The inference is conveyed in to-day's article that Indian hostil- itics on the plains were provoked by and followed after tlhe Sand Creek massacrc. We, who were so unfortunate as to be citizens of Colorado at the time, know that a very great majority of the savage atrocities of that period occurred bofore the battlo of Sand Creek. We know that the Sand Crecek Indian camp was the common rendezvous of the hostile bands who were com mitting those atrocities. We know that comparatively few oc- curred afterward. No amount of special plcading, no rcitera tion of partial statements, and withholding of more important trutls, will change the facts so well known to the earlier settlers of Colorado.

I deny that the Utes have either bought or They have relinquished for a consideration a certain portion of the land they formerly claimed, and still retain the other portion T deny, also, that only twelve of the White River Utos are guilty and the great mass of thenmı innocent. The contrary is t paid for any land fact

WM. N. BYERS

New York, Feb. 24th, 1960,

To the Editor of the Tribune

SIR, In reply to the nssertion that the perpetrators of the Sand Creck massacre were denied a hearing in their defence," I wish to statc to the readers of The Trbune that, in addition to the Con gressional committecs from whose reports I havc alrcady quoted, there was appointed a Military Commission to investigate that This commission sat seventy-three days, in Denver Colonel J. M. Chivington called before it, in massacre and at Fort Lyon. his"defence," all the witnesses he chose, and gave notice on the seventy-third day of the conmission's sitting that he did not wish to introduce any more witnesses for the defence." He also had (and used) the privilege of cross-examining every wit ness called by the commission. The evidence given bcforc this commission occupies over two hundred pages of Volume II., Sen ate Documents for 1866 67.

In reply to the assertion that"a great majority of the savage atrocities of that period occurred before " the massacre at Sand Creek, and that "comparatively few occurred after," I will give to the readers of The Trinne one extract from the report of the In dian Peace Oommission of 1868. Alluding to the Sand Crock massacre, the report says:

"It scarcely has its parallel in the records of Indian barbarity.