The National Trust for Historic Preservation honored the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, the Northern Arapaho Tribe and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes for their work to preserve two massacre sites.

The tribes work closely with the National Park Service to ensure their history is told at the Sand Creek Massacre Site in Colorado and the Washita Battlefield National Historic Site in Oklahoma. They received the Preservation Honor Award for their efforts.

"At these historic sites in the American Plains, members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes are helping make sure the telling of history is clear and accurate - even when it isn't pretty," Richard Moe, the president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said in a press release.

On November 29, 1864, U.S. military troops attacked a peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho camp along Sand Creek in Colorado. More than 150 people, mostly women, children and elders, were killed.

On November 27, 1868, Lt. Col. George A. Custer led a surprise dawn raid on a sleeping Southern Cheyenne camp in Oklahoma. About 100 Cheyenne were killed.

Get the Story:
National Trust for Historic Preservation presents awards to Cheyenne, Arapaho tribes (The Billings Gazette 10/15)
Tribes honored for preserving western Oklahoma battlefield (AP 10/15)

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Opinion: See history at Custer massacre site (10/14)