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Embarking on a Journey of Healing - Post #10

6/4/2014

2 Comments

 
Bishop's Sand Creek Massacre Blog
Entry #10
June 4, 2014
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Silas Soule was a Captain at Sand Creek who didn’t allow his troops to participate in the massacre.  He was so appalled by what he saw that he issued a gruesome report to his superiors that led to the government reports declaring the attack a massacre.  Using an image from the Jewish Holocaust, Silas Soule was the “righteous gentile” in this story, a person who stood to gain by participating in an atrocity, but who instead followed his conscience and paid the ultimate price for it.   He was murdered on the streets of Denver five months after the massacre.  To read his eye witness account of what happened at Sand Creek, go to http://www.nps.gov/sand/historyculture/upload/Combined-Letters-with-Sign-2.pdf.
2 Comments
Lynn Price
6/5/2014 01:47:31 pm

Thank you. In Montana Brother Van is beloved, but now I see in a column by Ken Overcast, March 22, 2013, The Prairie Star, entitled The Methodist Preacher, Brother Van, and his colt: ..."The preacher also volunteered his services as a scout for General Howard as he pursued Chief Joseph and the Nez Pierce after the Battle of the Big Horn in western Montana...this is so disheartening. It helps to share it in this context, and pray to know what to do. Thank you, Lynn

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Lynn Price
6/9/2014 06:03:00 am

Further investigation of the above allegation that Brother Van served as a scout for General Howard: the only reference found was in a fictionalized account by Stella Wyatt Brummitt, "Brother Van", chapters starting with "Scouting for Uncle Sam". There is a newspaper dispatch to the Helena Herald, August 13th, 1877 from Brother Van about an Indian attack near Bannack. In the author's account, Brother Van volunteered to go out to the site of attack, find those killed, helped the survivors, held services, and built a church for Bannack. To call this being a scout for General Howard is not accurate from this description, or any other history that I have found. Also, the author's prejudice against Indians is apparent in describing the battle: The redskins "fought like demons", while the whites efforts were described as valiant, etc. General Howard is not a friend of the Indians according to historical accounts. Brother Van is known as a friend of the Indians, and this fictionalized account does not change this picture, so I am very relieved. My husband ordered the book for me, so I may be able to search out her references.

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