Rev. Dr. Nancy Niero, a United Church of Christ clergywoman who has served a 15-year ministry as a hospice chaplain, is the author of “Witness at Sand Creek, The Life and Letters of Silas Soule.” She is a graduate of Iliff School of Theology with a Master of Divinity degree, and received her Doctor of Ministry in 2023 from Phillips Theological Seminary. Her newest writing project is “Good Trouble: Racial Justice Coaching for Clergy in the 21st century.”
SunLit: How did you first become aware of Silas Soule and the story of his refusal in 1864 to attack the Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment at Sand Creek?
Nancy Niero: I had just been hired as a museum educator at what was then the Colorado History Museum responsible for the 5,000 children visiting the museum for school tours. My new employee tour on my first day included a stop at a portrait of Silas, located at the bottom of the sweeping staircase next to a tipi. My guide that day was the first person to name him and his disobedience to engage in the Sand Creek Massacre. From that day forward when I led school tours, I always stopped at his portrait and told his story.
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SunLit: What ultimately led you to write “Witness at Sand Creek”?
Niero: Seriously, it was divine intervention! I had met Chris Driscoll at Exact Rush Publishing at an event at Iliff School of Theology. I had just finished my Doctor of Ministry degree at Phillips Theological Seminary and thought about my dissertation on dismantling white silence in United Church of Christ churches using storytelling of white ancestors of faith and resistance in the 19th century who stood up, showed up and spoke up with people of faith.
When I sat at my laptop to send Chris an email to share about my work, there was a moment when I thought of the collection of Silas’ letters that I had and in the spur of the moment I added this other idea of writing a book, along with an essay on each letter. Chris’ response to that email in spring 2024 was that Exact Rush was going to pass on my dissertation, but that everyone had fallen in love with Silas.
The idea of going on a pilgrimage to almost every site where Silas wrote a letter came later in the writing of the book.
SunLit: Tell us why you organized the book as you did, with both historical information but also other sometimes personal digressions.
“Witness at Sand Creek”
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Niero: The foundation of the book is the collection of letters Silas wrote between 1860-1865. But I had done some significant work on Silas while at Iliff School of Theology as a Master of Divinity student between 2006-2009. I did four independent studies which evolved into writing a biography, a theological construction, a play in a social justice genre, and then performed the play in my last quarter.
I had gone to the Kansas Historical Society to research Silas, his family, and ultimately discovered so much about his life, including his time with abolitionist John Brown. I met Silas’ descendant in this time, and discovered details about his family, and the story of how the family collection of letters had been preserved.
The letters are powerful enough to publish. But I felt that context was needed to connect readers with his story in the 21st century, and how we all make meaning of these letters today. How do we look for our own moral courage in moments of discerning right from wrong? I felt that this place of connection, our stories with Silas’ story, needed to have connection with historians today, museum directors, National Park Service rangers, and even pastors to make those connections of his story with our story, and even my story.
SunLit: How did Soule’s life story intersect with your journey of faith, and particularly your time in seminary?
Niero: I had discovered Silas almost 10 years before I went to Iliff School of Theology and at that time I didn’t know the details of his life, and only some of the events at the Sand Creek Massacre. But I really was curious about him and felt that signing up for one independent study (which led to the other three) was a way to understand how a soldier in the American Civil War disobeyed orders at the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864. I discovered that he grew up as a Congregationalist, which is one of the predecessor traditions of the United Church of Christ when my denomination was founded in 1957. His mom was a quilter, a knitter and baked gingerbread and pies, and I do those as well.
We don’t talk much in seminary about people of faith who make moral decisions in the face of adversity and power, who disobey orders in the military, and then try to understand the consequences of moral courage decision making and its impact or inspiration 150 years later. We should be teaching that class at seminary.
SunLit: Tell us how your work as archivist at Riverside Cemetery in Denver, where Soule is buried, added to your knowledge of him and the effect he has had on others.
Niero: As the first executive director of the Fairmount Heritage Foundation, my work evolved and ultimately was far reaching. I helped preserve stained glass in private mausoleums with the State Historic Fund, coordinated 60 volunteers to lead historical and heirloom rose tours at both Fairmount and Riverside Cemeteries, and started a historical archives with historic photo collection, documents, and research on individuals buried at both cemeteries.
