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As far as atrocities against Native Americans by Westerners go, it's hard to pick the worst.

But there's one that certainly ranks up there.

Surely the horrific pre-dawned mass murder of at least 150 unarmed people, mostly women and

children who are flying the American flag, fits the bill. I'm Jason Epperson and today on America's National Parks we

revisit the dedication of Colorado's Sand Creek Massacre National Historic

site. National Historic Site. One of the central conflicts of the Civil War was new states in the American West, particularly

whether those states would be slave states or not. But slavery wasn't the only obstacle to Western settlement.

Native Americans had lived in these territories for centuries, and others had been forced to leave

their eastern domains by early America for the West.

The Sand Creek Massacre, both perpetrated by and denounced by the U.S. government,

would fuel conflict between the United States and Native Americans

for generations to come.

On today's episode, we'll hear the events of November 8, 1864, about how they were forgotten by White America, how the location

was lost and found again after years of forensic investigation.

Then we'll revisit the dedication ceremony of 2007.

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