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He was the commander under the Sandcreek Massacre, where him and his possibly drunken soldiers attacked and killed some Cheyenne and Arapaho people who where settling there under American Flag with a promise from the government that they wouldn't be touched...
The story goes like this. On the night of November 28 of 1864 Chivington (a renowned Indian hater for some reason) got his ass drunk and decided that would kill some Indians next morning. The problem is that those Indians were protected by the United States and hold no guns. Making this what could be the first act of American hate ever on indigenous people. (Joking there were many others.) So what happened is that after seeing the cavalry charging forwards. Black Kettle, the leader of the Indians issued a white flag. This in no means made the things better. 163 Indians were killed by shooting or stabbing. John M. Chivington faced three separate hearings, but no official action was ever taken. If that wasn't bad already, later he also sent soldiers to kill his own captain Mr. Silas Soule who declared that would testify against him.