DEBBIE ELLIOTT, HOST:
On a November day in 1864, an American Army officer saw something terrible. Captain Silas Soule was part of a Colorado cavalry unit that descended on a peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho camp at Sand Creek. He watched as his fellow soldiers killed hundreds of innocent Native Americans and then mutilated them. But Soule refused to participate and convinced the men under his command to disobey their orders to attack the camp. Not only that, but he wrote letters about the massacre he witnessed – letters that may have changed the course of history. Today is Silas Soule’s birthday. And for the last decade, one woman has made a pilgrimage of sorts to Soule’s grave to read those letters aloud. Nancy Niero is a minister ordained by the United Church of Christ. She’s studied Silas Soule for decades. Reverend Niero, welcome to the program.
NANCY NIERO: Thank you, Debbie. It is an honor to be here with you.
ELLIOTT: How would you describe the story of Silas Soule to someone who’s unfamiliar with the Sand Creek Massacre?
NIERO: He was, at once, in his very young life, a Kansas abolitionist – came to Colorado to find gold in 1860. When the American Civil War broke out, he enlisted and found himself, in the summer of 1864, at Fort Lyon. John Chivington, a Methodist minister who was his commander, surprises the men at Fort Lyon, arriving in the dark with 600 recruits. And they arrive to massacre the peaceful camp of Cheyenne and Arapaho people along the big, sandy creek.
Silas tries to stop this, disobeys orders and the next day, goes to the Sand Creek Massacre – traveling through it for the six, seven, eight hours that had happened.
ELLIOTT: So he’s bearing witness.
NIERO: Indeed. But then he writes a letter, and this letter then illustrates the horrific violence that happened that day when 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho elders, women and children were horrifically murdered.
ELLIOTT: Now, if you don’t mind, would you read for us from the letter where he describes what he saw?
NIERO: (Reading) The massacre lasted six or eight hours, and a good many Indians escaped. I tell you, Ned, it was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized. You would think it impossible for white men to butcher and mutilate human beings as they did there. But every word I have told you is the truth, which they do not deny.
ELLIOTT: Powerful words. So he wrote these letters. What impact did they have?
NIERO: Well, the letter quickly moved up the ranks of the military. A date for the congressional inquiry came to be in early February. By that point, though, John Chivington, Silas’ commander, the commander of the Sand Creek Massacre, leaves the military. His military life comes to an end as one of the consequences of the Sand Creek Massacre. However, the inquiry never is able to be accountable to what he did that day and his command because he left. So there was never any justice for the Cheyenne and Arapaho who were killed in it.
ELLIOTT: Now, you make the trip to his grave every year to read these letters. Why do you do that?
NIERO: The letters that we have demonstrate this amazing, extraordinary life of this young man that I continue to want to remember and have others remember and tell his story as well. So at the grave, it’s about 2.5 hours of reading his letters, with a lot of talk about who he is and how that resonates with us and those gathered. But really, ultimately, we see in the end of these letters, the moral injury that he suffered from this, too.
ELLIOTT: You know, these letters are, at times, very graphic and difficult. How do you cope with that when you’re reading them aloud? And why is it that you think it’s important to read them in all of their graphicness, I guess?
NIERO: Honestly, reading those letters – there are times that I’m better at it than others, quite frankly, Debbie. But the fact of the matter is, is that it’s what we all need to be doing. We all need to be telling his story. And part of the big story of his life is how can we be witnesses? How can we find our moral compass today through these letters?
ELLIOTT: Reverend Nancy Niero, the author of a new book about Silas Soule. It’s called “Witness At Sand Creek: The Life And Letters Of Silas Soule.” Thank you for sharing with us.
NIERO: Oh, Debbie, thank you so much for inviting me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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