Harjo: Strictly confidential, who’s keeping secrets from the Sand Creek descendants?

Posted: December 22, 2003 - 11:08am EST by: Suzan Shown Harjo / Columnist / Indian Country Today

There’s big talk about a big money deal in the making in the name of the Cheyenne and Arapaho people and the Sand Creek Massacre.

But, don’t tell any Cheyennes, Arapahos or Sand Creek descendants, because it’s a big honking secret.

The project is the brainchild of a lawyer/venture capitalist, Steve Hillard, who runs Council Tree Communications in Longmont, Colo. He teamed up with some Alaska Natives who have crazy clout with Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and can get him to get Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., to support the project.

Reality check: Sen. Campbell is both Cheyenne and the senior senator from Colorado. Why would his support depend on a bank shot from Alaska? Apparently, it’s such a big secret that Campbell isn’t supposed to know about it yet. I wonder if that’s because he represents Colorado or because he’s Cheyenne.

Don’t get me wrong. Cheyennes and Arapahos are among the poorest people in the United States and, if there’s an honest, legal, workable plan to make a pile of money, I’m all for that.

There may be nothing wrong with the homecoming project, except that mighty big talk is taking place in very small circles.

Council Tree has pitched the plan to selected tribal officials in hush-hush meetings in Oklahoma, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, claiming that an agreement is already in place between the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and the Native American Land Group.

The Native American Land Group’s "controlling member" is the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, which represents Inupiat business interests and owns five million acres of land in far north Alaska. Its partners in the Land Group are Council Tree and the Bethel Native, Kuskokwim and St. George Tanaq Corporations. The corporations bonded with Stevens over prospects for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Council Tree, in business for five years, describes itself as Colorado’s "most successful venture capital fund … during the 2001-2003 recession." It trades on Hillard’s appointment to the Federal Communications Commission’s Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age and touts these triumphs: "Telemundo - Spanish language television network; controlled by Council Tree; sold to NBC ($2.7B);" and "Alaska Native Wireless - largest minority-controlled owner of FCC licenses in history ($3.0B)."

Council Tree’s "Confidential Presentation" is a razzle-dazzle document dated September 2003, with "Strictly Confidential" in bold letters on each of its 16 pages.

The secret document states that the homecoming project "will fulfill 10 core objectives." The top two listed are "self-determination by the Tribes to create a destiny with increased income, employment, health and education resources for their members" and "Native Americans helping Native Americans."

Third on the list of objectives is "redress of Colorado legacy of massacre and genocide." The eighth is "funding ($2.0 million) for completion of Sand Creek Massacre National Park Service Unit." The document also states that the project will "publicly redress the crimes committed against Native Americans and the particular atrocity of Sand Creek" and will "return dignity to the Tribes."

The project’s fourth goal is "protection of the state from title-clouding land and water claims." High priorities of the project are "substantial economic benefits" to Colorado - 3,000-plus new jobs and $780-plus million in revenue sharing in the first 10 years - and $3 million in "core funding" for an events center that is "particularly desired by Latino community."

Other project objectives in the document are listed as "substantial mitigation, containment and local cooperation measures" and "strong public support from Colorado voters."

The big selling points for Colorado, according to Council Tree, are that the state would get a "no cost resolution of Tribal land, water and mineral claims," not to mention $50 million in new payroll taxes, $30 million in new sales taxes and $22 million in new toll-paying traffic on the 470.

Council Tree predicts "$1 billion in direct revenues and other economic benefits to the State" and "3388 new jobs with taxable payroll of $1.6 billion over 10 years," in addition to a $100 million construction project and 900 jobs and 54,000 out-of-state visitors in the first year.

The tribes would get a small reservation 15-30 miles east of Denver. On it, they would build a casino, a Plains Indian Cultural and Media Center and a five-star restaurant in a glass-enclosed rooftop observatory.

Council Tree maintains that these enterprises would bring the tribes $1.1 billion in cash flow in the initial ten years, $1.85 billion over 15 years and $200 million-plus in perpetual annual cash flow.

The confidential document is a bit vague on that point. It states that the project is "funded by blue chip national funds and Native American groups" and that "Council Tree has substantial economic sponsorship and is well experienced in achieving capital structures of $100-plus million."

"The Tribes will acquire and improve the Reservation land at their own cost, and will not seek any financial assistance from the State or local governments," says Council Tree.

Council Tree’s document describes a telephone survey of "800 Colorado frequent voters," reporting that the "results were stunning - 78 percent of Colorado voters support the designation of a reservation as compensation to the Cheyenne-Arapaho for the Sand Creek Massacre and their subsequent forced removal from Colorado." Fifteen percent of the respondents were opposed and seven percent didn’t know.

Republicans, who comprise 35 percent of Colorado voters, responded favorably, at 73 percent; Democrats (24 percent of state voters), at 79 percent; and Independents (37 percent of state voters), at 85 percent.

Council Tree also reports that "58 percent of Colorado voters favor limited Indian gaming on the Reservation consistent with the Project."

Ciruli Associates conducted the survey on July 14 to 22 and posed the project overview question this way:

"After the massacre atrocities were committed, the survivors were forcibly removed from Colorado and placed on reservations in other states. As a form of compensation for the massacre and forcible removal from Colorado, would you favor or oppose the government designating 500 acres to the tribes for a small reservation in eastern Colorado? The land would be purchased by the tribes at their own expense and for fair market value."

