Where is fort on Fort Chambers site?
Right Relationship Boulder (RRB) was formed in 2016 to help the city implement its Indigenous Peoples Day Resolution. Our goals are to share the history and presence of Indigenous peoples in the Boulder Valley and to build relationships based on truth, respect and justice.
In 2018, when the city purchased the 113-acre “Fort Chambers/poor Farm” property,
RRB urged Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) to follow the guidance of the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes in developing plans for the site. We put OSMP in touch with the tribal governments, and they set in motion a consultation process that extended over three years. Last week OSMP published a Concept Plan developed in collaboration with the tribes.
We have spoken with three out of the four tribal consultants for the project, who all said they appreciated the plan’s emphasis on healing (the project is being called, “Heal the Land, Heal the People”). Still, they said they wondered: Where was the fort?
The plan’s maps show no location or representation of Fort Chambers.
When Cheyenne and Arapaho representatives raised this question, OSMP told them that the fort’s location is unknown. The fort was constructed of sod that disintegrated over time. Still, there is solid evidence of its location. The Carnegie Library includes a 1967 photograph by a Daily Camera journalist showing south/southeast view through a window of the house, with the notation: “hayfield seen from cupola porch is where original Fort Chambers was located about 1 mile northeast of Valmont.”
This information was provided to the Daily Camera by Paul Hummel, who had lived in the house since 1920 when he said the walls of the fort had been visibly discernable. Mr. Hummel’s hayfield is still a hayfield today, and that location is precise enough for our purpose.
Our purpose is to make sure that all visitors to the Fort Chambers site understand what happened on this land. We need a visual representation of the fort in order to grasp its significance for the Cheyenne and Arapaho and for the people of Boulder.
The fort was built by Boulder residents who had driven Arapaho Chief Left Hand and his band from the Boulder Valley shortly after gold was discovered in 1859. Just five years later, 111 Boulder men answered Governor John Evans’ call for volunteer “Indian Fighters,” and they joined Col. John Chivington’s troops to carry out the Sand Creek Massacre. They murdered more than 200 innocent Cheyenne and Arapaho women, children and elders, and returned to Boulder and Denver parading their victims’ body parts as trophies.
This is gruesome history, from the founding of the city of Boulder in violation of Cheyenne and Arapaho treaty rights to the massacre at Sand Creek. Indigenous people continue to feel the pain of it. In contrast, the people of Boulder have prospered from the theft of the Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples’ land and their forced removal to Oklahoma, Wyoming and Montana.
Throughout our country, communities are struggling to reckon with our history of racist violence. How should our crimes against Native nations, African Americans and other peoples of color be represented in public spaces and in school curricula? In some places, memorials are being erected that help us face terrible truths, acknowledge the harm done and make amends.
Could Fort Chambers be represented in such a way?
Seeing a representation of the fort can open our eyes to the truth, enabling us to see ourselves and the land we live on in a new way, inspiring change.
Without some representation of the fort (a replica, a sculpture, a memorial structure) the lesson of Fort Chambers could be lost and we will have missed an opportunity for healing.
During the public comment period that ends April 14, we hope that OSMP will hear from many Boulder residents. Visit the OSMP Fort Chambers/poor Farm site, complete the questionnaire and be sure to submit your own written comments here: tinyurl. com/33bnyen9.
“Heal the Land, Heal the People” is a beautiful title and a worthy goal. The city and county of Boulder collectively “own” over 145,000 acres of open space land, stolen from tribes. What further actions do truth, respect and justice demand of our community?
Jerilyn Decoteau (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) and Paula Palmer are co-founders of Right Relationship Boulder and co-directors of Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples, a program of Friends Peace Teams. They live in Boulder County.