulder Valley, site of the future Boulder, Colorado
. Despite breaching the borders of Arapaho territory, early prospectors were welcomed by Niwot in Boulder Valley during the Colorado Gold Rush
. Niwot died with many of his people at the hands of the Third Colorado Cavalry
in the Sand Creek Massacre
, which was one of the precipitating events that led to some three decades of Indian Wars
throughout the American West. Throughout Boulder County, many places pay tribute to Chief Niwot and the Arapaho Tribe. The census-designated place
of Niwot, Colorado
, Left Hand Canyon, Niwot Mountain, Niwot High School
, Niwot Elementary, and Niwot Ridge are all named for him. Additionally, a main thoroughfare through Boulder is Arapahoe (sic) Avenue.
. In fact, the tribe considers Valmont Butte, east of present day Boulder, a sacred site where rituals and ceremonies have been performed. It was one of these hunting parties, led by Chief Niwot, that encountered the first Caucasian gold seekers to enter Boulder Valley
in the fall of 1858.
Led by Captain Thomas Aikins, the gold seekers had come from Fort St. Vrain, 30 miles east. Chief Niwot and his deputies, including Bear Head and Many Whips, encamped near Valmont Butte, immediately rode to meet them, greeted them peacefully, and promptly told him and his party to go away.
. According to the chief, the curse was its breathtaking landscape:
When Niwot threatened the gold seekers, they refused to leave and flattered Chief Niwot, plying him with exotic fare like canned beans and salt pork, and getting him drunk. Meantime, Bear Head and Many Whips returned to the Arapaho camp to raise a war party, but when they returned Niwot had made an uneasy peace with the gold seekers.
After three tense days, with the threat of a battle hanging palpably in the air, Niwot rode into Aikins’ camp once more. One of the Arapaho shamans, he told the Captain, had received a dream from the Great Spirit the night before. In the dream, the holy man saw a great flood covering the earth and swallowing the Arapahos, while the whites survived. Niwot interpreted this to mean that gold seekers would flood his homeland, and he could do nothing to stop it. Peace with the whites, Niwot realized, was the only way his people would avoid being swept away by the flood.
Thereafter, Niwot and his neighboring chief, Little Raven, who had recently welcomed white settlers to the Denver gold camp, maintained their stance of peaceful coexistence with the whites. The Arapaho chiefs were so welcoming that the newcomers named the first county in the territory after the tribe, as well as streets in both Denver and Boulder.
The initial peace did not hold. As whites continued to encroach on Arapaho land, a rash of settlements broke out along the Front Range. An 1862 Sioux uprising
in the northern plains states made frontier settlements like Boulder jittery and suspicious of the Arapahos they initially thought were friends.
By 1864, a fateful year along the Front Range, tension between whites and Arapaho warriors was at a boiling point. Raids by tribes other than Niwot's people on wagon trains and outlying settlements intensified, culminating on June 11 with the brutal murder of the Hungate family on their ranch 25 miles southeast of Denver.
Territorial Governor John Evans
convinced all the Native tribes were equally responsible and, deciding to be rid of the "Indian problem" once and for all, calculated a plan to that end. He ordered the peaceful Arapaho and Cheyenne to camp near Fort Lyons, on Sand Creek
in a remote part of eastern Colorado on the plains. The governor then raised the Third Colorado Cavalry
, led by Colonel John Chivington with orders to patrol the prairies for hostile Indians. Chief Niwot, along with Chiefs Little Raven and Black Kettle, did as they were told, camping peacefully at Sand Creek and continuing to refuse to make war on their white neighbors.
failed to find any hostile Native tribes on the prairie. In frustration, they headed for Sand Creek. Despite the testimony by Major Edward Wynkoop, commander of Fort Lyons, that the Native people at Sand Creek had not been raiding, Colonel Chivington
and his men attacked at dawn on November 29, 1864, completely surprising the sleeping Native families.
Chief Black Kettle
was sure there was a mistake, and hastily raised both a U.S. flag and a white flag of surrender. As bullets, including the only artillery barrage ever put forth by one group on another in the history of the State of Colorado, rained down on the scattering Arapaho and Cheyenne, it is reported Chief Niwot stood in the middle of the battle, arms folded, refusing to fight the white men he still believed were his friends.
Amazingly, the rifles of The Third Colorado did not kill Niwot that day, but he was mortally wounded and he died a few days later. No exact statistics exist on the number of natives killed at the Sand Creek Massacre, but most historians place the number at approximately 180. And sadly, most of the dead were women, children and the elderly.
