Former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown recently wrote a column (“Mt. Evans’ namesake has been unfairly maligned,” May 30) which challenges the caricature of territorial Gov. John Evans as just a blood thirsty tyrant responsible for the Sand Creek Massacre.

The Evans name was recently removed from Mount Evans, which towers over the Denver metropolitan area, after many years of debate over his role in the Sand Creek Massacre in 1865 – a shameful and tragic part of early Colorado history.

Sen. Brown details how Evans, who was appointed governor of the Colorado Territory by President Abraham Lincoln from 1862 to 1865, had a remarkable life of achievement that was dedicated to building Colorado before it became a state in 1876. He also makes a very compelling case that Evans did not play a direct role in the massacre. 

Regardless, the Evans name has been removed from the mountain and his lifetime of accomplishment and contributions to Colorado have been permanently sullied.

Indeed, while serving as the governor of the Colorado Territory he appointed John Chivington as Colonel of the Colorado Volunteers, who led the massacre of defenseless women and children at Sand Creek. Whether Evans ordered the attack or not, the massacre occurred on his watch as governor and the consequences fall on him.

But this raises an interesting question about another dark period in Colorado history: the incarceration of Japanese Americans at Camp Amache near Granada in southeastern Colorado during World War II.

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On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which forcibly removed more than 100,000 Japanese Americans from their homes, farms and businesses to internment camps across the country, including Camp Amache in Colorado.

This federal policy was not the result of Congress passing legislation that was sent to the president for his signature. The incarceration of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans was the result of a unilateral action by President Roosevelt.  The brutal truth is Roosevelt personally incarcerated those American citizens when he signed Executive Order 9066.

Dripping with irony, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C. is inscribed with these words: “We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.”

America has come to grips with the glaring inconsistency of Roosevelt’s words with incarcerating Japanese American citizens.

Today, President Roosevelt is rightfully regarded as one of America’s greatest presidents. He was elected president four times before dying in office in 1945.  He inspired the nation during the Great Depression followed by World War II. It is not an exaggeration to say he saved the nation from economic ruin and the world from authoritarian domination.

But there certainly seems to be a double standard for these two dark periods of history in Colorado in terms of holding high public officials responsible. 

The name of Gov. John Evans has been removed from one of Colorado’s most prominent mountains because of the shameful Sand Creek Massacre while his lifetime of achievement is shoved into obscurity. While getting some historical scrutiny and criticism for his executive order that incarcerated more than 100,000 Japanese American citizens, a beautiful monument is erected commemorating the complete story of President Roosevelt’s life.

As our society continues to grapple with the sins of the past, maybe it is time for a little grace for the flawed individuals who were prominent figures of those periods and at least acknowledge their entire life stories and not just their failures.

Dick Wadhams is a Republican political consultant and a former Colorado Republican state chairman.