Native Americans Bring Class Action for Reparations

In a recent class action claim, lead plaintiff Homer Flute claims the United States owes reparations to over 15,000 Native American descendants under the Treaty of Little Arkansas.  

The 1866 Treaty arose in response to the November 29, 1864 massacre of hundreds of Cheyenne and Arapahoe men, women, and children at Sand Creek, an encampment under U.S. protection.  The complaint states the attack by over 800 cavalrymen was led by bloodthirsty Army Colonel John Chivington whose soldiers pillaged and mutilated their victims’ remains.  

The U.S. agreed to provide reparations to the surviving family members of the victims, acknowledging “gross and wanton outrages perpetrated against certain bands of Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians.”  The plaintiffs claim little money was ever appropriated to compensate the families and no effort was made to transfer land or identify individual Indians as called for by the Treaty.  

The plaintiffs demand an accounting of the reparations owed and an explanation for the non-payments.

See Sam Reynolds, Native Americans Demand Reparation for Broken Treaty, Courthouse News Service, July 16, 2013.