http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-massacre10feb10,1,7572580.story?coll=la-home-headlinesSilence and emptiness abound on this great sea of grass stretching to the pale blue horizon. Tumbleweeds spin past, hawks gaze from rusted fence posts.
On mornings like this, when all is still, Indian pilgrims sometimes walk along the crooked course of Sand Creek and listen. They say they can hear screams and sobs.
"There is a small group of us who hear spirits all the time," said Laird Cometsevah, a Cheyenne chief who comes here each year. "Some hear women, I hear children."
Cheyennes and Arapahos have long journeyed to this lonesome prairie to remember the 163 Indians shot and hacked to death by Colorado cavalrymen during the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864. The slaughter, initially hailed as a great military victory, set off a dozen years of bloody warfare across the Great Plains.
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Last December, a businessman with ties to the tribes bought the massacre site and donated it to them. They in turn leased it to the National Park Service, which is creating the country's first national historic site dedicated solely to a massacre.