The story behind the place: Neva Road

Head toward the mountains on Niwot Road and you'll run into a big zig north at 45th before you zag back west. It seems like the same road, but it's not. You're now on Neva Road. It makes sense that the two roads are connected and that one isn't as well traveled. Neva was the brother of legendary Chief Niwot, the Arapaho chief also known as Left Hand.

"He [Neva] maybe hasn't gotten as much publicity as he deserves," according to Margaret Coel, author of the acclaimed book 'Chief Left Hand.' "He was quite an outstanding man. He was a peace leader. Left Hand depended on him a lot."

The brothers were very close growing up, wrote Coel, who lives in Boulder. She said they spent winters in what is now the Boulder Valley, with several different camps around the area including Haystack Mountain.

There aren't birth records, but Coel said Neva and Niwot were probably close in age, born sometime around 1820. They had an older sister, MaHom, who married a white trader who moved out west from Kentucky. It proved to be one of the most important events in the lives of Neva and Niwot. The brothers both learned to speak English, something no other Arapaho did at the time. It helped them become prominent leaders during the most traumatic time in their history.

Neva was not considered as fluent in English as Niwot, who was known for his gift for languages. He spoke several, a skill prized by the Arapaho, who were traders. The tribe's reliance on trade was one of the reasons Niwot and Neva were involved in the highest levels of negotiating peace with European settlers. Cooperation with a variety of cultures was critical to their survival.

"Being able to speak English, Left Hand made friends with different people here," Coel said. "Some of the people ranching in places like Niwot, he'd go visit them and talk to them and get the lay of the land and what was going on." He probably had Neva with him. People got to know them because they could talk to them. That's why they were remembered by the people and named places for them."

The brothers and their band even socialized with a group of whites that Niwot had met while traveling. The experience was documented by members of the Cook Party who were crossing through Indian territory by wagon train. They quoted Neva who told them, "The great steamhorse came plowing up the old muddy Missouri creating new apprehension among our people. The next moment that shocked us was the continued string of wagons and swarming multitudes of people going west."

The world was changing fast for the Arapaho. Left Hand was prominent in critical negotiations with the U.S. government and other plains tribes over contested territory. Neva became the right hand man for the left-handed chief.

"Neva was a self-effacing man, content to work quietly in the background as an advisor and messenger for Left Hand." wrote Coel.

Neva stood in for his brother at several important meetings including a trip to Washington, D.C. where he and other tribal leaders met President Abraham Lincoln. He was sent by his brother for negotiations between tribes and Colorado Governor John Evans during an intense period of conflict on the plains. The talks included an appearance by U.S. Army Col. John Chivington. Neva had no way of knowing that he was meeting the man who would one day be responsible for his brother's murder.

The brothers made a valiant effort for peace, but it was not enough. Treaties were not honored, promises were made and broken. There were violent clashes between whites and Indians. The plains tribes were being pushed out and starved out of their homeland.

In 1864 Gov. Evans told the Arapaho and Cheyenne people to go to Fort Lyon on the eastern plains where they would be given food, supplies and protection by United States troops. The majority went, but they were left waiting in the area when the command at Fort Lyon changed suddenly.

The brothers went in two different directions, according to Coel. Neva joined another Arapaho chief, Little Raven, and about 600 other members of the tribe. They camped along the Arkansas River. Niwot took his band of about 50 family members, including his wife and children, to Sand Creek, a camp he would share with about 700 Cheyenne.

In the dawn hours of November 29, 1864 Col. Chivington took matters into his own hands and led a gruesome attack on the Native Americans at Sand Creek. Even as the tribes raised a white flag, Chivington and his men massacred over 200 people, the majority being women and children.

Chief Left Hand escaped the site, but not the carnage. He was mortally wounded and died within a couple days, according to Coel's research of first-hand accounts.

Neva escaped the attack and left with the rest of his people to Oklahoma. After losing his brother, he lost faith in peacemaking and took up arms to fight for his homeland. He eventually signed a treaty that sent the Northern Arapahos, who traded at Ft. Laramie, to a reservation in Wyoming. The Southern Arapahos, who traded at Bent's Fort in Colorado, were sent to a reservation in Oklahoma. Coel wrote that Neva never settled on a reservation and simply disappeared.

But Neva's memory remains with us today. Mount Neva in the Indian Peaks Wilderness is named for him along with Neva Road, which has another half-mile section that runs through the town of Niwot between 83rd Street and Franklin Street. Neva Road isn't a busy thoroughfare, but it carries an important piece of the region's history.