The Sand Creek Massacre » press

Lesson Plans

Don Vasicek — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:40:39 +0000

Students will engage in an intensive examination of the Sand Creek Massacre in order to understand the unique historical experience, values, practices and aspirations of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. Through examination of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, students will increase their understanding of the Sand Creek Massacre, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal history, organization and culture and the interaction between the Cheyenne and Arapaho people and the Anglo/European groups that explored and colonized the United States. Prior to the beginning of this Unit, students will define the terms and use pictorials of each to increase pre-understanding of common terminology used during this era.

SHOP:
–Award-winning Sand Creek Massacre Documentary Short – 6:37 in
length – $9.95 plus $1.95 for s&h.

–Sand Creek Massacre Lesson Plans/Curriculum
- $25.95 plus $2.95 for s&h.

–The award-winning “The Sand Creek Massacre” Documentary Presentation – 20:56 in
length”

Purchase Online by typing the item number (37436) or by the title, The Sand Creek Massacre at: http://www.films.com/id/13926/The_Sand_Creek_Massacre_Seven_Hours_that_Changed_American_History.htm

–Award-winning Sand Creek Massacre Documentary Short(6:37)/
Lesson Plans/Curriculum – $29.95 plus $4.95 for s&h

–Sand Creek Massacre Documentary Presentation (20:56)/Lesson
Plans/Curriculum – $49.95 plus $4.95 for s&h

–Sand Creek Massacre Screening and Discussion Appearance by Donald L.
Vasicek – $300 plus expenses.

TO PURCHASE:

or Send Check or Money Order to:

Olympus Films+, LLC
“Commitment to Professionalism”
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122

Be Part of “Ghosts of Sand Creek”

Don Vasicek — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:13:29 +0000

“We have some work to do for America’s native people. Even though we live in a troubled world, how can we be helpful to other countries when we are allowing native people to suffer as they have been ever since they were decimated in 1849 by the cholera epidemic introduced by migrant Anglo/Europeans? “Ghosts of Sand Creek” aims to inform, to educate and to create awareness for America’s native people by lobbying Congress to require native studies curriculums for all schools in America. The more people who contribute to the making of this film, the better case we will have to present to Congress. Why don’t you join us today and become part of American history? We need your help.”

-Donald L. Vasicek
Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker

FUNDING
Goal
$2.5 million
Q: How will these funds be used?
A: Funding for “Ghosts of Sand Creek”, a feature documentary film. Development. Pre-Production. Production. Post Production. Marketing.

Q: What is the name of the legal entity behind this project?
A: Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122 USA
303-903-2103

VIP PERKS

$100 Contributor

Signed DVD copy of “Ghosts of Sand Creek”.
Listing on lobbyist list to present to Congress, unless you note that you do not want to be on the list.

$200 Donor

Signed DVD copy of “Ghosts of Sand Creek”, DVD copy of the award-winning “The Sand Creek Massacre”. Listing on lobbyist list to present to Congress, unless you note that you do not want to be

$500 VIP

Signed DVD copy of “Ghosts of Sand Creek”, DVD copy of the award-winning “The Sand Creek Massacre”, invitation to wrap party. Listing on lobbyist list to present to Congress, unless you note that you do not want to be on the list.

$2,000 VIP Contributor

Signed DVD copy of “Ghosts of Sand Creek”, DVD copy of the award-winning “The Sand Creek Massacre”

Invitation to wrap party

List on web site as VIP Contributor.

Listing on lobbyist list to present to Congress, unless you note that you do not want to be on the list.

$5,000 VIP Donor

Signed DVD copy of “Ghosts of Sand Creek

“DVD copy of the award-winning “The Sand Creek Massacre”

Invitation to wrap party

List on web site as VIP Donor

Film credit

Listing on lobbyist list to present to Congress, unless you note that you do not want to be on the list.