According to Council Tree, "The Tribes seek to begin construction in early 2004, with payments to the Tribes and the State beginning in 2004."

Here we are, on the eve of 2004, a few short weeks before Council Tree says the project will start and money will flow. At least 800 folks in Colorado (and one white guy in Longmont) know about project. Assorted pollsters and lawyers and investors share the confidence. Some Alaska Natives are in on it. Sen. Stevens and someone on his staff may be clued in.

Isn’t it about time for someone to share the big deal secret with the Cheyennes, Arapahos and Sand Creek descendants?

Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is president of the Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C., and a columnist for Indian Country Today.

The "Cheyenne-Arapaho Homecoming Project" proposes a casino in Colorado, whose profits are intended to extinguish all tribal claims in the state and to make up for the Colorado Volunteers’ massacre of elders, pregnant women and children at a Cheyenne peace camp along the Sand Creek in 1864.

Before anyone gets carried away with this nonsense you might want to read a few Iconoclastic books on the subject.

MASSACRES OF THE MOUNTAINS by J. P. DUNN Jr

THE INDIAN WAR OF 1864 by Captain EUGENE F WARE
and
COMANCHES, THE DEATH OF A PEOPLE.

They wern't sweet inocent little darlin's after all.

****If you were regularly hunted down by "long knives" and slaughtered, you might be just a little testy also. I notice that the books you recommend are all written by "white eyes".****

Perhaps they wouldn't have been hunted down if they hadn't murdered and scalped so many innocent farmers in the Kansas-Colorado area and if they had barganed in GOOD FAITH with the Governor of Colorado at that time.
Found in the camp....
A blanket fringed with the scalps of white women.
Scalps of men, women, and children so fresh they had not had time to strech them on hoops.

"Two hundred eight men, women, children, emigrants, herders, and soldiers, who lost their lives at the hands of these Indians...."

Chivington never apologized for what he ordered that day. His words were "I stand by Sand Creek." The citizens of Colorado at that time stood with him and approved of his actions.

That has not very much to do with the corporate interests that are at present, as far as I can tell, muscling in on the Indian Casino business.

Native Americans did quite a lot of hunting down and slaughtering themselves. The British paid well for Amwerican scalps in the late 1700's. Their payment records indicate the type of scalp paid for, including scalps of late-term fetuses and women's scalps. This is documented in 'That Dark And Bloody River'.

We always seem to flip back and forth between seeing native people as faultless, victimized noble red men, and evil savages. Too bad.

But about those billions that will come in with the casinos...

BTW, 'Harjo' is a Creek family name I think.

And I am glad for you that you still celebrate your family traditions and hope you speak your language and wish the best for you and your people.

I just read a book on the Commanche's raids into the Republic of Texas. It was pretty nasty. Of course they were pretty ticked of about all the Big Hats movings into their territory. They were horribly cruel as a matter of course.

***I just read a book on the Commanche's raids into the Republic of Texas. ***

Was it the one where the Comanches came in for peace talks and turned over their white captives--ONLY AFTER BURNING THE FACES OF THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN OFF? Needless to say, it ended in a shootout.

Evidently you haven't read "Bury My Heart"

Obviously you hae not read MASSACRES OF THE MOUNTAINS
or MY LIFE ON THE PLAINS by G. A Custer
or Catlin's NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS
or THE SAVAGE YEARS edited by Shepard Rifkin
or a host of private printed books by indian fighters, white captives, soldiers and others such as Nelson, Hamilton, Andrew Garcia, who lived at the time and do not have a "Lo,The Poor Indian" attitude.

There ar enough REAL indian massacres to go around. Sand Creed and the Washita are NOT among them.

Have you ever read what happened in New Mexico under the Spanish?
The Apaches were killing so many people in the area that a force of Zunis and other Indians aligned with the Spanish soldiers.
They swept through the southern NM mountains flushing out Apaches everywhere and forcing them onto the high plains.
There the Apaches ran smack dab into a Comanche war party. Apaches and Comanches did not like each other.

When the Spanish soldiers and allies arived on the scene there were dead Apaches everywhere. No whites involved in "that massacre".
The Indian raids ceased for quite a few years.

Have you heard of the Navajo massacre of the Hopi villages?
Five hundred dead. No Whites involved.

My what you can learn by READING!

**It wasn't until the "white eyes" started the practice of scalping Native Americans. ***

Boy are YOU behind the times!

Hernando de Soto found Indians scalping Indians in Florida.
captain John Smith found Indians scalping Indians in Verginia and wrote a report on it "They cased off the scalps with knived made of shell and reeds and hung them on a rope between two poles". An engraving by Theodore DeBry shows several arms legs and Scalps hung on the rope.
A French trader went into Santa Fe with a complaint that Indians on the Northern plains had scalped his indian wife.

This was before the whites were supposed to have taught the Indians to scalp.

Not long ago sommeone posted on this forum that archaeologists had found an old massacre sight several thousand years old. The bones showed evidence of being hacked apart and the skulls showed the scraping marks of being scalped. No whites involved.

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