According to the Colorado State Patrol (CSP), the monument was toppled from its post outside the Colorado State Capitol building overnight. The Denver police department is handling the vandalism investigation and hoping to resolve the issue.
“I am outraged at the damage to a statue that commemorates the union heroes of the civil war who fought and lost their lives to end slavery," Governor Jared Polis said. "This statue will be repaired, and we will use every tool at our disposal to work with Denver Police and to hold accountable those responsible for the damage whether they are hooligans, white supremacists, confederate sympathizers, or drunk teenagers."
There is also a new plaque in the portico that acknowledges the Sand Creek Battle in Colorado as such:
"The controversy surrounding this Civil War Monument has become a symbol of Coloradans' struggle to understand and take responsibility for our past. On November 29, 1864. Colorado's First and Third Calvary, commanded by Colonel John Chivington, attacked Chief Black Kettle's peaceful camp of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians on the banks of Sand Creek, about 180 miles southeast of here.
In the surprise attack, soldiers killed more than 150 of the villages 500 inhabitants. Most of the victims were elderly men, women and children. Though some civilians and military personnel immediately denounced the attack as a massacre, others claimed the village was a legitimate target.
This Civil War monument, paid for from funds by the Pioneers' Association and State, was erected on July 24, 1909, to honor all Colorado Soldiers who had fought in battles in the Civil War and elsewhere. By Designating Sand Creek a battle, the monument's designers mischaracterized the actual events. Protests led by some Sand Creek descendants and others throughout the twentieth century have led to the widespread recognition of the tragedy as the Sand Creek Massacre."