$10,000 VIP VIP

Signed DVD copy of “Ghosts of Sand Creek”

DVD copy of the award-winning “The Sand Creek Massacre”

Invitation to wrap party

List on web site as VIP VIP

Film credit as Executive Producer

Listing on lobbyist list to present to Congress, unless you note that you do not want to be on the list.

As a stepping stone to help native people in America, I am making a documentary film about peace treaties from 1825 through 1890 the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes agreed to without legal representation, with the United States government. By betraying these agreements, the United States government and private individuals bilked the Cheyenne and Arapaho people out of 51 million acres of land. The government and these individuals have amassed billions of dollars in profit from these lands via natural gas, oil, lumber, farming, ranching, land patents, securities, animals, goods and provisions, mining, etc.

In return, the Cheyenne and Arapaho people have experienced white man diseases, abject poverty, hunger, alcohol and drug abuse, high unemployment, lack of appropriate housing and health assistance, lack of
education, homelessness, racism, genocide, discrimination and, for many, not enough resources to even
buy toilet paper. Many of them, including thousands of other native people live in Third World conditions, in the United States of America. While the U. S. government pours billions of dollars into other countries and regions of the world like Darfur to help them out, they let America’s natives suffer.

I ask the questions, what about America’s native people? Without taking care of Indian people in the United States of America, what chance does America have to survive?

It is time, now, to act. Enough of broken promises, self-interest, and greed, America’s natives must take charge of their lives, or they will leave this earth forever.

In order to educate, to inform, and to create awareness for all native people in America, the American Indian Genocide Museum and the 15,000 members of the Sand Creek Massacre Descendant’s Trust are giving support to my film, “Ghosts of Sand Creek.” This film will show the deprivations and depredations most all native’s ancestors suffered at the hands of the United States government. This film will be told through the eyes of the Cheyenne and Arapaho people via their oral histories.

The intentions of the film is to gain enough exposure to force the United States government to fulfill its obligations regarding the 1867 Treaty of Little Arkansas, to make reparations for monies, land, and goods by the United States government to the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes to complete their duty according to this particular treaty.

Success here will cause a domino effect that will cause the government to fulfill its duty to fulfill its obligations regarding other peace treaties throughout the land. In turn, the reward of monies owed to all native tribes can result in combating disease, improve education, destroy poverty,hunger, high unemployment, homelessness, health assistance, racism, genocide, discrimination, and the ability
for everyone to buy toilet paper.

It is past time for America’s native people to rise up and transcend these problems and make a prominent place for themselves in their country. With the newly-elected administration, I believe that this is even more
likely than ever before. But, I need your support.

“Ghosts of Sand Creek”, is a two-hour, six episode documentary film about the descendants and ancestors of the Sand Creek Massacre, which occurred on November 29, 1864 in the southeastern Colorado Territory, is in development.

Coming on the heels of the award-winning Sand Creek Massacre trailer, the award-winning six and one-half minute documentary and the award-winning 22-minute documentary, that is being distributed by Films Media Group, “Ghosts of Sand Creek” is delving more deeply into the Cheyenne and Arapaho people and how the massacre has stalked them up to the present time.

I am writing to ask each one of you to help me raise the money to make this film to helpout those who are less fortunate than we are. The budget is $2 million. It is my belief that I need to keep pushing until I realize
my goal of helping out America’s native people the way I can, and that is through filmmaking which creates massive exposure for America’s natives.

Until money is place for “Ghosts of Sand Creek”, I am unable to mention names. I can say that I have attached a major motion picture actor to the film, an Academy Award-Winning Cinematographer and Filmmaker, five Emmy Award winners, and one Emmy Award nominee. They have agreed to work on the film because of their passion for helping out America’s natives.

Please tell your friends. Thank you for your consideration and support.

