[MUSIC PLAYING]

STEVE BRADY: This is where our ancestors fell in November 29, 1864. Their flesh and their blood is a part of the soil, and therefore it is very sacred ground.

NARRATOR: Early winter, 1864, Cheyenne and Arapaho camped along a small creek in Southeast Colorado territory under promise of protection from the US government. The peaceful first moments of dawn shattered.

700 US soldiers charged.

STEVE BRADY: [INAUDIBLE] troops came in and swept through the village.

NARRATOR: Cheyenne chief Black Kettle prominently flew a US flag and a truce flag. They were ignored.

STEVE BRADY: The other hand chief, White Antelope, told his people to gather around him, and he sang a song that we still sing today at Cheyenne funerals, "Only the Stones Live Forever." And he sang that song as him and his people were being cut down.

NARRATOR: But as troops descended upon the villages, Captain Silas Soule and a fellow officer courageously held their men back.

STEVE BRADY: And they asked their men not to get involved, and they watched the carnage.

The story needs to be told and needs to be known of the killing fields here in southeastern Colorado.

NARRATOR: Here along a plain sandy creek bed lies a place where a tragedy is remembered, and those who died are honored. Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, experience it for yourself.