The Sand Creek Massacre was such an atrocity that President Abraham Lincoln
, though in the midst of the Civil War, called for a Congressional investigation into the tragedy. Congress ruled the “gross and wanton” incident a “massacre” rather than a “battle.” Chivington was censured
for his actions. Governor Evans was removed from office and Colorado was placed under martial law
.
Chief Niwot and his people's massacre at Sand Creek represents a major precipitating event that resulted in three following decades of "Indian Wars" in the West.
The fighting between whites and the Arapaho continued. The Treaty of Medicine Lodge
, signed in 1867, put the Southern Arapaho on The Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Reservation
in Oklahoma, but resistance continued until 1869, when General Eugene Carr
, assisted by William “Buffalo Bill” Cody
, finally defeated the Cheyenne and Arapaho at the Battle of Summit Springs
, ending their presence in Colorado. The Northern Arapaho
continued to resist white settlement seven more years until 1876, fighting General George Armstrong Custer at the Little Bighorn
before finally being driven into the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.
. Since he made it off the battlefield alive after the Sand Creek Massacre, official accounts never confirmed his death. Photos of an Arapaho named Niwot appeared in the late 19th century, which only fueled the rumors of Chief Niwot’s survival.
But historians agree Niwot did not go with his people to Oklahoma. A younger warrior named Niwot, probably a distant relative, did emerge as a leader of the Arapahos in Oklahoma, but it is now believed he was confused in news reports with the legendary chief who first welcomed the white man to the Boulder Valley.
Arapaho
The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Sioux. Arapaho is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre, whose people are seen as an early...
people and played an important part in the history of Colorado. Chief Niwot and his people lived along the Front Range
Front Range
The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the north-central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encountered moving west along the 40th parallel north across...
often wintering in Boulder Valley, site of the future Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
. Despite breaching the borders of Arapaho territory, early prospectors were welcomed by Niwot in Boulder Valley during the Colorado Gold Rush
Colorado Gold Rush
The Pike's Peak Gold Rush was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 and lasted until roughly the creation of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861...
. Niwot died with many of his people at the hands of the Third Colorado Cavalry
Third Colorado Cavalry
In the mid-1860s, increased traffic on the emigrant trails and settler encroachment resulted in numerous attacks against them by the Cheyenne and Arapaho. The Hungate massacre and the display in Denver of mutilated victims raised political pressure for the government to protect its people...
in the Sand Creek Massacre
Sand Creek Massacre
As conflict between Indians and white settlers and soldiers in Colorado continued, many of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, including bands under Cheyenne chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope, were resigned to negotiate peace. The chiefs had sought to maintain peace in spite of pressures from whites...
, which was one of the precipitating events that led to some three decades of Indian Wars
Indian Wars
American Indian Wars is the name used in the United States to describe a series of conflicts between American settlers or the federal government and the native peoples of North America before and after the American Revolutionary War. The wars resulted from the arrival of European colonizers who...
throughout the American West. Throughout Boulder County, many places pay tribute to Chief Niwot and the Arapaho Tribe. The census-designated place
Census-designated place
A census-designated place is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...
of Niwot, Colorado
Niwot, Colorado
Niwot is a census-designated place in Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The population was 4,160 at the 2000 census. The Niwot Post Office has the ZIP Code 80544....
, Left Hand Canyon, Niwot Mountain, Niwot High School
Niwot High School
Niwot High School is a public high school located in Niwot, Colorado and is part of the St. Vrain Valley School District.-Aim:Niwot High School's aim is to provide classes focusing on reading, writing, and mathematics at the various levels needed to educate the student body...
, Niwot Elementary, and Niwot Ridge are all named for him. Additionally, a main thoroughfare through Boulder is Arapahoe (sic) Avenue.
Chief Niwot and Boulder Valley
Up through the mid-19th century Southern Arapaho hunting parties had ventured as far north as Boulder CreekBoulder Creek (Colorado)
Boulder Creek is a creek draining the Rocky Mountains to the west of Boulder, Colorado, as well as the city itself and surrounding plains.- Route :...
. In fact, the tribe considers Valmont Butte, east of present day Boulder, a sacred site where rituals and ceremonies have been performed. It was one of these hunting parties, led by Chief Niwot, that encountered the first Caucasian gold seekers to enter Boulder Valley
Boulder County, Colorado
Boulder County is the sixth most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States. The county seat is Boulder. The most populous municipality in the county and the county seat is the City of Boulder...
in the fall of 1858.
