Land Conquering Through "Civilization"

              
"Construction started in 1907. It was finished in 1909. The site is supposed to be located on an Indian burial ground and I believe they actually had to repel a few Indian attacks as they were building it."

- General Manager Stuart Ullman, of the fictional Overlook Hotel, from the horror film, The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick   


It has been 149 years since the Sand Creek Massacre in southeastern Colorado.  Since that time, America has built herself a massive institutions all named after the protagonists.  Not all of them were good people.  This year, Northwestern students from the Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance want to investigate the history of John Evans, the namesake of Evanston Illinois.  Evans used to be the territorial governor of Colorado during the Lincoln presidency.  He was the incumbent "governor" when the man he appointed, the Methodist Reverend and Colonel John Chivington massacred 53 unarmed men and 110 women and children at their winter camp (November 29, 1864) near the Sand Creek in Colorado (not too far from present day Eads and Chivington).  After the massacre, Evans decorated Chivington and his men for "valor against the savages."  

Dr. John Evans

 Besides abetting and rewarding mass murder, Evans was just another 19th century railroad whore politician.  His investments into the Chicago & Fort Wayne Railroad and the Chicago & Evanston Railroad not only made him wealthy, but improved his political success. Evans moved West, playing his role in stealing ancient homelands away from the Indians to build railroads and universities (University of Denver & Northwestern University).  Evans lost his position as Territorial Governor after Sand Creek, but was was treated as hero in most social circles in 19th century America.

The Denver,South Park, and
Pacific Railroad,
19th Century

Though his political career took a hit, Evans went on to be a "founding father" of the Rio Grande Railroad, the University of Denver, and Northwestern University.  Evans was seen as a pillar of the community.  Still to this day, there is a bust of his image in the Northwestern library and the Alumni House at Northwestern University bears his name.  Was he an important person in American history or a mass murderer?     

"Their village consisted of one hundred and thirty Cheyenne and with Arapaho lodges. These, with their contents, were totally destroyed. Among their effects were large supplies of flour, sugar, coffee, tea, and women's and children's clothing were found; also books and many other articles which must have been taken from captured trains or houses. One white man's scalp was found which had evidently been taken but a few days before. The Chiefs fought with unparalleled bravery, falling in front of their men. One of them charged alone against a force of two or three hundred, and fell pierced with balls far in advance of his braves."

-excerpt from an editorial from The Rocky Mountain News, 1864     

Should this situation peak the interest of modern-day Americans? 

 At the root of the conflict with the Native Indians was the issue of control of land, water, and resources.  The whites, with their churches and armies, secret societies and fraternal organizations, armed with the surveyor's level and story pole, named landmarks and rivers, and cordoned off the best tracts of land for white civilization. 

Today, the same criminals are running amok, killing off the Earth and everything that lives in it for personal profit.  Students at Northwestern should not be suprised at the fame and respect a man like Dr. John Evans is offered more than a hundred years after his death.  The lie of imperialism and civilization made itself entrenched in the fabric of all educational institutions a long time ago. 

Dr. John Evans Alumni House
Northwestern University

Ironically, soon, it seems, the government or other imperial forces will reckon with the relatives of their former comrades.  The pie is getting smaller all the time under this phony monetary system and soon the poor Americans  (the massive majority) will be in the crosshairs of the conquerors and destroyers.  Soon they will be the Indians getting invaded and run off by bloodthirst and greed.