HISTORICAL JUDGMENTS

Mt. Evans: Monument to genocide?

“Colorado’s monuments to genocide,” May 28 Diane Carman column.

Diane Carman’s column, where she throws darts at the behavior of 18th century pioneers, is typical liberal elitism and revisionist history. I find it shocking that she smugly wants to erase all memory and tribute to these early settlers.

Believe it or not, in the late 1800s these men were considered brave for trying to protect our early citizens from marauding Indian attacks that killed and wounded many — including, according to reports published at the time, the entire Hungate family who were brutally murdered on their farm near present-day Aurora.

To judge these early men without any perspective and through the lens of the 21st century is completely unfair and wrong. Two hundred years from today I’m sure some intellectuals will look back at our time and be appalled at our society through their lens — like our fear and reactions to terrorism, our policies on abortion, and if globalization works.

Let’s not erase history. I want to point out a statue of Gov. John Evans and tell his story to my grandchildren. Roger Austin, Parker

Diane Carman rightfully points out historical figures from Colorado’s past — Evans, Byers, Gore, Custer, Jackson and Chivington — whose actions by today’s standards would be very “shameful” and in her words, better defined as “crimes against humanity.”

While Carman’s focus was on the results of an investigation by Northwestern University, let us look at Colorado’s main monument to genocide and the instigator of the Indian wars and the one who carried out the Sand Creek Massacre, killing women and children camped under an American and a white flag, John Chivington.

Chivington, a Union colonel who stopped the Confederacy at Glorieta Pass in New Mexico, is quoted as saying, “Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians! ... I have come to kill Indians and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God’s heaven to kill Indians.”

So why do we have a monument to genocide and a statue of John Chivington in front of our state Capitol facing Broadway? The monument is not a monument to Chivington, per se, but to all “veterans of the past.” So let us consider replacing Chivington’s statue with another more worthy veteran of American wars and the Sand Creek Massacre: Chief Black Kettle. A man who believed in peace and negotiation. Louis Pappageorge, Denver

Thank you to Diane Carman for pointing out the monument hypocrisy in our own culture here in Colorado. It is so hard to acknowledge inconsistencies in who we honor with things like statues and natural features when, viewing through the lenses of history, we finally see them as not truly deserving of such honors in modern times. And nationally, we still honor certain president slave owners by putting them on our currency for all the world to see. Douglas Crawford, Lakewood

Mount Evans, as seen from Aurora, is named for John Evans, the first territorial governor of Colorado. A committee at Northwestern University investigated Evans’ role in the Sand Creek Massacre and determined that he “helped create a situation that...