Sand Creek Massacre Foundation

08/27/2026

Sand Creek Massacre Foundation congratulates new Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site Site Manager Jake Koch!

The National Park Service is pleased to announce the selection of Jake Koch as the new Site Manager for Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.

Jake brings nearly 20 years of National Park Service experience to the position, most recently serving as Interpretive Manager for the High Plains Group, which consists of Amache National Historic Site, Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site, and Sand Creek Massacre. His extensive background in interpretation, history, and park operations will support the site’s mission and strengthen its relationships with affiliated tribes, park partners, and gateway communities.

Jake began his National Park Service career in 2005 at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. In addition to the High Plains Group, he has also served at Vicksburg National Military Park, Andersonville National Historic Site, and Pea Ridge National Military Park.

“I am both excited and humbled to lead the team at Sand Creek Massacre,” said Koch. “I’ve read about the events of November 29, 1864, since I was a kid, and it’s truly an honor to help steward such a nationally significant place. I look forward to building strong relationships with our affiliated tribes, park partners, and gateway communities.”

Please join us in congratulating Jake on his selection as Site Manager. We look forward to his leadership and his work with the site’s staff, affiliated tribes, partners, and surrounding communities!

NPS photo of Site Manager Jake Koch at the village overlook.

08/27/2026

Thank you, Kiowa County Independent for your thoughtful article on our Section 106 advocacy efforts! Read more on pages 4-5.

08/19/2026

📣 Join the Sand Creek Massacre Foundation in opposing proposed revisions to the National Historic Preservation Act that would jeopardize historic sites nationwide by contacting your state, tribal and federal representatives!

Read our statement below:

The Sand Creek Massacre Foundation strongly urges state and federal representatives to oppose the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation’s (ACHP) proposed drastic revisions to the regulations implementing Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. These proposed changes will erase 60 years of historic preservation policy and threaten the survival of the most significant sites, places, and landscapes that have long endured as icons of the nation’s shared history.

The ACHP’s proposal would virtually eliminate the ability of individuals, communities, local and state governments and Tribes to participate in the identification and protection of the historic sites and places that define their cultural identities; places such as the site of the Sand Creek Massacre, where the United States Army slaughtered 230 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho people in 1864.

Without the currently robust “Section 106 process”, sacred places like the Sand Creek Massacre Site may not survive unilateral federal agency decisions about the impacts of potentially damaging undertakings. Had the Sand Creek Massacre Site not been identified through a collaborative federal/state/tribal process, the site may never have been preserved, its significance as one of the most sacred places in the Cheyenne and Arapaho worlds would not be understood, and its memory would be largely forgotten by the American people. The truth of that atrocity and its significance in American history would never be acknowledged nor serve as a source of healing, education and reflection on our contemporary world.

While the Sand Creek Massacre Site is now preserved as a national historic site, many other similarly sacred, nationally significant and irreplaceable sites and places will be endangered under the ACHP’s gutted regulatory changes. As we speak, the West Texas site of the 1918 Porvenier Massacre is facing destruction by the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection, to be replaced by the border wall. Under the ACHP’s proposed regulations, there may be no opportunity for descendants of massacre victims to participate in a collaborative process leading to measures to avoid or minimize harm to the historic site.

Without the opportunity for the participation of citizens at the local, state and Tribal levels in the identification of sites like those of the Sand Creek Massacre and consultation with federal agencies about how to minimize or avoid harm to them, innumerable archaeological sites, sacred places, cultural landscapes and other memorials of America’s story will be damaged or destroyed without recourse.

Of most concern to the Sand Creek Massacre Foundation is the ACHP’s proposed elimination of Tribal involvement in the Section 106 process. This egregious proposal violates the deeply ingrained tenets of the government-to-government relationship with American Indian Tribes and blatantly undermines federal trust and resources stewardship responsibilities.

We urge you to oppose this draconian assault on the National Historic Preservation Act, especially (and ironically) during celebrations of the nation’s 250th anniversary. Protect the National Historic Preservation Act, and the hard-won regulations that carry out its purposes. Without our history, we are not American.

https://www.sandcreekmassacrefoundation.org/news

History Colorado
Cultural Heritage Partners
National Alliance of Preservation Commissions
National Parks Conservation Association

08/18/2026

📰 Read the The Colorado Sun's article on the threats revisions to the National Historic Preservation Act pose to historic sites nationwide.

📣Join Sand Creek Massacre Foundation in opposing the changes by calling your representatives today!

