A very much alive 'Irving Howbert' revisited Sand Creek Battlefield last week after 143 years. A different one. It was ninety one year old Irving Howbert, whose grandfather, Corporal Irving Howbert, from Colorado City, was there out on the eastern plains of Colorado on that cold November day in 1864 when the 3d US Volunteer Cavalry attacked the large encampment of Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians as they had been ordered to, and routed them, killing many Indians, including women and children. All to try and stop the Indian raids and killings.

Oh sure, the Indians, and many politically correct whites, especially those in the east who were not there, called it a massacre. The 'Sand Creek Massacre'

You won't find me using that term. It was a Battle. A deserved punishment and 'deterrent' strike ordered against Indians by the Territorial Governer and by military commanders, against natives, who even in their encampment along the Sandy held women and children captive. And kept around the scalps they took. They had conducted a continuous series of raids, killing, mutilating, destroying, and capturing of settlers on the plains of western Kansas and eastern Colorado. They had virtually sealed off Denver from carriage and supply wagon travel to and from the east. And who had in a last-straw act massacred the entire Hungate family close to Denver. Which angered and alarmed the settlers. Not the least of reasons why was that it all was happening in the midst of the Civil War, when the Federal troops who would have been in the west in larger numbers to protect the settlers had been pulled back east to fight the southern rebels.

It was a battle. Chivington's 750 man force consisting of part of the 1st US Volunteer Cavalry and the entire 3d US Cavalry Regiment surprised the 1,500 encamped Indians at the end of a well planned campaign. Though surprised the Indian warriors together with some of their women fought back, vigorously. Surprising ones foes does not make a massacre. The Cheyenne were decisively defeated. Perhaps 2-300 Indians were killed, no one knows how many, and contrary to later claims they were not 'mostly women and children.'

As Greg Michno, who has written the most detailed and mapped out account of the battle said, there would never have been a 6 hour running battle during which 24 soldiers were killed and 52 wounded had it just been just against defensless women and children. The size of the horse herds alone that the soldiers cut off as they attacked testified to the number of Indian warriors who were in the camp, firing back.

After which the rumors, charges, countercharges, testimonies by those who were not ever there - but had an axe to grind - spread the word it was a 'massacre.' It was 'get even' time. Lots of finger pointing, lying under oath, conflicts of interest, and a wide range of motivations by those who testified. Including hatred of Colonel Chivington by officers whom he showed up and was ranked above when he became the hero of the battle of Glorieta Pass against the Confederates two years before.

I was there too, last week. In fact I organized the two day 'Sand Creek Tour' September 20th and 21st for 12 members of the Old Colorado City Historical Society who were willing to share the cost, and travel in a rental passenger van for 3 hours down the Arkansas River on US 50 east through the historic towns along the way, to Lamar, Colorado. And that evening in the Cow Palace hotel hear a lecture by Chuck Bowen and his wife Sherri, whose family ranched near Sand Creek and on whose adjacent - to the 'traditional' site - thousands of battle artifacts have been foundjust over the last 15 years.

Which is part of the controversial tale, in which we were very willing to engage.

But it was also a very special trip. For 91 year old Irving Howbert grew up hearing the stories of his Colorado City grandfather, whom he knew, pioneering El Paso County, defending Colorado City settlers against Indians who killed locally, and who became one of the most prominent men in all Colorado Springs long after all the Indian Wars were over. He was elected 5 times El Paso Clerk and Recorder, and even reached the Presidency of the 1st National Bank of a prospering city after the Cripple Creek gold bonanza. He died in 1935.

The current Irving Howbert had never had the opportunity to visit the long lost battlefield especially accompanied by 'massacre-skeptical' history buffs, and be hosted by a Colorado native, Bowen who had done extensive on-the-ground battlefield archeology over his family's land.

The trip was special also for the Town of Lamar, whose Chamber President greeted Mr. Howbert warmly. For there have been over the years a scattering of great grandchildren descendents of those who fought - even died - there. But never a living grandson of the famous and noted Irving Howbert who not only fought there, and wrote both the classic 1914 "Indians of the Pikes Peak Region"and the 300 page 'A Lifetime of Memories in the Pikes Peak Region' in 1925. Both of which among many other things reported the Sand Creek battle in detail and accurately,and also vigorously defended Col Chivington's actions and that of his command. THAT was part of the controversy too.

I was brought up in Colorado to believe in the "Massacre" story and interpretation too - until I both studied and learned about the sheer number of Indian attacks and atrocities inflicted on settlers all across the Colorado Territorial plains before Sand Creek happened. And reflecting after I carefully re-read Howbert's detailed account I first read 30 years ago - and which you can read now yourselves. For our Historical Society has reprinted it - after it was out of print for nearly 40 years.

The visit by old and frail Irving Howbert was so special last week, that a costumed member of the 7 th US Army Cavalry Association had a surprise waiting. He presented elderly Irving Howbert an Honorary Membership in the US Cavalry Association. (I was so struck when I learned about this gesture, I wore, instead of my signature Stetson Silver Belly white cowboy hat, my 1880's style black and gold braided Cavalry Officer's hat. And pinned on it the very same 7th Cavalry crossed saber pin, that I wore in on my collar in Korea 55 years ago. when I commanded Company K, 7th Cavalry during combat operations against the Chinese. Once a Cavalry trooper, always a Cavalry trooper.

