Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

You can read the historical background here. The history of this event was virtually ignored among public attention. It took over 100 years for attention to develop. Initial interests were to establish a historical marker. In 1998 there was action taken to establish a historical site at the location. Eventually a National Park Service Historical Site was established. Even the United Methodist Church began to address the connection it had to the events.  In 2012, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church adopted an Act of Repentance Toward Healing Relationships with Indigenous Peoples. It recognized that there are times in our history as the UMC when our forefathers and mothers were complicit in perpetrating or condoning acts that were not examples of Christian charity. But even these efforts have not increased public awareness of the events of that tragedy. My trip to Sand Creek was made with a friend and colleague in ministry. We set out to visit Sand Creek...

The Sand Creek Experience I have always had a deep fascination with “The Old West”. As a history geek, I read about it all through my childhood. As a young man, I participated with a gunslinger group doing cowboy cinematic style shootouts across Oklahoma. I still enjoy reading and discovering new places in the Old West. One aspect of the Old West experience that I have found most interesting, and powerful, is the Plains Indian Wars. During the Civil War, western expansion encountered the people and tribes of Plains. These included the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Souix, and many other cultures. They traveled from what would be the Dakotas and Montana in the North to Texas and Oklahoma in the South. As more people moved from the East into the Plains, they began to settle on lands that the tribes who traveled across those lands used for hunting and seasonal habitations. This led to conflict that was sometimes violent. Territorial and elected governors, expressing concern over “...