On May 21, 1862, Surgeon General William A. Hammond establishes the Army Medical Museum and orders all medical officers and field personnel to “diligently collect, and forward … all specimens of morbid anatomy, surgical or medical, which may be regarded as valuable” (Hammond, 1862). Two years later, Colonel John Chivington of the Sand Creek Massacre of Northern Cheyenne cuts off the heads of mostly women and children and ships them to the Washington, D.C., Army Medical Museum in compliance with the federal call for American Indian heads and anatomy (Utely, 1984).