But back to Sand Creek.

There is an enduring controversy on exactly where the US government agreed - with the Indians - battle site lies.

There is what is called the 'Traditional' Sand Creek site. Around which so very few artifacts have been found - less than 5 - bullets, metal arrows, canon balls, metal stirrups and all the impedimenta one would expect to find discarded on a battlefield, where firing raged all day long.Somethingwas obviously amiss. Could the Indians be wrong? Well it was not until in the 1900s, when most all who had been alive then were dead, more from old age than battles, that their descendents, from oral stories alone, 'knew' where the battlefield was. Somewhere on long twisting dry Sand Creek, to be sure. But where, exactly had their tipees been?Not all together in a big cluster that was sure. They were strung out for miles.Nobody did much mapping of anything for over 70 years after the battle. Metal detectors didn't exist yet. Nothing but conflicting stories and mixed memories, scattered writings,referring to 'that ridge' this bluff, that bend, this trail, those trees.'

After the Bowen Family unearthed 4,000 GPS marked, military artifacts over 15 years fromthe 1990s on their land adjacent to what the National Park Service accepted from the Indians, they just ignored that reality. Because today's Cheyenne Indians, from reservations in Oklahoma, say they "Don't accept white man's archeology."

And did it make any difference when a Casino gambling consortium put up the $1.5 million to buy the Dawson Ranch which covers the 'traditional' area the Indians want covered, and to make 'sacred'? So the National Park Service accepted that, virtually ignoring Bowen. No chance there could have a gambling casino built on "Indian land" which might even be legal (casinos are illegal in Colorado except on reservations and particular other places) but miles closer and more accessible to Lamar, Colorado and US50 east? Make a difference whether or not the actual battleground was there?

Nevermind. The twelve of us traveled the 162 miles to Lamar, put up at the Cow Palace hotel. Then after dinner, Chuck Bowen and his wife Sherri who helps him find, catalog, GPS pinpoint, artifacts gave a lecture about his findings. We were able to inspect cased samples of his artifacts, from canon balls and lead rifle bullets to 'metal' arrow heads. (Indians took iron barrel bands and fabricated the arrows, which the metal detector readily located a century later)

And we then the next morning traveled nearly 40 miles to the new small National Park facility near the 'traditional' site.. (With porta potties only yet) And two Park Rangers. And listened to one Ranger describe what led up to, and away from the November 29th and 30th, 1864 Battle. But telling us nothing about 'where' the battle took place, or the maneuvers of the US units.

Then Chuck Bowen led us over 20 miles of REALLY rough, two track roads prairie roads back around then across his ranch land to the north of the'traditional' site.Our 15 passenger van could barely negotiate. Right down through and across almost-always-dry Sand Creek where much of the fighting took place. And where he had put up visible markers where many significant items of his 4,000 artifacts, were found.

I listened to his explanation relating the ground to various descriptions of the unfolding battle that ranged for over 5 miles along Sand Creek,the interviews of the Bent Brothers, the 3d Cavalry officers, Chivington, the two faced Indian Agents,and credible soldiers like Irving Howbert, who, even though only 18 and a corporal at the time was a keen observer whose 1925, and 1914 'Indians of the Pikes Peak Region' books have proven accurate time after time. And he was not anti-Indian. He got on, as did Colorado City settlers, with the Ute Indians who passed through town repeatedly, molesting nobody. (except begging the women for bisquets when they had a hard dry winter)

I put my two-war combat experienced military mind to visualizing the written histories, the terrain, the motivations of the participants, and the proven location and distribution of artifacts.

Bowen makes more sense about WHERE Sand Creek Battle took place than either the National Park Service (squeezed by ex Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell ?), or the Cheyenne Indians whose long after-the-fact oral-history evidence is suspect. And because artifacts which have lain undisturbed on and under ground for 130 years on the dry plains - until the 1990s when Bowen's metal detectors found them - don't lie, I am inclined to believe him and the physical evidence of that battle site.

So we had a grand time, even when we all were under the hot sun, time was too short and the bouncing ride across the land too long. But the box lunches I ordered from the Safeway in Lamar were great. Only $5 each. In fact, the 'shared cost' for the entire 2 day, and overnight Sand Creek Tour was less than $150 each person. Which included Bowen's Tour fee, hotel room, a 365 mile ride in a very comfortable 15 passenger van, three meals and a box lunch. Wanna join the next one?

I am not done with this story which affected Colorado City yet. For I can relate lots of information I now know more about the 3d Volunteer Cavalry, the 18 men from Colorado City who were in it, including Anthony Bott, town founder. And I now know what it took for those soldiers to get to the point of that early morning light after marching all night long in pitch black, the last daysof November 1864, over the frozen ground when the leading elements of the 3d Cavalry topped the ridge and saw, in the dawn sun, at a distance, long lines of clusters of Indian villages in the trees, where perhaps 1,500 Indians slept.

And where18 Year Irving Howbert urged his horse forward, unlimbered his rifle,and got his first taste of battle 143 years ago, remembering the Indians, the terrain, and the behavior of his fellow soldiers and officers vividly. The rest of his life.

Stay tuned