Ghost Story Magazine
“The Sand Creek Massacre”
An interview with Donald Vasicek, award winning Film Director
From all of the staff here at Ghost Story Magazine we would like to congratulate you on the success of your award winning film documentary, The Sand Creek Massacre. We also want to thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions for all the readers of Ghost Story Magazine.
Thank you. It is thoughtful and meaningful to me that you want to interview me. I am very appreciative of this opportunity to share with your readers.
1.) Can you please give us an overview of this film project and describe what you were trying to achieve as the director and film creator?
On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado 1st & 3rd Regiment troops slaughtered over 160 Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women and children under protection of the United States flag and a white cloth of truce. This event became known as the Sand Creek Massacre.
The Sand Creek Massacre Documentary Film Project consists of eight parts. They are:
1. Trailer (completed) (http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress/video.html)
2. Documentary Short Film (http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress/DVD-VHS.htm)
3. Educational Video (in production)
4. Full-length documentary film (will go into production when money is raised)
5. Book (will be written when money is raised)
6. Interactive Media (will be created when money is raised)
7. Curriculum/Lesson Plans (being written)
8. Study Guide (being written)
The goal of the Sand Creek Massacre Documentary Film Project is to create a teaching mechanism to help others, particularly young people, on how to solve problems non-violently and to learn about the Cheyenne and Arapaho people to help combat racism.
2.) What are some of the awards this film has been nominated for or has won to date?
Named Best Film of 2004 by the Philip S. Miller Library’s Bull Theater Film Project
2005 Winner – Best Documentary Short The Indie Gathering Film Festival
2005 Semi-Finalist – Best Documentary Moondance International Film Festival
2005 Winner – The American Indian Film Festival
2005 Finalist – Haydenfilms Film Festival
2006 Archived into Heard Museum
2007 Archive into Billy Baguley Museum
2008 Winner – Golden Drover Award – Best Native American Film Trail Dance Film Festival
2011 Catalogued into Smithsonian Institute Libraries
2011 Catalogued into 42 American Tribal Libraries
2011 Catalogued into University of California at Berkley
3.) What inspired you to make a documentary about such a controversial subject in the dark annals of American history?
The overt attention given to Territorial Governor John Evans and Colonel John M. Chivington regarding their involvement regarding the Sand Creek Massacre got my interest. Not to say Governor Evans did not do well for his fellowman, Evanston, Illinois is named after him for his educational and medical (he was a medical doctor) accomplishments and contributions in Illinois, Evans, Colorado, Evans Avenue in Denver, and Mount Evans in Colorado (was originally-named Mount Rosalie) are named after him, and he played an integral role in establishing railroads in Colorado (some call him the first 19th century real estate developer) after many decisions he made as Governor of the Colorado Territory that helped lead to causing the Sand Creek Massacre, left me with questions about why he has the notoriety he has, when so many Cheyenne and Arapaho people butchered at Sand Creek are indistinct, unknown, and unrecognized. Colonel John M. Chivington was a Methodist minister. He was anti-slavery and for statehood, but yet he was driven to be responsible for the brutal murders and mutilations at Sand Creek. I simply felt that we need to learn about the Cheyenne and Arapaho people, that we need to learn that the Cheyenne and Arapaho people are the fabric of American history, of who we are as Americans, and that they should be recognized for it without being blinded by racism.
4.) The Sand Creek Massacre site is said to be very haunted and physically draining location because of the extreme human emotions that have occurred there both before and after the massacre. Did you or anyone else you worked with on this project ever experience anything paranormal or unexplainable during the filming or editing of this documentary?
The closet paranormal experience I had at Sand Creek was the first time I visited there. I was given a tour by a local rancher who had lived there for 38 years. When we drove through the cottonwoods and across Sand Creek (mostly a bog-like stream), I saw a huge male deer with a beautiful rack staring at us in the trees. We got out of the rancher’s truck at top of Dawson’s Bend where the memorial slab set there in 1950 still resides, like a sentinel overlooking the ill-fated Cheyenne and Arapaho village below.
The rancher said that this is where Lt. Silas Soule stood with his men and a 12-pound mountain canon (there were four 12-pound mountain canons at Sand Creek, this was the only time in Colorado history that canons were used in what some people call a battle, others, like myself, refer to Sand Creek as a massacre) looking out over the 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho lodges. He refused to “unlimber” his canon, the rancher said. The rancher pointed to his right, Chivington led some of the men from down there while Lt. Wilson attacked from the east up there. The rancher turned around and we faced south, southwest. He pointed and said that’s where the troops came from. To some Indian boys watching the ponies at the time, the line of troops looked like buffalo to them. He turned to the southeast and pointed, down there close to where his house was (it was about a mile or so away) is where the troops unloaded all of their equipment in preparation to make the attack.
I looked at each location. I studied each location. At that moment, I saw Colonel John M. Chivington, on a dark-colored horse, with his saber drawn, thrashing down this butte into Sand Creek leading a charge right into the heart of the Cheyenne and Arapaho village. I saw his flaming eyes, orbs of hatred and terror. It was at that point, I felt coldness penetrate my body. I shivered, I rubbed the back of my neck. It was rigid. I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to look anymore. I could hear gunshots, the thud of rifle butts colliding with human heads, sabers slashing through the air, people screaming, and I could smell globs gun powder.
Inside, my mind was racing, I wanted to do something. I wanted to help the people who were being killed. I felt guilty. I felt sad. I felt sorrow. I felt weak and horrified. I was afraid to open my eyes. Suddenly, I heard, “Don, Don…” The words echoed and hammered at me like an intrusion, something that was trying to mask the terror and horror that was being unveiled before me. Finally, I felt a hand on my shoulder. My eyes popped open. I almost ducked from what I thought was a rifle butt coming straight at my head.