Best Regards,

Donald L. Vasicek
OLYMPUS FILMS+, LLC
Writing/Filmmaking/Consulting

http://www.donvasicek.com

dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

Don Vasicek — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:10:05 +0000

“We’ve used a passive approach to the telling of the brutality at Sand Creek for the purpose of showing the ignorance of utilizing killing as a means to solve problems. Violence always leaves an impact, but the graphicness of the murders, the rapes, the mutilations, even after people were dead, leaves a remarkable imprint on students, parents, and educators. They see an historic reality that motivates them to do more to circumvent violence in the present as a means to solve problems. And that includes fourth graders who viewed the film in an elementary school in Centennial, Colorado who shared their thoughts with me after the screening.”

-Donald L. Vasicek
Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker/Consultant

“We Cannot Be Who We Are Not” “Always keep in mind that the main issue which has led to so many other issues is land. The earth has always been the Cheyenne/Arapaho’s power. As their lands dwindled because of European immigration, their power dwindled. Today, most older, and many younger Native Americans are living without that power. Instead, they are living on reservations that yield little, ifany resources. This has reduced Native Americans
to a cross between their native heritage and the incursion of others into their space. Many know little about moving forward, because the past is where all of their power resides, and, it is gone.

Native Americans are born to roam the earth. Many of their ancestors went where the buffalo went. The buffalo were the source of their existence. In the beginning, the Cheyenne and Arapaho people had 51 million acres of land. They were free. They lived with the elements and they prospered. Today, most conceive themselves as prisoners of a society that has little bearing to who they really are, what they inherited from their ancestors, not too unlike each one of us. How can we be who we are not? The answer is, we cannot be who we are not, and until we discover who we are, then live that way, is when we experience the ultimate peace of who we are. It is my belief that most Native Americans are not who the society they live in forces
them to be, in order to survive.

So, if you surround yourself with this attitude, with this approach, with this theme, then, everything else you are being asked about which to understand, will fall into place.”

-Donald L. Vasicek

“Award-Winning Sand Creek Massacre Film Archived”

August 27, 2008 — CENTENNIAL, CO — Golden Drover Award winner for Best Native American Film in the Trail Dance Film Festival, “The Sand Creek Massacre”, has been archived in The Billie Jean Baguley Library in the Heard Museum in Phoenix.

Award-winning Writer/Filmmaker/Consultant, Donald L. Vasicek,
said, “By having the film archived in these prestigious institutions,
my goal of informing, educating and creating awareness for the
Cheyenne and Arapaho people via their oral histories in the film,
helps all American native people. The Cheyenne and Arapaho
people, vowed, after the Sand Creek Massacre, that they would live
on this earth forever. The film keeps their dream alive regardless
of the genocide that has stalked all American native people from
the inception of European people’s arrival on their lands to the present.
The film is a permanent recording of their ancestors and who they are as
a people.”

Vasicek continues his efforts to record the Cheyenne and Arapaho
history. He has placed, “Ghosts of Sand Creek”, a two-hour, six
episode series, into development. Vasicek said, “Ghosts of Sand
Creek” will dimensionalize the Cheyenne and Arapaho people’s
story. It will show the white man’s continuing invasion of their human
rights.

“I read recently where actor Brad Pitt raised $500,000 for
people in Darfur. He should now raise money for American native
people so that they can also eat. Walk down the main street
in Lame Deer, Montana, on the Northern Cheyenne’s reservation.
Cruise the Northern Arapaho Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.
American natives on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota
need groceries, socks, underwear, shirts, shoes, trousers, fuel to
keep warm, etc. And they have to go across the border into
Nebraska to buy liquor. You will experience, as I have, many times
over, the abject poverty American natives experience. This is
genocide at its finest in all centuries.”

Vasicek said, “America’s native people need America’s help. Be part
of ‘Ghosts of Sand Creek’.” Go to donvasicek.com for details.

