wfn.org | Oprah Cancels Airing Indian Apology

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3015 notes).

Note 3013 by UMNS on June 17, 1996 at 15:05 Eastern (2819 characters).

SEARCH: Oprah, show, tribe, Sand Creek, apology

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CONTACT: Linda Green                        299(10-21-34-71){3013}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470             June 17, 1996

"Oprah Winfrey Show" featuring 
Sand Creek apology cancelled

by Ginny Underwood*

     An "Oprah Winfrey Show" featuring the United Methodist
Church's apology for the 1864 Sand Creek (Colo.) Massacre, taped
to air this month, has been cancelled because of controversy.
     According to "Oprah" producers, following the taping of the
show on May 8, it was brought to their attention that there are
differences of opinion among the Cheyenne and Arapaho people about
the apology.   
     "We then realized that the closure needed after the Sand
Creek massacre more than 100 years ago could not be achieved
within this television program," the producers said in an official
statement.
     Delegates to the 1996 United Methodist General Conference
last April, overwhelmingly passed a petition that offered an
apology for the deaths of more than 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho
people killed at the banks of Sand Creek.  The attack was led by a
Methodist lay preacher, Col. John Chivington, who was renowned as
a hero and a pioneer for his actions.
     Representatives from the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes were
invited to participate in a public acknowledgement of the church's
apology on the show and to accept a donation to help construct a
Sand Creek Memorial at the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Complex in
El Reno, Okla. 
     In a May 22 letter to the editor of the Watonga (Okla.)
Republican, a of a Sand Creek survivor descendent expressed
opposition to the United Methodist Church's apology and to its
being aired on the "Oprah Winfrey Show." The letter said the
broadcast could affect "unsettled" claims between family members
and the federal government.
     The Rev. Janet Forbes, from the Rocky Mountain Annual
Conference, presented a $4,000 donation to the representatives
during the taping. The money was raised collectively by the United
Methodist Board of Church and Society, General Council on
Ministries, United Methodist Communications' Native American
Office, Rocky Mountain Annual Conference and Native American
International Caucus.
     Although the show was cancelled, the donation still will go
toward the construction of the memorial.
                               # # #

     * Underwood is director of the United Methodist
Communication's Native American Communications office in
Nashville, Tenn.

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