USA > Colorado > Arapahoe County > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 15
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 15
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Ascending another flight of stairs, the third story is reached, and here is the chemical labora- tory. In the northwest corner is a small but remarkably bright room, in which the scales are to be placed and used as a weighing-room, and adjoining it will be the chemical storeroom. The laboratory is forty by fifty-two feet, in the center
of which is placed the working-table, so arranged as to accommodate twenty-four students at once. There is a rack running the entire length and in the middle of the table, placed in position to hold the re-agents. Each scholar will also have a drawer and closets for the apparatus. Standing off by itself is an assaying and cupelling furnace, designed by and built under the personal super- vision of Prof. Sewall. He considers it a furnace of very superior order. As there are always obnoxious gases arising from a department of this character, provision has been made by which they will be immediately carried off, and thus be pre- vented from generating through the building. A double trap-door has been ingeniously constructed, to open in the ceiling. This creates a draft, and the fumes are drawn into the north tower of the building, which is only protected from the outside elements by means of open blinds, and through these the gases will readily find an exit. This is one of the great advantages of having the labora- tory in the top of the house. About $5,000 worth of apparatus has been ordered from New York and Germany for this department, and some of it is expected to arrive by the first of next month, and. by the first of the year, everything will be in working order. This includes a complete outfit of a working laboratory; also, an Urtling assay balance and Backer's analytical balance.
Several of the rooms have had to be changed in order to meet the requirements of the Univer- sity, and, to forward the business of the institution, the Legislature at its last session appropriated the sum of $7,000. Of this amount, the State Board retained $3,000, and allowed the remainder to be used for the purposes above specified. Nearly all of that amount has been well invested, for_now the school is in excellent working order.
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HISTORY OF COLORADO.
POSTSCRIPT.
CHAPTER I.
THE UTE REBELLION.
SINCE the preceding pages were written, Col- orado has been convulsed ยท by a sudden, unexpected and causeless uprising of the Utes. Strictly speaking, only a portion of the tribe par- ticipated in the outbreak; but the confederated bands of Colorado are so intermingled by marriage and bound together by so many ties of consan- guinity and interest that it would be hard to dis- sociate the innocent from the guilty, and a war upon the White River Utes, the band directly responsible for the outbreak, would almost inev- itably result in drawing the whole tribe into the conflict, sooner or later.
The story of the outbreak has been so graphic- ally told in the journals of the day throughout the country that there seems to be no present demand for an authentic history ; but, on the other hand, now is the time to summarize the whole wretched business for the enlightenment of future genera- tions. The bloody incidents of the campaign and the fatal blunders of the "powers that be" in dealing with the red-handed murderers are all fresh in the minds of our people, and it is not im- possible that a calm review of the matter may aid the public in arriving at some correct conclusions on the vexed question of Indian management, at least as far as the Colorado Utes are concerned.
It was stated at the outset that the rebellion was causeless. In some sense, the accusation is well founded; but away back in the past history of the Utes may be found some shadowy excuses for their ingratitude and treachery to Agent Meeker and the Agency employes, to say nothing of the Thornburg massacre, which, no doubt, seemed a proper thing for Captain Jack and his
warriors. As between the Utes and the Indian Bureau, the people of Colorado think there is not much room to choose.
A few years ago, the writer was conducting a daily newspaper in Denver, the policy of which was by no means friendly to the Utes; but, for a time, its columns were devoted to the unpleasant task of showing how Indian affairs were misman- aged in Colorado. It was no secret then that our people feared the worst results from the state of affairs at the Northern Agency. They could not have been much worse. All the supplies for the White River Indians were at Rawlings, ware- housed at Government expense, awaiting trans- portation. Nothing had been done toward getting the supplies from the railway to the Agency, and nothing was done for many months. The Indians were simply destitute. They had neither pro- visions nor clothing. In their despair, they went to Rawlings, where a train load of clothing, pro- visions and annuity goods were stored, and which should have been distributed long before ; but the meshes of "red tape" entangled them, and not a pound of flour nor an article of clothing could be issued at that point.
Rev. B. F. Crary, Presiding Elder of the Methodist Conference for Northern Colorado and Wyoming, made a thorough investigation of the matter, and wrote some stinging articles upon the subject, which were printed in the newspapers of the day; but the goods still rotted in the ware- house, and the Indians went hungry and naked. For a wonder, however, they did not murder the Agent and go upon the war path. Indian nature is an anomaly.
