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Simon Ortiz's From Sand Creek

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Simon Ortiz's From Sand Creek
A Historical Point of View

The book “From Sand Creek” by Simon J. Ortiz is a long poem showing how he dealt with the history of his people and recognizing all the struggles they went through, throughout the United States History. Simon Ortiz referenced some historical figures throughout the poem that he drew some inspiration from. This is their back round and how it all lead to Sand Creek.

“This American has been a burden of steel and mad death, but, look now there are flowers and new grass and a spring wind rising from sand creek.” (From Sand Creek,pg.9 )

The attack at Sand Creek is one of the most well known events in Native American History and it lead to a war that would last three years and cause hundreds of people to lose
…show more content…
Despite all of these hard ships and attacks Black Kettle still firmly believed in peace and tried to get his people to believe the same. In October another Treaty was made which meant the Indians could leave Sand Creek and go to southwestern Kansas. One of the downfalls to this however was that it meant they would no longer have access to a persistence Kansas hunting ground. Not everyone was pleased with the new treaty so only some people followed Black Kettle to the newly assigned reservations. The stand off became unbearable and the government tried a new treat called the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867, which gave the Indians two new small reservations and the promise of yearly food and provisions provided by the government. This calmed things down for awhile until the government failed to hold up their end of the deal and the Indian people never saw the food and provisions they were promised this caused more and more of them to join the fight against the white settlers. The government started planning attacks on Indian camps and on the morning of November 27,1868 they charged on Black Kettles camps and this time both he and his wife …show more content…
He was born in 1809 and spent his childhood in Missouri. He left home in 1826 for New Mexico. Carson spent three years there on fur-trapping expeditions he sometimes traveled as far west as California. In 1840 William Bent employed him as a hunter. Kit Carson was basically a gun for hire and wherever he was needed he went. He became very interested in the Indian cultured and even went as far as traveling and even living with the Indian people. Kit Carson was married twice both to Indian women. One was from the Arapahoe tribe and the other was from the Cheyenne tribe. In 1842 he was hired as a guide and joined the Bear-Flag rebellion right on the brink of the Mexican-American War that started in

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