At the Sand Creek Massacre site dedication (NPS photo)

The site of one of the deadliest attacks against Native Americans in U.S. history is now open to the public for the first time. In the works for nine years, the newest national park unit—the country's 391st—opened last week.

From Friday through Sunday, visitors toured the grounds and listened to ranger-led talks at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, a 12,488-acre piece of land in Kiowa County, Colo., that marks the location where 160 Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians were killed by U.S. volunteer soldiers on Nov. 29, 1864.

Even though it's finally open, the site is a long way from being finished.

"This is a several-year process," says Alexa Roberts, site manager. "We are just beginning to go over our general-management plan to talk about what kind of development we'll have for visitor services."

There are no bathrooms, drinking fountains, or on-site administrative building. With only four permanent staff members, Roberts is recruiting more staff and hopes to have a modular facility built about 20 miles away by the end of the summer.

It's also been a several-year process to get to this point. In 1998, after passing a bill sponsored by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), Congress placed the area under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service so that the boundaries of the massacre could be determined and designated a national historic site. With help from the state of Colorado and the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes, the Park Service determined the area where the tragedy took place and in 2000 it was authorized a national historic site.

Since then, the National Park Service has worked with an annual budget that has increased each year and is now just under $500,000 to acquire and maintain lands. The 1,465-acre parcel that is recognized as being the exact location of the massacre was donated by the tribal descendents of the Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians, who today live in Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Montana.

"Even though the tribal descendents aren't here locally, they have been involved in every facet of the planning," Roberts says.

Initially, U.S. newspapers called the Sand Creek Massacre another triumphant victory over the Indians. An editorial from the Rocky Mountain News in 1864 boasted that "Colorado soldiers have again covered themselves with glory." But in the months after the incident, some of the soldiers involved confessed to what had actually taken place: It wasn't so much a battle as it was an ambush on Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians who had already been promised peace and even flew a white flag and an American flag over their village. About 200 men, women, and children were killed.

After two congressional committees interviewed numerous witnesses on both sides, the 1864 acts were condemned and labeled a massacre.

Want Today's News headlines delivered to your e-mail box? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter >>