This statue will soon stand at the state Capitol to memorialize the Sand Creek Massacre

One piece of “The Peacekeepers,” a new memorial honoring victims of the Sand Creek Massacre, was unveiled at the History Colorado Center on Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

The unveiling ceremony was a culmination of a decades-long effort by members of the Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes to memorialize the deadliest day in Colorado history.

“This project is tribally led. This is not History Colorado’s project,” said Dawn DiPrince, president and CEO of History Colorado. “We are just proud friends and partners with the tribes who are leading this work.”

A statue of Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle stands outside of the History Colorado Center’s exhibit on the Sand Creek Massacre on Oct. 12, 2026, the first completed part of a larger memorial. It will replace a figure of a Civil War soldier removed from the Colorado State Capitol in 2020.

Dozens of people gathered at the ceremony to see what was beneath the cloth covering the statue. Then it was revealed: Chief Black Kettle, the respected spiritual and political Cheyenne leader, cast in bronze and standing tall.

On Nov. 29, 1864, U.S. soldiers killed more than 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho people, many of them women, children and elders. Chief Black Kettle and his wife, Medicine Woman Later, were survivors of the unprovoked surprise attack, though she was badly injured.

The memorial honors that history and recognizes the longstanding connection between tribal members and their homelands.

Honoring the massacre’s victims

DiPrince highlighted an unusual fact about the statue: There is no pedestal under Chief Black Kettle’s likeness. It was an intentional decision.

“We’re expected to look up at (statues),” she said. “This monument will not be like that. It will be closer to the ground. And I think there’s something very notable about that because it is humanizing.”

Dawn DiPrince, president and CEO of History Colorado, greets visitors who’ve come for an unveiling of a statue of Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle here on Oct. 12, 2026.

Chief Black Kettle’s statue will be joined by two more figures: Southern Arapaho Chief Left Hand, who was fatally wounded at Sand Creek, and Medicine Woman Later, who is holding a baby, signifying the women and children killed in the massacre.

The two other statues are expected to be completed in 2027.

Chief Black Kettle had for years advocated for peaceful coexistence with the U.S. government and was negotiating with territorial leaders. Black Kettle and other chiefs led their people to the site of the massacre at the direction of the U.S. military, only to be attacked by Col. John Chivington and a force including parts of the 1st Colorado Cavalry and 3rd Colorado Cavalry. Members of the 1st were later honored by the now-toppled statue on the Capitol steps.

“There is no place in the United States that doesn’t have Native American history of any type,” said Phillip Gover, History Colorado’s senior director of tribal and Indigenous engagement. “It’s taken a long time for Indigenous Peoples’ Day to be honored. It’s taken a long time for the Sand Creek Massacre Foundation and the Sand Creek Massacre tribes to get the opportunity to have a memorial. But to me, that’s indicative of Native people.”

People explore the History Colorado Center’s exhibit on the Sand Creek Massacre on Oct. 12, 2026.

DiPrince said the memorial not only honors the victims of the massacre but is also a step toward collective healing — for descendants of the survivors and for all Coloradans.

“This is not just Cheyenne and Arapaho history. This is Colorado history. It is American history,” DiPrince said. “We all own this and it is our job to carry it forward together. That is why it is important that it will be on the Capitol grounds here in Colorado.”

A new home at the Capitol

Soon, “The Peacekeepers” monument will be placed on the Colorado Capitol grounds, in front of the west steps.

The memorial will replace a Union soldier statue that once stood in the same spot. During racial justice protests in 2020, protesters toppled the soldier statue , which included a plaque celebrating the victory of the “Battle of Sand Creek,” leaving out details of the massacre.

That Union soldier statue still stands at the History Colorado Center, with most of the graffiti removed.

A statue of a Civil War soldier, which once stood on the Colorado State Capitol’s west steps, is now housed at the History Colorado Center on Broadway. Oct. 12, 2026.

Later this year, the Sand Creek Spiritual Healing Run, a journey from the massacre site to Denver organized by the descendants of Sand Creek survivors since 1999, will culminate in a blessing of the Peacekeepers site at the Capitol.

The annual healing run will take place on Nov. 25-29.

A date has not been set yet for the placement of the statues on Colorado Capitol grounds.

Denverite editor Andrew Kenney contributed to this article.