Led by Captain Thomas Aikins, the gold seekers had come from Fort St. Vrain, 30 miles east. Chief Niwot and his deputies, including Bear Head and Many Whips, encamped near Valmont Butte, immediately rode to meet them, greeted them peacefully, and promptly told him and his party to go away.
A curse, a dream, and an ill-fated peace
Chief Niwot is said to have first stated at this meeting his legendary Curse of the Boulder ValleyCurse of the Boulder Valley
The Curse of Boulder Valley is reported to be a sentiment expressed as certainty by Chief Niwot, leader of the Southern Arapaho, to Caucsian prospectors come to the Boulder Valley in search of gold...
. According to the chief, the curse was its breathtaking landscape:
When Niwot threatened the gold seekers, they refused to leave and flattered Chief Niwot, plying him with exotic fare like canned beans and salt pork, and getting him drunk. Meantime, Bear Head and Many Whips returned to the Arapaho camp to raise a war party, but when they returned Niwot had made an uneasy peace with the gold seekers.
After three tense days, with the threat of a battle hanging palpably in the air, Niwot rode into Aikins’ camp once more. One of the Arapaho shamans, he told the Captain, had received a dream from the Great Spirit the night before. In the dream, the holy man saw a great flood covering the earth and swallowing the Arapahos, while the whites survived. Niwot interpreted this to mean that gold seekers would flood his homeland, and he could do nothing to stop it. Peace with the whites, Niwot realized, was the only way his people would avoid being swept away by the flood.
Thereafter, Niwot and his neighboring chief, Little Raven, who had recently welcomed white settlers to the Denver gold camp, maintained their stance of peaceful coexistence with the whites. The Arapaho chiefs were so welcoming that the newcomers named the first county in the territory after the tribe, as well as streets in both Denver and Boulder.
The initial peace did not hold. As whites continued to encroach on Arapaho land, a rash of settlements broke out along the Front Range. An 1862 Sioux uprising
Dakota War of 1862
The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux. It began on August 17, 1862, along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota...
in the northern plains states made frontier settlements like Boulder jittery and suspicious of the Arapahos they initially thought were friends.
By 1864, a fateful year along the Front Range, tension between whites and Arapaho warriors was at a boiling point. Raids by tribes other than Niwot's people on wagon trains and outlying settlements intensified, culminating on June 11 with the brutal murder of the Hungate family on their ranch 25 miles southeast of Denver.
Territorial Governor John Evans
John Evans (governor)
John Evans was a U.S. politician, physician, railroad promoter, Governor of the Territory of Colorado, and namesake of Evanston, Illinois; Evans, Colorado; and Mount Evans, Colorado...
convinced all the Native tribes were equally responsible and, deciding to be rid of the "Indian problem" once and for all, calculated a plan to that end. He ordered the peaceful Arapaho and Cheyenne to camp near Fort Lyons, on Sand Creek
Big Sandy Creek (Colorado)
Big Sandy Creek is a tributary of the Arkansas River noted for being the location of the Sand Creek Massacre. Big Sandy Creek starts near Peyton in El Paso County, Colorado and flows through Elbert, Lincoln, Cheyenne and Kiowa counties before it joins with the Arkansas River in Prowers county...
in a remote part of eastern Colorado on the plains. The governor then raised the Third Colorado Cavalry
Third Colorado Cavalry
In the mid-1860s, increased traffic on the emigrant trails and settler encroachment resulted in numerous attacks against them by the Cheyenne and Arapaho. The Hungate massacre and the display in Denver of mutilated victims raised political pressure for the government to protect its people...
, led by Colonel John Chivington with orders to patrol the prairies for hostile Indians. Chief Niwot, along with Chiefs Little Raven and Black Kettle, did as they were told, camping peacefully at Sand Creek and continuing to refuse to make war on their white neighbors.
The Sand Creek Massacre
After months of patrolling, Chivington and the Third ColoradoThird Colorado Cavalry
In the mid-1860s, increased traffic on the emigrant trails and settler encroachment resulted in numerous attacks against them by the Cheyenne and Arapaho. The Hungate massacre and the display in Denver of mutilated victims raised political pressure for the government to protect its people...
failed to find any hostile Native tribes on the prairie. In frustration, they headed for Sand Creek. Despite the testimony by Major Edward Wynkoop, commander of Fort Lyons, that the Native people at Sand Creek had not been raiding, Colonel Chivington
John Chivington
John Milton Chivington was a colonel in the United States Army who served in the American Indian Wars during the Colorado War and the New Mexico Campaigns of the American Civil War...
and his men attacked at dawn on November 29, 1864, completely surprising the sleeping Native families.
