Note: This is the text of an email I submitted to the National Park Service (NPS) on Thursday, Jan. 29. Links added. To submit your own feedback to the NPS, click here and select “Report Errors or Technical Difficulties.”
Good morning! I’m writing in response to news that the current administration is considering, reviewing and implementing ill-advised changes to signage and other features at NPS sites, perhaps including Sand Creek.
As a fourth-generation Coloradan and U.S. citizen, born and raised in Denver, who now serves as a non-denominational Christian minister and non-profit advocate in the Broomfield, Colo., area, I consider Sand Creek in particular to be one of the most important historical sites in our entire nation, right alongside Independence Hall, Gettysburg and Pearl Harbor. For the last 12 years, I’ve led groups of visitors to experience Sand Creek and explore the full history of our nation, which includes what happened along the Big Sandy Creek of the eastern Colorado Territory in November 1864. I’m also the Broomfield-based coordinator of the recently recognized Sister Cities partnership between the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, headquartered in Concho, Oklahoma, and the City and County of Broomfield, Colorado. I have seen firsthand the positive effects of our relatively new work toward conciliation, respect and right relationship between residents of my community and members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.
I urge all decision-makers with the NPS and other federal departments to reconsider any attempts to paper over what happened at Sand Creek, or to diminish or damage in any way the decades-long, bipartisan-supported relationship of trust built between the U.S. government and the Cheyenne and Arapaho nations through the creation, maintenance and growth of the Sand Creek NPS site.
The ongoing work of the rangers, archivists and administrators of the NPS Sand Creek site, supported by the Sand Creek Massacre Foundation and other advocacy organizations, is absolutely critical to our nation and should be supported in every way possible. Please have the courage to continue allowing Americans to learn the full truth of our wider story via already vetted signage and other markers, so that visitors are accurately informed and so that events like the Sand Creek Massacre never happen again.
Peace,
Marrton Dormish
minister, advocate and writer, Everyday Epics
program director, Broomfield Sister Cities – Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes affiliate
