At Kindergarten, originally uploaded by scottpartee.

Sand Creek, Colorado.

I couldn’t believe it when I saw this at H & M! I immediately picked it up, being a Colorado native and whatnot.

Often, here in Europe, one sees US-centric printing on clothing, but more often than not, it doesn’t make any sense. For example, it will be for an event that never happened, such as the World Playoffs of Major League Baseball or a team that simply would never exists like the Arizona Bizons (actual hat I saw). But I knew that, for sure, there’s a real Sand Creek, Colorado.

And then I remembered my Colorado history, and recalled that Sand Creek is not such a happy place.

The only thing Sand Creek is known for is the fact that, during the 1860s, an encampment of Indians who had been seeking to negotiate with the Colorado government, were massacred by a bunch of militia members. Many of the dead were women and children and, according to many accounts, the massacre was exactly what it sounds like: a brutal, genocidal attack.

It’s a terrible, dark chapter of American history, but, somehow, I couldn’t resist the shirt. It just speaks volumes, to me, about the current culture of the world. Charles Manson can be emblazoned on a hip shirt, Bin Laden and Bush can be portrayed as shaking hands in an ad—it’s all just wallpaper. Our history is just another market.

In another hundred years, do you think we’ll see shirts that read something like Auschwitz Athletics?