Dark and twisted history is often some of the most fascinating to mankind.

Learning about events such as the French Revolution and the Holocaust captivate people and cause them to wonder how anyone could perform such actions. But what about America? Here we learn about our great heroes - Washington, Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr. But how often does a high school history class focus on the treacherous acts of American leaders? Its unnerving to think that anyone who calls the land of the free and the home of the brave his home could be anything comparable to Stalin or Hitler. But there are and have been terrible people in positions of authority here in America and while we may be complacent with simply glossing over historical events like they never happened, it does not undo what has been done. The Sand Creek Massacre is one of these events. On November 29, 1864, John Chivington and his 700 troops charged past the supposed peace-granting American flag, killing hundreds of Native Americans, including women and children. After the massacre, few survivors rose up from holes in the ground, looking at the tragedy which had befallen their people and wondering what would happen next. In our vain attempts to overlook the sickening things our leaders have done, we have done these people an injustice by neglecting to acknowledge the lives lost and the terror of the survivors. How is it appropriate that we praise our war heroes but are unwilling to memorialize the victims of their actions? While the events at Sand Creek were horrible, the problem here is not that there was a massacre. Our problem is that we have neglected to show our children the dark side of our past, neglected to teach them of the horrors of November 29, 1864, and neglected to give those poor souls the recognition they deserve.

A sample slide from the visual portion of the proposal assignment