History Colorado
Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site

Most people have never heard of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Here’s why it matters.

08/16/2026

Porvenir, Texas. Not just another place that fought for recognition as a massacre site. Not just another place where the changes to Section 106 would devastate. Porvenir also faces the triple threat of being "in the way" of the U.S. / MX border wall.

Read on and fight on. Together we can prevent a demolishment of not just 60 years of historic preservation efforts, but of the places that evidence the complex history of the United States, Texas, and Mexico.

https://apple.news/A1FX1m7iCQ0mxplSIr0xaSg - via Texas Monthly

It is considered sacred ground for the descendants of those killed in a mass ex*****on. The border wall threatens to erase it from history.

08/08/2026

URGENT! HISTORIC PRESERVATION AT RISK!

If you care about protecting historic sites and landscapes, your voice is needed!

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation is proposing changes that would threaten our most cherished historic sites and places, by gutting the regulations that implement Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. These revisions would especially endanger sites and places of cultural significance to Tribal communities, along with long-established protections for historic sites and places of significance to communities nationwide.

Specific threats to Tribal historic properties and Tribal participation in the preservation process include:

Annulling federal trust responsibilities and government-to-government relationships.

No longer requiring consultation with Tribes on off-reservation lands and

No longer guaranteeing that Tribes will have a seat at the table in agency decisions.

Excluding Tribal expertise in the identification of culturally significant historic properties such as unmarked burial sites, sacred places, and other places identifiable only through Tribal knowledge, leaving them subject to destruction with no record or recourse.

Redefining ‘Historic Properties’ as “built structures” and “geographically compact”, eliminating sacred places such as mountains, valleys, waters, and cultural landscapes.

Your help is needed now!! Please write to your Congressional delegation and Governor, and respond to the Federal Register notice of the proposed regulatory changes within the 30-day public comment period! Let your elected officials and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation know that you care about preservation of America’s shared cultural heritage!

Learn more about the potential impacts of the gutting of Section 106 here: https://www.sandcreekmassacrefoundation.org/section-106

08/06/2026

Join Sand Creek Massacre Foundation this Tuesday 8/11 at 10 AM for the grand opening of Amache Prowers Memorial Park in Denver!

Learn more about Ameohtse’e Ochinee Prowers, daughter of Cheyenne Chief Lone Bear/Ochinee, killed at Sand Creek: https://www.nps.gov/people/ameohtsee-prowers.htm

08/05/2026

📣Read about how proposed changes to the National Historic Preservation Act would weaken Tribal consultation, reduce protections for sacred places, and exceed the authority granted to the agency by Congress. Stay tuned for a call to advocacy from Sand Creek Massacre Foundation on this important issue.

Overview: Tribal organizations and historic preservation advocates are raising alarms over proposed revisions to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation's regulations governing the Section 106 review process, warning the changes would weaken Tribal consultation, reduce protections for sacred p...

08/02/2026

The road to statehood came through Sand Creek. 🇺🇸 🏳️

On this 150th anniversary of Colorado, we remember how the path was laid for statehood. For the Cheyenne and Arapaho people, the 1864 massacre at Sand Creek was a pivotal and irrevocable moment for the Colorado Territory to eventually become the 38th state in 1876.

Now, 150 years later, Colorado’s journey has run alongside the massacre’s aftermath. First came the unimaginable grief for the tribes, then a long stretch where it seemed like the atrocity would be mischaracterized as a Civil War battle. But then came justice and a vision for healing. Building a National Historic Site that finally called it what it was: a massacre. Cleansing the path of ancestors from Sand Creek to Denver through the Sand Creek Massacre Spiritual Healing Run.

When the Sand Creek Massacre Foundation incorporated in 2020, we were charged to support such transformation for the better. From assisting the National Park Service on site in Eads, Colorado, to enabling Cheyenne and Arapaho descendants to reconnect with the Coloradoan ancestral lands they were forced from, our work is never done. In recent years, our ability to expand the reach of our mission has blossomed, and we wanted to share some recent news in that regard. This work would not be possible without our supporters - including the state of Colorado itself - but we are especially grateful to supporters like you.

So, thank you to everyone who turned out in the heat of July to attend our speaker series event “Witness at Sand Creek: Silas Soule” at the Stockyards Event Center at the National Western Center complex in Denver. This event was made possible through a partnership with the Rocky Mountain Land Library and the National Western Center.

Please enjoy a few photos from the evening, and stay tuned for the video from the event to be released soon.