Toward Healing for
the Community
By Youngsook C. Kang
November 21, 2012
It is
the day before Thanksgiving at Sand Creek. People were gathering to commemorate the 148th
Anniversary of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and start the 14th
Annual Healing Run. The purpose of the
event is a Commemoration for Victims, Survivors and for Healing and Awareness
in Ancestral Homelands. Many were from
the tribes of Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapahoe, Southern Arapahoe &
Cheyenne and others like those of us
Methodists came with a sincere intention to learn about this painful part of
history, to understand the healing for the community and support the runners.
It was still
dark around 6:00 am when we arrived at the site of the 14th Annual
Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run.
Bishop Elaine J.W. Stanovsky, her husband Clint, Skip Strickland, Jin Ho
my husband and I drove down from Limon to Sand Creek. A certain gravity of
anticipation was in the air, knowing there would be a burial of the remains of
the two sand creek massacre victims. Yesterday
Otto Braided Hair brought those remains from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington
DC. Last night they built a Teepee as a place of
homecoming for remains. Micah and Axel,
the sons of Bishop Elaine Stanovsky, were invited to take part in building this
Teepee, and they both said that it was a deeply moving spiritual experience.
The
Ritual of Burial started around 10:00 a.m with a procession of the
remains. While waiting, those of us who were strangers
got acquainted and became new friends. It
was a time of community building. You
ask questions of each other, like “What brings you here?’ Then, you discover that you share a common
passion to learn and heal the wounds.
A
Spiritual Healing Run was started by LaForce “Lee” Lonebear in 1999 in remembrance
of the Sand Creek Massacre and to heal the community. On November 29, 1864, Col. John Chivington and his troops attacked and destroyed a village of peaceful Cheyenne and
Arapahoe encamped at Sand Creek, which was located in southeastern
Colorado Territory, killing and mutilating an estimated 150 people,
about two-thirds of whom were women and children.
After a ritual
of burial of the remains, Otto Braided Hair said at the Healing Run Ceremony, “It
(Sand Creek Massacre) should not happen again.
There may be other atrocities, but the Sand Creek Massacre is an example
that signifies all other massacres, and atrocities against peaceful people.”
He also
mentioned a few brave people who stood against injustice. Silas Soule is a good
example. He disobeyed orders and was shot to death by supporters of Chivington.
His brave act lives on and gets passed on
when we are willing to listen, learn the history and work toward healing for
the community. That’s what this Healing
Run is for- remembrance and healing. We
will continue in our “run” toward healing for the community and support efforts
to “pertaining to preservation, repatriation, healing, awareness, research,
education and reparations with the four tribes involved” (from General
Conference 2012 Petition 20767). May the
Lord strengthen our hearts so that our love increases and overflows for one
another in listening to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
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