Cinnamon Kills First will always remember her first visit to the Sand Creek Massacre site in Colorado.
“It changed the way I walked in the world,” she expressed.
She and her late uncle, William Walks Along, are direct descendants of Sand Creek Massacre survivors.
Cinnamon Kills First, Northern Cheyenne, created and led an immersive theater experience to raise awareness among Natives and non-Natives about the Sand Creek Massacre.
On a November morning in 1864, U.S. soldiers attacked the lodges of 750 Arapaho and Cheyenne tribal members camped near Big Sandy Creek (in present-day Colorado). It’s estimated that 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho citizens were killed.
Kills First learned about the massacre from her uncle, textbooks, and teachers in school, but for her, nothing compared to actually standing at the site.
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“You can feel the spirit of a place,” she said. “That’s what changes you. There’s energy still there. That’s what you never forget.”
It was this experience that inspired Kills First, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, to create an immersive theater experience, encouraging both Natives and non-Natives to connect with the historic event.
With support from a National Endowment for the Arts grant, Kills First began holding immersive theater events centered around the Sand Creek Massacre.
Cinnamon Kills First carries her son in a cradleboard during some of her presentations. Having her son participate in the show, she said, was a reminder of living history. “The cradleboard wasn’t just a prop, it carried one of the freshest descendants of the Sand Creek Massacre survivors,” she wrote in an email.
The initial phase of Kills First’s project was aimed at non-Native audiences. Participants could purchase tickets for an immersive bus tour, visiting various historically significant sites. At each stop, renditions of historical events were performed, engaging audience members. The performances were organized by Control Group Productions, a Colorado-based theater organization. Audience sizes varied from six to 28, and a total of 12 shows were conducted.
While riding on a bus with