Contact:

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC

http://www.donvasicek.com

dvasicek@earthlink.net

“Notes from Dachau and Anne Frank’s House”

Don Vasicek — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:49:31 +0000

June 18, 2008 – Centennial, CO – Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/
filmmaker for the Sand Creek Massacre documentary film recently traveled to
Europe. Amongst his stops was Dachau, a Nazi concentration camp about nine
miles or fifteen kilometers northwest of Munich. Vasicek, known for his campaign
to educate others about American native people, nevertheless, was stunned by
what he saw and experienced at Dachau and in Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam.
Part of his notes are as follows:

ENTRY TO DACHU

“To escape from Dachau, one had to sprint across an eight-foot wide
strip of grass. The grass was nurtured there for prisoners. It encircled
the interior of the camp. If one stepped on the grass, they were shot. If
one made it past the grass to a v-shaped cement moat that also surrounded
the interior of the camp, they had to scamper down into the moat, up the other
side of it to barbed wire that was spread on up-sloping ground. An, at least
ten-foot high electric fence with barbed wire curled on top of it like large circles
drawn with barbed spikes on it, was the last barrier to escape from a place
where an estimated 50,000 human beings were murdered.

ENTRY (ORIGINAL)TO DACHU

“As I toured the camp and listened to the tour guide’s description of the camp,
what was there, and what is presently there and why, I felt like I had stepped
into the past. All of the books I had read, all of the movies and documentary films
I had seen, all of what I had learned about that horrific time, came to the surface there. I got a
dose of reality. I could feel the terror, the pain, and the sorrow. I constantly
asked myself, how could anyone create such a horrifying place? I was stunned
to realize how real Dachau had been, how much hate had been generated to mask
the reality of breathing human beings.

“When I walked up to the crematorium, I traced the steps of prisoners who could
no longer work or work, like women, children, elders, the sick, prisoners who were gay,
prisoners who were gypsies and other “throwaways”, as Nazis often called them.

“The first room was the room where prisoners had to strip themselves naked. Then, they
walked to the next room, which had a lower ceiling than the rooms in the rest of the building
and no windows. They were told they were going to take showers, but instead, poison
pellets were dropped into the room in two hinged box-like containers in one wall that
were filled with the pellets from outside of the building.”

Think about that. Just think about that.

“The next room was the crematorium. I stood in front of the ovens as the tour guide
explained that towards the end of the war (World War II), the Nazis escalated the job, or
as they called, the final solution. They backlogged at Dachau. The tour guide showed us
how bodies were piled up, both inside and outside of the crematorium waiting to be
burned. Pictures taken at the time were prominent there.

I stepped back from the photos. I realized that anywhere I stepped, I stepped where
Nazis and people condemned to death by ignorance had either once stood, or lay. I
know I am unique, different, because there is no one else who is me. I just don’t like
the idea that killing is a solution to solving problems. Genocide is ignorance based on
fear. And according to some, fear is the second most powerful human emotion next to love.

The tour guide mentioned that the German people, as recent as 1999, had decided to
“come out” with their horrific past. German children are now required to study World War II
Nazism and come to the camps to learn. The tour guide said the reason the German people
had waited so long to “come out” was because of their shame for the
terror and devastation the Nazis had perpetuated on millions of others.”

It is time, now, for the American people to do the same thing. We must come out
of our shame and stop genocide in America. That is the very least we can
do for the native people of America. Our children must learn about native people,
their cultures, their history, and who they are as human beings so that they can relate
to them as human beings.

No one is better than anyone else regardless of achievements, social standing, religion ,
culture, race and/or material wealth. We are one because we are human. We are a collectiveness
consciousness. When we hurt someone, we damage that consciousness. This, in turn, causes
all human beings to lose some of the positive energy this kind of
consciousness brings to each one of us.

If one isn’t convinced, walk in the hidden recesses of a building next to Princes Gracht Canal
in Amsterdam where thirteen year-old Anne Frank hid from the Nazis with her family for three
years until they were betrayed and sent to camps. Walk in the rooms.
I did. Guess what? Anne Frank was a talented girl, a writer, a young person with
dreams and goals. A Jewish girl who loved her family more than anything else
in her world. A human being.

Princes Gracht Canal - Amsterdam

Feel her there. Feel the terror. Anne Frank, at age sixteen, died from typhoid in a concentration
camp because of ignorance fueled by fear. Genocide in its finest form.

