DENVER, April 29 (UPI) -- Nearly 400 people helped dedicate the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, where at least 160 American Indians were slaughtered in 1864.
Former Colorado Republican U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Northern Cheyenne, attended Saturday's dedication at Sand Creek, in Kiowa County, Colo., about 180 miles southeast of Denver, the Denver Post reported Sunday.
Campbell had worked with others for 25 years to get national recognition for Sand Creek, where members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes -- most of them women and children -- were killed in a raid by militiamen.
The militiamen believed the Indians were "savages" and "sub-human, Campbell said. But if there were any "savages that day, it was not the Indian people," he said.
Saturday's dedication included speeches from tribal leaders and politicians, including U.S. Senator and Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback of Kansas. "I acknowledge and admit wrongs were done by the federal government or tolerated by the federal government here and across the nation, Brownback said.
