Author: Don Vasicek

Award-winning writer/filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek studied producing, directing and line producing at the Hollywood Film Institute under the acclaimed Dov Simen’s and at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. He studied screenwriting at The Complete Screenplay, Inc., with Sally Merlin (”White Squall”), daughter of the famed Hollywood Merlin family of screenwriters and writers, as his mentor. Don has taught, mentored, and is a script consultant for over 400 writers, directors, producers, actors and production companies. Don has also acted in 20th Century Fox’s “Die Hard With a Vengeance”, NBC’s Mystery of “Flight 1501″, ABC’s “Father Dowling” starring Thomas Bosley, and Red-Handed Production’s “Summer Reunion”. These activities have resulted in Don’s involvement in over 100 movies during the past 23 years, from major studios to independent films including, MGM’s $56 million “Warriors of Virtue”, Paramount Classics “Racing Lucifer”, American Pictures “The Lost Heart” and “Born To Kill” starring the Charles Bronson of Korea, Bobby Kim, and his internationally-known director/brother, Richard, Incline Productions, Inc.’s “Born To Win”, Olympus Films+, LLC’s “Haunted World” with Emmy-nominated PBS Producer Alison Hill, and Olympus Films+, LLC’s “Faces,” “Oh, The Places You Can Go” and the award-winning “The Sand Creek Massacre” documentary film short. Don also has written and published over 500 books, short stories and articles. His books include “How To Write, Sell, And Get Your Screenplays Produced” and “The Write Focus.” Don has been a guest screenwriting and filmmaking columnist for Hollywood Lit. Sales, Moondance International Film Festivals e-zine, Screenwriters Forum, Screenplace, Screenplayers.Net, Screenwriters.Net, Screenwriters Utopia, Spraka & Kinsla (Swedish), “Inkwell Watch”, and “Ink On the Brain.”Writing recognition includes Houston’s WorldFest International Film Festival, Chesterfield’s Writers Film Project, Writers Digest, The Sundance Institute, The Writer’s Network, and the Rocky Mountain Writer’s Guild, Inc. Don is presently is raising money for “Ghost of Sand Creek,” a mini-series/documentary and raising $200 million for five feature film projects. Contact Don at dvasicek@earthlink.net to see the Private Placement Memorandum/Business Plan. Don is on the board of directors of the American Indian Genocide Museum in Houston. Don is the founder and owner of Olympus Films+, LLC, a global writing, filmmaking and consulting company, in 1994.
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Sand Creek Massacre Shows Media Failings with Objective Journalism

Media and others fail to mention that Southern Cheyenne Chief Laird (Whistling Eagle) Cometsevah told this filmmaker that there were over 400 Cheyenne murdered at Sand Creek. To make it clear, most media and others say: “…At least 150 were killed at Sand Creek…” There were more than 150 murdered, not killed at Sand Creek. The reason for this is the same reason Germans would not publicly discuss the Holocaust. They were ashamed of it. All competent journalists and the like should always interview Cheyenne people before they write something about the Sand Creek Massacre. To do anything less is to show disrespect to the Cheyenne people, something that has been going on since the 1825 Friendship Treaty promoted and signed by the Cheyenne people.

And for all of you media people out there, remember this, the most powerful kind of journalism is objective journalism. Anything less than that is writing and broadcasting with a Hollywood mentality. Don’t forget that.

Let’s get this right, folks. It’s time.

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What Caused the Sand Creek Massacre?

by
Donald L. Vasicek

A General Chronology:

1. The breakout of the Indian Plains War of 1864 fueled by tribal skirmishes in Western Nebraska, which some believed, threatened the well being of Caucasians on the Plains.

2. In June of 1864 the Hungate family was brutally murdered by 4 Northern Arapaho Indians just miles outside of Denver City. Fear about being attacked in Denver City reached monumental proportions.

3. Denver City was flooded in June of 1864. This caused Caucasian property loss, which exposed them to the elements, which included Indians.

4. In the summer of 1864, the Colorado Territory experienced a severe drought. This caused the Cheyenne (according to Southern Cheyenne Chief Laird [Whistling Eagle]Cometsevah, the Arapaho followed the Cheyenne, always camped about 8 miles away from them, and were camped 8 miles away when the massacre occurred), who followed the buffalo, to go to where the buffalo roamed, to the Arkansas River Valley where there was water.