Then, there is the Sand Creek Massacre. I’ve been at the site several times. Sat in the grass
by Sand Creek, camera in hand, alone, recording sounds, the sun warm on my back. I felt like
others were there. You know, invisible, but there. Perhaps apparitions, if I looked hard enough.
On November 29, 1964, there were over five-hundred Cheyenne lodges there, perhaps a thousand
or so Cheyenne people, seven-hundred soldiers, their horses, their equipment, their canons,
their guns, their sabers, and Indian dogs and horses. Their ignorance. Their fear. Their hate.
And there was murder there. Rape. Mutilations. Carnage.

There is a prominent person who has done work at the Sand Creek Massacre Site. I asked
her if she ever “felt” anything while she was there doing her work. She said, “No, not really, but I’ll
never go out to the site at night.” I asked her why. She said, “I don’t know why, I just won’t go.”

You might want to check it out, see how it makes you feel. Perhaps it can remove you,
even for a moment, from your reality and plunge you in the depths of losing sight of who
human beings, all human beings really are, human beings, just like you and me.

####

Contact:

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC

http://www.donvasicek.com

dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek Launches New Sand Creek Massacre Website

Don Vasicek — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:17:45 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek Launches New Sand Creek Massacre Website”

May 21, 2008 — CENTENNIAL, CO — Award-winning filmmaker, Donald L.
Vasicek, has launched a new Sand Creek Massacre website. Titled, “The Sand Creek Massacre”, the site contains in depth witness accounts of the massacre, the award-winning Sand Creek Massacre trailer for viewing, the award-winning Sand Creek Massacre documentary short for viewing, the story of the Sand Creek Massacre, and a Shop to purchase Sand Creek Massacre DVD’s and lesson
plans including the award-winning documentary film/educational DVD.

Vasicek, a board member of The American Indian Genocide Museum (www.aigenom.com)in Houston, Texas, said, “The website was launched to inform, to educate, and to provide educators, historians, students and all others the accessibility to the Sand Creek Massacre story.”

The link/URL to the website is sandcreekmassacre.net.
###

Contact:
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC

http://www.donvasicek.com

dvasicek@earthlink.net

“The Man With Cobra Eyes” by Donald L. Vasicek

Don Vasicek — Sun, 18 May 2008 21:30:25 +0000

A tall, thin man, maybe 50′s, long, shiny dark hair cascading down over his shoulders, with a set of black pupils that blazed like fire, sizzled, as he addressed me. “Tell the real truth. The Cheyennes were a murderous bunch who got what they deserved at Sand Creek.”

I realized this man could move with the speed of a bullet and that he had a knife in his coat as sharp as a new razor blade.

“Listen,” I said, “It doesn’t matter what the Cheyennes did before or after the Sand Creek Massacre. What matters is that at Sand Creek, they were raped, shot, knifed, mutilated, decapitated, executed, hung, and murdered. That is what my story is about, sir.”

We were at a Hollywood bash, something that makes my stomach queasy, for some reason.

The fat-free native man pushed his deerskin coat open. The handle of his pearl-handled Bowie knife in a leather holster in his waistband glistened off a large chandelier just above us.

“You’re just as bad as they are.”

“I assume they means the Cheyenne people.”

“I’m not talking Greek to you.”

“You’re a lecturer, an actor, a writer, and a couple of other things, right? ‘Dances with Wolves.’ ‘Far And Away’, ‘Geronimo,’ ‘Crazy Horse’, ‘Return To Lonesome Dove,’ ‘Deadmans Walk’, ‘Indian In The Cupboard’, ‘The Postman’, ‘Last Of The Dogmen’ ‘Last of the Mohicans.’ ” I searched him for a reaction. His black pupils leapt at me.

“Yeah, got some mileage in the business. So…”

“How would you feel if I told you how to do your work?”

“No one can tell me how to do my work.”

“I will tell you that when I finish the “Ghosts of Sand Creek” production, I want you to call me. I will want to see if you’ve learned any lessons since then.”