Chief Black Kettle
Black Kettle
Chief Black Kettle was a leader of the Southern Cheyenne after 1854, who led efforts to resist American settlement from Kansas and Colorado territories. He was a peacemaker who accepted treaties to protect his people. He survived the Third Colorado Cavalry's Sand Creek Massacre on the Cheyenne...
was sure there was a mistake, and hastily raised both a U.S. flag and a white flag of surrender. As bullets, including the only artillery barrage ever put forth by one group on another in the history of the State of Colorado, rained down on the scattering Arapaho and Cheyenne, it is reported Chief Niwot stood in the middle of the battle, arms folded, refusing to fight the white men he still believed were his friends.
Amazingly, the rifles of The Third Colorado did not kill Niwot that day, but he was mortally wounded and he died a few days later. No exact statistics exist on the number of natives killed at the Sand Creek Massacre, but most historians place the number at approximately 180. And sadly, most of the dead were women, children and the elderly.
The Sand Creek Massacre was such an atrocity that President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, though in the midst of the Civil War, called for a Congressional investigation into the tragedy. Congress ruled the “gross and wanton” incident a “massacre” rather than a “battle.” Chivington was censured
Censure in the United States
In the United States, a motion of censure is a congressional procedure for reprimanding the President of the United States, a member of Congress, or a judge. Unlike impeachment, in the United States censure has no explicit basis in the federal constitution. It derives from the formal condemnation...
for his actions. Governor Evans was removed from office and Colorado was placed under martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
.
Chief Niwot and his people's massacre at Sand Creek represents a major precipitating event that resulted in three following decades of "Indian Wars" in the West.
The fighting between whites and the Arapaho continued. The Treaty of Medicine Lodge
Medicine Lodge Treaty
The Medicine Lodge Treaty is the overall name for three treaties signed between the United States government and southern Plains Indian tribes in October 1867, intended to bring peace to the area by relocating the Native Americans to reservations in Indian Territory and away from European-American...
, signed in 1867, put the Southern Arapaho on The Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Reservation
Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Reservation
Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Reservation were the lands granted the Southern Cheyenne and the Southern Arapaho under the Medicine Lodge Treaty signed in 1867. The tribes never lived on the land described in the treaty and did not desire to...
in Oklahoma, but resistance continued until 1869, when General Eugene Carr
Eugene Asa Carr
Eugene Asa Carr was a soldier in the United States Army and a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.-Early life:...
, assisted by William “Buffalo Bill” Cody
Buffalo Bill
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...
, finally defeated the Cheyenne and Arapaho at the Battle of Summit Springs
Battle of Summit Springs
The Battle of Summit Springs, on July 11, 1869, was an armed conflict between elements of the United States Army under the command of Colonel Eugene A. Carr and a group of Cheyenne Dog Soldiers led by Tall Bull, who died during the engagement...
, ending their presence in Colorado. The Northern Arapaho
Arapaho
The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Sioux. Arapaho is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre, whose people are seen as an early...
continued to resist white settlement seven more years until 1876, fighting General George Armstrong Custer at the Little Bighorn
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...
before finally being driven into the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.
Alive and well?
Over the years, reports filtered out of Oklahoma that Chief Niwot did not die at Sand Creek, but rather was alive and well on the reservationCheyenne and Arapaho Indian Reservation
Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Reservation were the lands granted the Southern Cheyenne and the Southern Arapaho under the Medicine Lodge Treaty signed in 1867. The tribes never lived on the land described in the treaty and did not desire to...
. Since he made it off the battlefield alive after the Sand Creek Massacre, official accounts never confirmed his death. Photos of an Arapaho named Niwot appeared in the late 19th century, which only fueled the rumors of Chief Niwot’s survival.
But historians agree Niwot did not go with his people to Oklahoma. A younger warrior named Niwot, probably a distant relative, did emerge as a leader of the Arapahos in Oklahoma, but it is now believed he was confused in news reports with the legendary chief who first welcomed the white man to the Boulder Valley.
External links
- Professor Morley's complete S. Arapahos article: http://www.getboulder.com/visitors/articles/southernarapahoe.html
- The Hungate Massacre 1864: http://www.kclonewolf.com/History/SandCreek/Guest/broome-hungate-01.html
- The Colorado Historical Society: Colorado Historical Society