Chief Little Raven - Westminster, CO - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

The plaque reads:

"CHIEF LITTLE RAVEN

The Westminster Promenade is designed around a Colorado High Plains theme. Chief Little Raven is a symbol of all the Native Americans who inhabited the high plains long before any settlers. Born on the Platte River in Nebraska circa 1820, Chief Little Raven was the principal Chief of the Southern Arapaho Tribe (visit link) . He was the Arapaho leader during a different time when mountain men, settlers and gold-seekers flooded the Denver area in the late 1850's and early 1860's. During the 1850's, approximately 1,500 Arapahos were camped on the site that would eventually become Denver.

Chief Little Raven was a warrior, diplomat, orator, and a leader who tried to achieve peace with the pale-faced new comers. However, the best intentions were destined to fail. The Fort Wise Treaty of 1861 (visit link) , which many Arapaho refused to sign, pushed them out of their homeland in the Cherry Creek and South Platte Valleys. Three years later, the Colorado Volunteers, led by Colonel John Shivington[sic], massacred many Arapaho at Sand Creek (visit link) . Chief Little Raven and his followers survived the Sand Creek Massacre (visit link) because he was clever enough to camp away from the Army designated site.

Chief Little Raven also signed the Little Arkansas Treaties of 1865 and the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867 establishing the Cheyenne and Arapaho reservations in the Oklahoma Indian Territory.

In recognition of his efforts to keep the peace, President U. S. Grant awarded Chief Little Raven a peace medal. As he traveled to Washington, D.C. to accept the medal, he said that he was not trying to make peace because he had never been at war.

Chief Little Raven died in 1889 spending the last years of his life trying to help his people adjust to reservation life. A street near the South Platte River in lower downtown Denver bears his name and commemorates the Southern Arapaho encampment that once existed there (visit link)
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This larger-than-life-sized statue (13', 3.9m tall) of Chief Little Raven sits on a large boulder as part of the Westminster Promenade. He was sculpted by Marie Barbera Escondido (visit link) of California and installed in 2000. He is dressed in a beautifully decorated buckskin outfit holding a 'peace pipe'. He wears a feathered headdress that denotes his status as a Chief. His monument is part of a sophisticated memorial to the Native Americans of the High Plains as well as the growth and development of the Denver area. More information about Chief Little Raven may be found at (visit link) , (visit link) , (visit link) and (visit link) .

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/27/2015 tamiuron visited it