I shook his hand firmly. His felt like a rock.

-Donald L. Vasicek, The Writer/Filmmaker Whisperer, Olympus Films+, LLC, http://www.donvasicek.com, dvasicek@earthlink.net

“Sand Creek Massacre filmmaker radio interview blasts Bush”

Don Vasicek — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:39:34 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Sand Creek Massacre filmmaker radio interview blasts Bush ”

May 13, 2007 — CENTENNIAL, CO — Award-winning filmmaker, Donald L.
Vasicek’s interview about his award-winning film, “The Sand Creek
Massacre”, will be aired in two parts on CFWE Radio in Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada.

The CFWE.ca website broadcasts on a five second
delay from the main feed at http://ammsa.com/cfwe/.

Part 1 will air on:

May 13 at 10:45 a.m.
May 14 at 1:45 p.m.,
May 15 at 2:00 p.m.

Part 2 will air on:

May 20 at 10:45 a.m.
May 21 at 1:45 p.m.
May 22 at 2:00 p.m.

The interview gives a detailed view into the Sand Creek Massacre
from the filmmaker’s point of view. It also sears President Bush about
“his ignorance”.

“To utilize killing as a means for solving cultural differences is
genocide,
and killing is murder, not a solution,” Vasicek says.

Vasicek’s SandCreekMassacre.net web site provides detailed information
about the Sand Creek Massacre including witness accounts, still
images, videos, etc.

###

Contact:

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC

http://www.donvasicek.com

dvasicek@earthlink.net

“Sand Creek Massacre film aimed to screen at Jackson Hole Film Festival”

Don Vasicek — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:19:10 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Sand Creek Massacre film aimed to screen at Jackson Hole Film Festival”

May 8, 2008 — CENTENNIAL, CO — “The Sand Creek Massacre”, an award-winning film
as told from the perspective of the Cheyenne and Arapaho people, has been accepted
as an entry in the MovieHatch.com online competition. The top selection will be put into
production of up to $5,000,000 for a film, and a $1,000,000 production budget
for a tv show. There will also be screenings at the Jackson Hole Film Festival for the final
film production June 5-9, 2008.

Award-winning writer/filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek, the producer of “The Sand Creek
Massacre”, says this is a wonderful opportunity to help create awareness for all
native people and to share in an educational journey for everyone.”

One simply needs to go to http://moviehatch.com/jackson/, view the film, click on
vote and click on the number of stars you want to give it. That’s all there is to it
and it gives you an opportunity to participate in this compelling film project.

Vasicek added, “If ‘The Sand Creek Massacre’ wins, I will put a feature film
about the Sand Creek Massacre into production and also a mini-series
about the Sand Creek Massacre. Get out there and vote folks and pass
the word along to all others including your kids.”

Sandcreekmassacre.net provides detailed information about the Sand Creek Massacre
including the award-winning six-minute Sand Creek Massacre short film and
a variety of still images, witness accounts, video and commentary about the Sand Creek Massacre.

Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality products that serve
to educate others about the human condition.

Contact:

Donald L. Vasicek
The Writer/Filmmaker Whisperer
Olympus Films+, LLC

http://www.donvasicek.com

dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
###

“Sand Creek Massacre story hits air waves”

Don Vasicek — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:14:29 +0000

“From an early age the majority of Americans have imprinted on their brain the image of the ‘savage’ Indian. In any textbook, the Indian is portrayed hostile and ready to take a life. From books, paintings, and Hollywood movies, one can easily come across the image. This image was used to dehumanize a group of
people in order to justify taking their lives for land. Unfortunately, this disturbing portrayal of the Native American people has been accepted and promoted in our educational system and entertainment industry.
When one race is portrayed only in the positive, at the same time another race is portrayed only in the negative. It is imperative to recognize these racist and stereotypical portrayals and correct it by teaching the truth. American Indians are people, not, mascots, not savages, not an option for a Halloween costume.”