When I started working in Riverside and Fairmount cemeteries, I was unaware of where Silas was buried. But I soon discovered that his final resting place was in the Grand Army of the Republic block, tucked away in rows of military marble gravestones with soldiers from many eras resting with him.
My good friend, Susie Aikman, who had a Sunday Native music show on KUVO, had worked closely with Sand Creek Massacre descendants. In fact, I have her shawl given to her in gratitude by the Sand Creek Massacre descendants in Oklahoma. After I found Silas, I told Susie, and she told the world where he was buried.
We hosted the first gathering of remembrance at his grave in 2003, and since then the Sand Creek Massacre descendants lead a ceremony at his grave as part of the Sand Creek Massacre Healing Run in October.
SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing “Witness at Sand Creek”?
Niero: Writing is lonely. Looking back now, I wish I had created a writing lab with other first-time book authors to chat about some of the struggles.
SunLit: What do you want readers to take from this book?
Niero: That Silas’ story is a story for our time, and that we can all find ourselves in his letters, his struggles, his work as a peacemaker, and his commitment to being a witness to Colorado’s greatest historical tragedy. Not just being a witness to the horrors but then writing letters describing in detail witnessing 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho elders, women and children murdered by Colorado soldiers, but then describing the details of their mutilation by the same soldiers.
The letter written in December 1864 to his friend and colleague Major Edward Wynkoop forced the Congressional inquiry in February 1865 where he was the first witness, for six days of testimony. I ask in the book: How can we lead with our own moral courage to show up, stand up, and speak up for others, especially those marginalized or oppressed? How is being a witness to the world in this moment in time, knowing right from wrong and leading with right, part of our lives in the 21st century? How can we raise children with a sense of knowing right from wrong?
SunLit: On Soule’s birthday in July, you visit his grave and read his letters aloud. Why is that important to you?
Niero: I’ve been reading his letters at his grave for quite a few years now. I knew people were remembering him on November 29 (the day of the massacre) each year, because frequently I was there to see flowers and flags left, as well as on April 23, the day he was assassinated in downtown Denver.
I started visiting his grave on his July 26 birthday more than 20 years ago, and it just turned into the day of remembering his life, not his death or a horrific day in Colorado history, but whole life, his family, his mom and dad, Amasa and Sophia. Reading his letters became a way that others would know him and hopefully return to his grave to remember, too.
SunLit: Do you feel Soule’s story has resonance today?
Niero: So much. As an example, a group of United States senators and representatives released a video reminding those in the military and active duty right now, that they are affirmed to disobey illegal orders. They were threatened with their lives for creating and releasing the video.
One of those elected leaders is Rep. Jason Crow, a US Army veteran, representing Colorado’s 6th District. I have watched that video and felt the moral courage it took to make it. Last week I read from Novara Media that the number of US military personnel seeking advice about becoming conscientious objectors, fearful of killing people in a war they don’t believe in, has increased by 1000% since the start of the Iran war, according to The Centre on Conscience and War. Out of the 600 soldiers who engaged in the Sand Creek Massacre, two disobeyed orders. Two. Silas and Lt. Joe Cramer.
A few more quick items
Currently on your nightstand for recreational reading: Oh, my goodness, I don’t read for fun, but I’m re-reading “A Different Mirror, A History of Multicultural America” by Ronald Takaki for my current writing project. The cookbook that I have open in my kitchen right now is “A Painter’s Kitchen, Recipes from the Kitchen of Georgia O’Keefe.”
First book you remember really making an impression on you as a kid: “Stalking the Wild Asparagus,” by Euell Gibbons
Best writing advice you’ve ever received: Edit, edit, edit!
Favorite fictional literary character: Jo, in Little Women
Literary guilty pleasure (title or genre): Contemporary American West environmentalists, i.e., Craig Childs, Kevin Fedarko, Terry Tempest Williams, and of course, Edward Abbey
Digital, print or audio – favorite medium to consume literature: Print
One book you’ve read multiple times: “Night Visions, Searching the Shadow of Advent and Christmas,” by Jan. L. Richardson
Other than writing utensils, one thing you must have within reach when you write: A cup of coffee
Best antidote for writer’s block: Scheduling time to write in the calendar
Most valuable beta reader: One of the back cover blurb folks