Nov. 29 is a pivotal date in Colorado’s history. On that date in 1864, in what was then the Colorado Territory, more than 600 soldiers of the Colorado Volunteer Cavalry attacked a Cheyenne and Arapaho camp at Sand Creek near Eads, Colorado. As many as 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho were massacred — mostly women, children and the elderly.

The Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1851 granted the Cheyenne and Arapaho a large swath of land that included parts of Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming and Nebraska. The treaty promised that it would be Indian territory and that the United States would not claim any part of it.

When gold was discovered in Colorado in 1858, thousands rushed into the territory, ignoring the treaty and the boundaries set forth in the treaty. So, like nearly every treaty signed by the United S

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