4. Because of the Hungate murders and rumors circulating throughout the Colorado Territory that the Cheyenne and Sioux, some 3,000 strong, were gathering at Smoky Hill to plan an attack to wipe out Denver City, Territorial Governor John Evans issued a proclamation that all Indians report to the nearest fort. Failure to do so would result in all who don’t would be deemed criminals. They would be hunted down, arrested, tried, convicted, and imprisoned.

This occurred in August of 1864. After being refused twice by Secretary of War Seward to send 10,000 troops to the Colorado Territory, Evans issued the proclamation.

5. The Cheyenne did not receive this message for 3 months because they were far from Denver City in the Arkansas River Valley. By this time, it was too late for them.

6. In September of 1864, certain Cheyenne Chiefs met with Evans at Camp Weld near Denver City. Evans ordered them to take their people and go to Fort Lyons where they would be given supplies and provisions until the U. S. government could send people to teach the Cheyenne how to plant and grow crops. This was in accordance with the 1861 Treaty of Fort Wise.

7. The Cheyenne complied. At Fort Lyons, they were ordered to give up their weapons and go to Sand Creek to await provisions, supplies, and people who would teach them how to plant and grow crops.

8. In November of 1864, Governor Evans and Colonel John M. Chivington were defeated in their runs for Congress. Statehood for Colorado was also defeated.

9. Crooked U. S. Indian Agents stole provisions and supplies intended for the Cheyenne at Sand Creek. They sold them to unsuspecting people. Meanwhile, the Cheyenne were starving at Sand Creek.

10. On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado 1st and 3rd Cavalries, with some New Mexico troops sprinkled in for good measure, attacked and brutally murdered over 400 (Chief Cometsevah said his great-great grandfather, who survived the Sand Creek Massacre, gave that figure)Cheyenne mentally- and physically-disabled, women, children and elders (most of the younger Cheyenne men were out on a hunting trip). Troopers raped Cheyenne women. Troopers mutilated bodies, even cutting out fetuses (as Arapaho Lee Pedro said, “…a perfect act of genocide”)in Cheyenne woman, and burned most of the bodies as well as the 500 Cheyenne lodges at Sand Creek.

Camp Weld Sign in Denver
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President Obama/U. S. Congress Sear 1885 Major Crimes Act

The following is an example of how far behind
America is with respect to the native people of
America. No human being should be treated
like Native Americans have been and are
treated. America’s founders based the
United States Constitution on equality.

We must, as a people, show our respect
to native people. They eat as we eat. They
breath as we breath. They die as we die.
No human being transcends this. Give me
one reason why anyone is better than anyone
else and I will ask you, what do you mean
by better?

President Barack Obama signed legislation into law
on July 29, 2010 written to help America’s indigenous
women. The Tribal Law and Order Act passed
despite House Republicans efforts to kill the bill.
More than 90 House Republicans voted against
the bill, despite strong bipartisan support in the
Senate.

“When 1 in 3 Native American women will be raped
in their lifetimes, that is an assault on our national
conscience; it is an an affront to our shared humanity;
it is something we cannot allow to continue,” Obama
said.

A Lakota Sioux woman, Lisa Marie Iyotte,
and a rape victim which occurred in front of her 2
daughters, and whose case was never prosecuted
by overworked federal officials because the
perpetrator didn’t use a weapon, said, “If the Tribal
and Order Law had existed 16 years ago, my story
would be very different.” Ms. Iyotte stood at the
podium for several minutes, struggling through
tears to speak, before Obama appeared at her side.

The 1885 Major Crimes Act states that American
Indians cannot prosecute felony crime that occurs
on their reservations, which is the U. S. attorneys’
responsibility, and is based in cities hundreds of
miles away.

“Unquestionably, the issue of violence and crime
against Indians warrants the attention of Congress,
and it deserves better than to be considered under
the process that is most commonly used to name post
offices,” said Nathaniel Sillin, Colorado Rep. Mike
Coffman’s (R) spokesman.
###

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103