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HISTORY OF COLORADO.
While the White River Utes were suffering from the neglect and general incompetency of the Indian Bureau, the Southern or Uncompahgre Indians were being treated to a mild manifestation of financial repudiation on the part of the parental Government at Washington. By the Brunot Treaty, the Southern Utes surrendered the San Juan country for a valuable consideration, the money to be invested for their benefit and the interest to be paid for their use. There was never any reason why this interest should not have been paid. There was every reason why it ought to have been paid. Nevertheless, it was not paid. The Indians grumbled a good deal, of course, as they had a right to do; but Chief Ouray's clear head and guiding hand prevented serious trouble. Colorado owes so much to this Indian statesman that the debt bids fair to remain uncanceled.
But an Indian never forgets or forgives an injury, and all these slights and injustices were treasured up against a day of reckoning with the whites. All whites are the same to all Indians. If a horse-thief steals an Indian pony, the Indian gets even with the first white man whose stock is attainable. If the Indian Bureau fails to furnish supplies, the Indian forages on the white settlers, begging what he can and stealing the rest. An Indian with a grievance is worse than a bear with a sore head. He is never quite satisfied with any atonement, vicarious or direct. Indeed, his griev- ance grows by what it feeds on of that character, and the more he is placated the more implacable he becomes. That was Father Meeker's error, perhaps.
Still, in the main, the Government was good to the Utes. They got cattle and sheep and ponies, and these multiplied amazingly, until now the tribe is rich in flocks and herds, and their princi- pal occupation, as well as their favorite amuse- ment, is horse-racing. As befits the " true lords of the soil," they toil not, neither do they spin, nor labor with aught but their jaws. Latterly, too, they have been well fed and well clothed. Their Agents have been scrupulously careful to
give them no just cause for complaint, having good reason to fear an outbreak if they did so, for the Utes have been growing more and more dissatisfied of late, and more imperious and unjust in their demands. Yet, while they were well- treated no one looked for a rebellion, and the massacre at Milk Creek and White River was as great a surprise to the people of Colorado as it was to the Indian Bureau itself.
Mr. Meeker had been in charge of White River Agency since early in 1878. He found matters in bad shape when he reached his post of duty ; but, by determined effort and untiring industry, he soon brought order out of chaos, and made the Indians more comfortable than they had been for years. Mr. Meeker was eminently a man of affairs, highly educated, intelligent, thoroughly honest and conscientious withal, so that his treat- ment of the savages would have been strictly just, even if he had not been a lifelong devoted friend of the Indian. As it was, he was enthusiastic in his devotion to the Indians, and did everything in his power to promote their interests. Bred in the humanitarian school of Horace Greeley, whose colleague he had been on the New York Tribune, and in the Greeley Colony, of Colorado, Mr. Meeker-or Father Meeker, as he was almost uni- versally known-was the last man who would or could have been suspected of imposing upon the wards of the Government, in any particular. Yet it appeared during the spring of 1879 that Father Meeker was making poor headway with his Indi- ans, and, later on, it became evident that he had lost all control over them. They wandered away from the Agency, making mischief as they went ; and on being remonstrated with and threatened with the Agent's displeasure, they paid no atten- tion to threats or remonstrances.
During the summer months, numerous depreda- tions were reported as having been committed by the White River Utes, while off their reservation. Forest fires were started by them in every direc- tion, burning away millions of acres of timber and frightening the game out of the country.
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Property was stolen or destroyed, and at least two houses, on Bear River, were burned by rene- gade Utes from Mr. Meeker's Agency. Mr. Meeker did what he could to keep his Indians at home, and appealed to the Government and mili- tary to restrain the depredating Indians. Noth- ing came of his appeals. When a white man accidentally crosses the line of an Indian reserva- tion, he may expect to find a cordon of United States bayonets surrounding him and soldiery enough to escort him back ; but marauding Indi- ans, off their reservation, burning hay and houses and forests, find nothing in the way of their enjoy- ment, unless the long-suffering settlers rise to pro- tect their rights.
Immediately following the outbreak at White River, came the customary cry in the Eastern humanitarian press that the Utes were fighting to protect themselves against the aggressions of white settlers; that the latter were overrunning the reservation against the will of the Indians, and the latter were forced to fight or fly. No baser calumny was ever printed against any people. The reverse was true. The white settlers were forced to flee from Routt and Grand Counties because they could not live near the reservation. The insolent Utes were master of the whole northwest- ern country, far outside of their reservation.
