Newspaper founder’s name stripped from library over support for Sand Creek Massacre

Rocky Mountain News founder William Byers’ name was stripped from a branch of the Denver Public Library last month over his support for the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, and the branch was renamed after a descendant of survivors of the massacre.

People gathered at the library at 675 Santa Fe Drive Saturday to celebrate its new name: John “Thunderbird Man” Emhoolah Jr. Branch Library.

Emhoolah, who died in April at the age of 91, was a tireless advocate for American Indians, according to the library. He was Kiowa and Arapaho, and was a descendant of survivors of the Sand Creek Massacre, in which the Colorado Territorial militia attacked a Cheyenne and Arapaho village and killed nearly 200 people, most of them women and children, in what is now Kiowa County.

At the time, Byers owned and ran the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News, which defended the massacre as a “Great Battle with Indians” and called for the “extermination” of Native Americans, according to research published by the Denver Public Library. The newspaper also whipped up panic among Denver’s white population about “Indian raids.”

Byers defended the massacre for decades, according to the library, which accepted public nominations for a new branch name and tallied votes from community members to pick Emhoolah from a short list of five finalists in October.