arapahoe chief. >> chief left-hand was one of the arapahoe indians in the mid-1800's. the raponos are one of the plains indians tribes and this ear on the plains of colorado and in fact the plains colorado belong to the rapanos and the cheyenne. chief left-hand was one of the great leaders of the arapahoe and what made them great was well there were two things that made him great. one, he was a peace chief. we care a lot about the war chiefs and we know all about the war chiefs the great chiefs that led the warriors thundered across the plains fighting the enemy. we don't hear much about the peace chiefs that there were peace chiefs who worked very hard to try to bring all the newcomers who were coming onto the plains flooding onto indian lands and the tribes together and to find a way that these different people of different cultures could live together. chief left-hand was one of those really great piece dealers.

he was also fluent in english and this was highly unusual in the mid-1800's for any plains indian to be fluent in english or in any other language other than the language which that indians spoke. each tribe had its own language but the common language on the plains with sign language. everybody communicated with signs. nobody had to learn anybody else's language and here was this man to his fluent in english. i am a writer. i set out to answer the question that i wanted answered and that was how did he become fluent in english? i thought it would write and magazine argue -- magazine article on him. i ended up writing a biography on him. a white traitor married his sister and started living in the white village and took left-hand he was probably 10 or 11 or something like that, took him under his wing and taught him

english. he was fluent in english. when a gold rush occurred in 1858 in colorado and you had ford's imported people coming across the plains justice during indian land, and running off to buffalo, slaughtering the buffalo taking charge of the indian land. when that happened to his demand that was going to rise up and try to make peace with these people, try to figure out some way for these newcomers and his people and the cheyenne people could work and live together and that was chief left-hand because he could speak their language. his tactic was to get to know people, the white people. most of them are white. there were a lot of spanish people and people from mexico too but it was the gold rushers he came out here and planted themselves down on indian land. those people were from the eastern states and most of them were -- and the arapahoe they

look at all these people and they said they thought all the white people the whole world had come to the plains. they said there can't be any more than this. what's he going to do? >> can talk to these people. he can speak their language. his brother-in-law was a white man who married his sister lived with people. he wasn't put off by him. he could get along with him. he likes very much the winners -- winters in boulder so he would bring his village to pull during the winter. he would go around and get to know these new settlers and talk to them. he would spend time on their ranches and talking over what was going on, the conflicts that were occurring and asking their dice. what should he do, what can we do that we cannot get along a pier?

why can't we all get along? he went and met with the territorial governor. he met with the military authorities. he talked to them. he actually, that's not news ran an article that was very derogatory towards the arapahoe. he went down to the rocky mountain news office which is in denver and went to see the editor and demanded a retraction. they didn't call it a retracti retraction. basically he said this is not what happens. we want you to write the truth. now he couldn't read because he never learned to read english but he knew so many the people that spoke english and english speaking people that somebody told him what the rocky mountain news had written obviously. he went down and got them to change it. one time he took several of his lawyers and he went to the theater in denver, the apollo

theater which was on lehrer merce street, one of the first reach in denver. he went to a play there. after the play was over he jumped up on the stage and he gave a talk. there was a reporter from the rocky mountain news there and the reporter said hey good talk. he said if you come here looking for gold and take your gold and go home but that wasn't going to happen. they came here looking for goal and they decided they would stay because they could find more gold. he tried to reach other people. that was what he did. and try to reach out to the authorities and always saying we want peace with you. we don't want to fight you. how could we fight 150,000 people armed to the teeth? so he said we want peace. you want to be able to live here

side-by-side. that was always his agenda. that is what he really worked for. he made a very sad mistake of believing what the white authorities told him and of course they lie to him and they lied to the other peace chiefs such as black kettle and white antelope who were too shy and peace chiefs and they were all working together. left hand is more outstanding because he can speak english. he can translate what the other chiefs want and tell the white authorities come he can tell them so they understand in no uncertain terms. so that gives you an idea of who he was and what it was doing and how we work very hard and gave his life. he gave his life in the quest for peace out here on the plains. he died at sand creek in the sand creek massacre which occurred on november 291864 in

southeastern colorado. we are memorializing at this year, the 150th anniversary of the sand creek massacre of the cheyenne and arapahoe ndn. this came out after the authorities in denver told the peace chiefs left hand and the others take your people, go down to sand creek and wait and we will make an agreement with you. we will make a treaty with you and so they did. they went out and they gathered people and they brought them to sand creek and left-hand did the same. he got his village and brought them down to sand creek. the cheyenne came in. there were more cheyenne than arapahoe. it was only left-hand's man that weren't there because the rest of the arapahoe had not gotten there yet. they were on the way that they hadn't gotten there. the governor was tracking them and he know exactly where they

were going. he knew when they came in to sand creek and he sent colonel who was the military had out here in colorado and they marched to sand creek and attacked the village, sleeping village at dawn on november 29 and just slaughtered a lot of people. most of the people they killed were women and children and old people. left hand was mortally wounded at sand creek and he died a few days later. so he gave his life believing in peace, believing there was going to be some agreement that was going to be made in his people would be able to live here on the plains and have a place to live. they knew they weren't going to have the whole plains like they did before to rome and to move their villages and hunt buffalo. they knew that and the buffalo were dimini