The Sand Creek Massacre Foundation partners with the National Park Service (NPS) to help the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site accomplish its educational goals and bring to life additional mission-aligned educational projects.

The federally recognized Northern Arapaho Tribe of Wyoming is one of four groups of Arapaho who originally occupied the headwaters of the Arkansas and Platte Rivers. They speak a variation of the Algonquin language, and are that people’s most southwest extension. Culturally, the Arapaho people are Plains Indians, but socially and historically distinct. After signing the Treaty of 1851, the Arapaho and Cheyenne shared land encompassing one-sixth of Wyoming, one-quarter of Colorado and parts of western Kansas and Nebraska. Later, when the Treaty of 1868 left the Northern Arapaho without a land base, they were placed on the Wind River Reservation in west central Wyoming.

“Our land is everything to us…we remember that our grandfathers paid for it—with their lives.” Approximately 5,000 Northern Cheyenne, along with members of other tribes and non-Native people, live on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. Lame Deer, MT is the tribal and government agency headquarters. The Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council consists of members elected from Ashland, Birney, Busby, Muddy, and Lame Deer. The President and the members of the Tribal Council serve four year staggered terms.

The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Nations are headquartered in Concho, Oklahoma. The tribal government consists of the Tribal Council, Executive Branch, Legislative Branch, and Judicial Branch. The Cheyenne and Arapaho are federally recognized as one tribe and known as the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. However, while the tribes function as one Nation, each tribe still maintains their own culture, traditions, customs, social dances, ceremonies, and languages.