Reader: "Willie Lewis Was a Purist in the Best Sense of the Word"

Thank you for the article on Willie Lewis. I never met him, but he was very well known in Denver rockabilly circles and we shared mutual friends. The man was a purist in the best sense of the word. He collected and made some incredible music in his day. His passing is a great loss to our little subterranean world and the Denver music scene at large.

I found Bill Korosec's letter in the same issue very interesting. He appears to have European ancestry, but still resides in the evil and corrupt United States — the same place his ancestors murdered and plundered from the mythologically peaceful dwellers of the North American pre-Columbian paradise. Unless Mr. Korosec is a raving hypocrite, he'll be booking one-way passage to whatever nation his people came from. Strong feelings command strong action, and it's high time Mr. Korosec walked it instead of just talking it.
Pat Desrosiers
Denver

What can a 65-year-old, non-native white woman add to a discussion that includes cultural voices from the ancestors of the dead, a wealth of college professors, historical writers and researchers, as well as the United States Congress going back 150 years? I sit in my home today surrounded by silence and the images of the Cheyenne and Arapaho descendants of Sand Creek illuminated by candlelight in front of the Denver Art Museum and framed by the backdrop of the American flag waving over our State Capitol. The same American flag that was frantically flown by the Cheyenne Chief Motavato (Black Kettle) over the women, children and elders at the Sand Creek Massacre.

I can only hope that "my people" were descended from Silas Soule, who died in the streets of Denver, or Major Edward W. Wynkoop, who both stood up for the innocent and refused to participate in a massacre that can only be seen as an atrocity of the greatest magnitude. But what if my blood traveled through the John Chivington family line, or one of the many soldiers who lost all civility on November 29, 1864, and mutilated the living victims of their sneak attack? Which strain runs through my veins? Or do they both?

We, the non-native residents of Colorado, need to apologize and acknowledge the horror that rained down on the innocent and peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho people that cold November morning so long ago. What else can we do at this late date besides speak against that kind of brutality perpetrated by a government that stands for freedom and democracy, with all men being created equal? As I look to the west from Denver, I see Mount Evans and find myself wanting to turn this peak into a tangible symbol of our apology to those who really discovered America, the indigenous peoples, by renaming this landmark with its native name(s).

The truth of White Antelope's death song breathed into the wind of that Sand Creek morning remains: "Nothing lives long, only the earth and the mountains."
Lucy Allen
Denver