Agencies host Sand Creek Massacre exhibit in DC

Key points:

• Designed by History Colorado in collaboration with the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, the exhibit will be on display in Washington from Nov. 10 to Dec. 1.
• Retired Bishop Julius C. Trimble, top executive of Church and Society, called hosting the exhibit “both an act of confession and a witness of faith.”
• The temporary installation is part of the second meeting of the church’s Sand Creek Massacre Interagency Task Force, which was created by the 2024 General Conference to work toward true reconciliation for the church’s role in the massacre.

An important piece of Native American and Methodist history is coming to the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill this month.

“The Sand Creek Massacre: The Betrayal That Changed Cheyenne and Arapaho People Forever,” an exhibit designed by History Colorado in collaboration with the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, will be on display Nov. 10-Dec. 1.

The exhibit, normally a permanent installation at the History Colorado Center in Denver, is being co-hosted by the United Methodist Board of Church and Society and Commission on Religion and Race. It is coming to Washington as part of the second meeting of The United Methodist Church’s Sand Creek Massacre Interagency Task Force.

The Sand Creek Massacre was the deadliest day in Colorado’s history. At sunrise on Nov. 29, 1864, the U.S. Army attacked a camp of mostly women, children and elders on Big Sandy Creek, murdering more than 230. The attack was led by Col. John Chivington, a Methodist Episcopal pastor, and ordered by Colorado Territorial Gov. John Evans, also a Methodist. The denomination did little to acknowledge or atone for its role for over a century afterward.

Retired Bishop Julius C. Trimble, top executive of Church and Society, called hosting the exhibit “both an act of confession and a witness of faith.”

“As Methodists, we acknowledge our complicity in this dark and painful chapter of history, and we hope that this sacred space continues to be a place of grace, truth and reconciliation,” he said.

Bishop David Wilson, who oversees the Great Plains Conference and serves as co-chair of the interagency task force, said that since The United Methodist Church has produced resolutions related to its ties to Sand Creek, hosting the exhibit shows descendants and others that the church is doing what it said it would do. 

“Too often, the church has made promises through resolutions without action,” he said. Wilson, who is Choctaw and Cherokee, is the denomination’s first Native American bishop.

“I hope persons will see that The UMC is owning up to our past and creating new relationships with those connected with this massacre.”

Trimble said he hopes visitors to the exhibit will be inspired to carry what they learn into their communities and continue the work of repair.

“We cannot fix what we are not willing to face,” he said.

The Sand Creek Interagency Task Force, made up of bishops, general agency staff members and Sand Creek representatives, was created by an updated resolution to the 2024 General Conference, laying out specific actions the church could undertake to work toward a true reconciliation for its role in the Sand Creek Massacre.

The group is responsible for developing and implementing projects that support the commitments in the updated resolution. At this meeting, members will provide updates on the action items and plans discussed at the group’s first meeting in Denver in 2024.

One commitment named last year was to assist with the creation of public memorials remembering and honoring the people who were killed at Sand Creek, said Mountain Sky Conference Bishop Kristin G. Stoneking, who co-chairs the task force with Bishop Wilson.

In April, the Colorado legislature approved the installment of a memorial honoring the Sand Creek Massacre descendants on the state capitol grounds. Through the Mountain Sky Conference and the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History, plans are underway to contribute to the creation of this sculpture through proceeds from the General Conference-commissioned book “Massacre at Sand Creek: How Methodists Were Involved in an American Tragedy” by Gary L. Roberts.

“This is the kind of collaboration between conferences, general agencies and descendants that the task force makes possible, and is essential to real accountability and repair of relationships,” Stoneking said.

Trimble lifted up educational opportunities that Church and Society has created, including a two-part webinar series, “The Sand Creek Massacre Remembered: Truth-Telling as a Path to Healing,” which will be held Nov. 18 and 20. As the denomination’s agency for social justice advocacy, Church and Society also offers action alerts for individuals to urge the U.S. Senate to support the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act.

The Rev. Giovanni Arroyo, top executive of Religion and Race, pointed out that the work of the task force isn’t just historical; it’s spiritual.

“It challenges us to ask how the church can live differently today, in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and all communities who have suffered because of racism, colonization and theological supremacy,” he said.

Arroyo said that Religion and Race is about to release a new book study and reflection guide centered on the Sand Creek Massacre and its theological and racial implications within United Methodist tradition.

He also highlighted the agency’s collaboration with Sand Creek leaders in the restoration of the Traditional Chiefs’ Council of Forty-four — a vital effort to restore rightful leadership within the Cheyenne Nation, renew cultural and spiritual practices and rebuild traditional forms of governance disrupted by the massacre.

“My hope is that this task force meeting will not only continue the work of confession and remembrance but also move us toward tangible acts of repair,” Arroyo said. “We’ve said the words ‘never again.’ Now we must show what that means in practice.”

Butler is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tennessee.

News media contact: Julie Dwyer at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digests.