I blinked. It was Pati Decesaro, a professional photographer, who had driven with me to Sand Creek that day, to take photos. She stroked my face. She said, “It’s all right, Don. I know how you feel.” I looked deeply into her eyes. The pain and sadness in them pointed me in the direction of her. I looked at the rancher. He was looking down at the ground, studying it like it was an archaeological find, but really, I saw the sadness there.
As the rancher drove us back to our car, he crossed Sand Creek again. I saw the buck deer again. Based on what I had learned on the butte overlooking Dawson’s Bend earlier, I knew the location where the buck deer was now reclining. It was the exact trail that Chivington had from where he had led to the charge. Another chill, this time. The rancher commented that it was unusual to see deer there. Pati said, “He’s the appointed guardian for the Indian people. That is why he is there. He wants to make sure they aren’t attacked again.”
Cheyenne Chief Laird Cometsevah, Chief of the Council of 44 Cheyenne Chiefs, which include former Colorado United States Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, and a descendant of Sand Creek (his great grandfather survived Sand Creek, survived Washita, was arrested at Palo Duro, and imprisoned in Florida for three years as a criminal if you can imagine that) told me that the first time he came to Sand Creek in 1978, 114 years after the Sand Creek Massacre, he heard women screaming and children crying. He said he lit his pipe, sat down, and began praying. He said he knew that he had come to the right place.
A National Park Service person who has been helpful to the Cheyenne and Arapaho people and to me regarding the Sand Creek Massacre Documentary Film Project was driving me through the site one October afternoon. I was doing some taping (to note, I’ve been the Sand Creek Massacre Site at least ten times, maybe more, but I always have same feeling, “tread carefully, tread with respect, tread with gratitude, take each step as though you were walking on ice that was about to break any second) It was quiet, peaceful and calm. However, each time I have been at the site, I have always experienced a foreboding feeling. I feel chilled. I feel that I should not step on the ground (bodies of many of the Cheyenne and Arapaho people who were murdered there were left to rot on the bare ground). I look at the Tamarisk, the Canadian thistle, the blue sage, the cottonwood trees there, and I believe, that they were nourished and grew to the sizes they are because of the dead Cheyenne and Arapaho people there. I don’t want to step on the plants because of this reason. I asked the Park Service woman if she ever had any paranormal experiences there. She said no, “…but I never come out here at night.” I asked her why. She said, “I’m not sure.”
Today, I am somewhat fearful of visiting Washita (George Armstrong Custer and the United States Seventh Calvary attacked the Cheyenne people at the Washita River. Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle, who had survived Sand Creek along with his wife, who was shot nine times at Sand Creek, were killed), and the Little Big Horn in Montana. I’ve driven by both places, within a mile and a half from the highway, but I’ve drive by them each time. I have a fear of having similar experiences that I had at Sand Creek the first time I visited there, and a similar experience I had at Ground Zero in New York two weeks after 9/11. I sat on curb there. I smelled burning flesh. I heard screams. I craned my head up, up, and up and saw human beings coming down at me out of the sky. I saw the terror, the disbelief in their eyes. I tasted the rancid air. I felt the pain, the horror, the terror. I wanted to help the victims of 9/11. I want to help the victims at Sand Creek, at Washita, at Little Big Horn, but I cannot. They are gone and I am here.
When I stood up from the curb at Ground Zero, I noticed white ash covered the buildings, the parking lots, the cars, everything, even the curb on which I had been sitting. I saw the imprint of my butt on the curb. I looked at my butt. It had white ash on it. I brushed it off onto a piece of paper. I took a vitamin bottle out of my pocket, dumped out the vitamins, and poured the white ash into the vitamin bottle. When I looked up, I noticed a couple staring at me. Then, I went home to Centennial and buried the vitamin bottle in the back yard under a cherry tree.
5.) How can our readers catch a glimpse of this powerful documentary?
The documentary short is being periodically aired on DCTV Denver Community Television, Channels 58 and 59
A copy can be purchased at http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress/DVD-VHS.htm or BuyIndies.com.
We understand you are seeking donations to assist the American Indian Genocide Museum, and to help you finish the educational version of the film for use in the Colorado and Texas public school systems. How can we help contribute to this good cause?
You can send a check to:
Steve Melendez
President
American Indian Genocide Museum
Cheryl Melendez
Executive Director
American Indian Genocide Museum
11013 FUGUA PMB #178
Houston, TX 77089-210
713-928-2440
www.aigenom.com
indmuseum@yahoo.com
You can also go to PayPal and send a donation to indmuseum@yahoo.com .
Be sure and note that your donation is for the Sand Creek Massacre Documentary Film Project.
6.) What are the next steps for both you and your film company?
Global Horizon Entertainment, Inc. has seven film and television projects in development. We are raising money to produce these projects. One of the first projects that we will put into production when money is raised is “Haunted World.” We shot a screener with your founder and editor, Kevin Sampron that television distributors found compelling. They want us to develop the screener into a television pilot with 13 episodes. Once that is accomplished, we are hopeful of getting distribution for it.
We want to thank you again Don for sharing all your thoughts, insights, and comments with the readers of Ghost Story Magazine. We look forward to talking with you again in the future.
Thank you very much for interviewing me. It was my pleasure. Keep up your good work and good luck with your launch!
The Staff
Ghost Story Magazine
You can find out more information about Don Vasicek and his creative film projects at the following two websites:
www.ghentertainment.com
www.donvasicek.com