DSST faculty drops identify of Denverite who defended Sand Creek Bloodbath

The Denver-based DSST constitution faculty community is altering the identify of one other of its faculties in a transfer that distances the faculties from a distinguished, long-deceased Denverite who held racist views.

DSST: Byers Center and Excessive faculties will not bear the identify of William Byers, founding father of the now-closed Rocky Mountain Information and a defender of the 1864 Sand Creek Bloodbath, by which U.S. troopers attacked a peaceable camp of Cheyenne and Arapaho folks on Colorado’s Jap Plains. The colleges will now be known as DSST: Cedar Center and Excessive faculties.

The Cedar identify honors the cedar tree, which is native to Colorado and performed “an important position in numerous points of indigenous life,” in keeping with a press launch from DSST. The varsity can be situated on the intersection of South Pearl Avenue and East Cedar Avenue.

“From cradleboards for carrying infants to its resilience within the face of drought and harsh winds, Cedar embodies the spirit of resilience and holistic well-being that we hope to imbue in our college students,” the press launch stated. 

DSST stated the identify change was made after “in depth group engagement.” 

“Our college motto is ‘rising collectively,’” College Director Elin Curry stated within the press launch. “The change of our faculty identify by way of a community-driven course of has been precisely that.” 

The press launch doesn’t point out Byers, the college’s prior namesake. All through 1864, Byers’ newspaper ran articles vilifying Native Individuals and inspired readers to hitch militias to battle them, in keeping with the Denver Public Library.

After U.S. troopers killed greater than 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho folks in what grew to become often known as the Sand Creek Bloodbath, the Rocky Mountain Information celebrated their deaths and stated troopers “shouldn’t be blamed for killing girls and kids.”

Denver Public Faculties opened the Byers faculty campus in 1921 on land as soon as owned by the Byers household. The varsity was a junior excessive for many years and later a brief house for Denver College of the Arts. The constructing sat vacant for greater than a decade earlier than DSST reopened it in 2014 after a $19 million renovation funded by a taxpayer-approved bond.

In 2021, the Denver Public Library renamed a department that had been named for Byers. The brand new identify, John “Thunderbird Man” Emhoolah, Jr. Department Library, honors an Indigenous activist.

That is the second time DSST, which has 14 faculties in Denver and two in Aurora, has modified a college identify. In 2019, DSST: Stapleton grew to become DSST: Montview. The center and excessive faculties had been initially named for the Stapleton neighborhood, which bore the identify of former Denver mayor Benjamin Stapleton, who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. 

The neighborhood has since been renamed Central Park. DSST: Montview is a reference to Montview Boulevard, which touches most of the neighborhoods served by the college.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, overlaying Denver Public Faculties. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.