In the mean time, a curious thing happened, or, at least, a thing that would have seemed curious had it related to any other people than the noble red men of the mountains. At the very moment when these Utes were almost in open rebelliou, they began to find fault with Agent Meeker and to ask his removal, not because he was incompe- tent or dishonest; not because he was trying to make them behave themselves ; not for any of the many stock reasons the Indians have for becoming dissatisfied with their agents, but only because he was carrying out the humanitarian idea of treating the Indians well and instructing them in letters and the arts of peace.
On this point, there can be no doubt, whatever, for the testimony of the Utes themselves is
conclusive upon the question. About two months before the massacre, Gov. Pitkin was visited at Denver by four chiefs from White River-Capt. Jack, Sahwitz, Musisco and Unkumgood-who came on a mission in behalf of the tribe, said mission being to secure the removal of Agent Meeker through the influence of Gov. Pitkin. The Governor gave them two audiences, each lasting two or three hours, and listened to all their complaints. Press reporters were also present and noted carefully what was said on both sides. Capt. Jack, who afterward led the attack on Maj. Thorn- burg, was the spokesman of the Utes, his command of the English language beiug sufficient to make him easily understood. He talked a good deal about one thing and another, but at no time did he ever intimate that the Indians were not well clothed, well fed and well cared for, or that the whites were making encroachments on the reser- vation. Neither did he complain about the non- payment of interest due, or any other neglect to deal justly with the Indians. The burden of his complaint was humanitarianism. He had a holy Indian horror of hard work, and the strongest possible prejudice against education. The Agent was teaching school and plowing land-two unpardona- ble sins, according to Jack's decalogue. Jaek also had some fault to find with minor details of man- agement at the Agency, none of which in the least affected the condition of his tribe; and he was also very severe on Chief Ouray, whose authority he openly denied and defied. When asked if he and his associates would consent to let the white men dig gold on the reservation, his refusal was prompt and vigorous, and gave un- doubted evidence that the prospector who set foot across the line would almost certainly find it a veritable dead-line. At that time, however, no one supposed that the hostility of the Indians to Agent Meeker would lead them to murder him and his associates, and little attention was paid to the trivial complaints of the White River delega- tion, though their visit was duly reported to the proper authorities at Washington and elsewhere.
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HISTORY OF COLORADO.
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CHAPTER II.
AFFAIRS AT WHITE RIVER AGENCY.
T' THAT the Indians meant mischief seemed to be no secret to anyhody except the high and mighty officials of the Indian Bureau at Washing- ton. During the summer, Gov. Pitkin more than once protested against the outrageous conduct of the White River Utes; but no attention was paid to his telegrams further than to acknowledge their receipt and offer some gossamer excuse for the Indians. Agent Meeker wrote to the Governor that the Indians could not be controlled or kept on their reservation without the aid of troops, and the army would not act without orders from the Indian Bureau, which never came. Mr. Meeker begged Gov. Pitkin to use his good offices to have troops sent to the Agency to carry out the orders and instructions of the Bureau, but the Governor was only partially successful. Geu. Pope ordered a troop of colored cavalry from Fort Garland to seout through Middle and North Park for the protection of settlers, but of course the Indians merely avoided the troops, and went on with the burning of forests and the destruction of property.
Finally, a new move was made by the State authorities. Maj. J. B. Thompson, whose house had been burned by Indians, on Bear River, swore out warrants for the arrest of two ringleaders, named Bennett and Chinaman. These warrants were issued by Judge Beck, out of the District Court for the First Judicial District, in which the crime was committed, and placed in the hands of Sheriff Bessey, of Grand County, for service. Sheriff Bessey made an unsuccessful effort to ar- rest the eriminals, but was informed by Chief Douglass that no Indian could be arrested by civil process in the reservation, whatever crimes he may have been guilty of outside that charmed circle. Strange to say, this view of the case seems to he sustained by as high authority as the Indian Bureau.
Mr. R. D. Coxe, a very intelligent gentleman, who spent the summer in Middle Park, was a member of the posse which accompanied Sheriff Bessey to White River Agency. His account of the trip is so interesting that no apology is neces- sary for transferring it to these pages. It shows the state of affairs at the Agency more than a month previous to the massacre :
" The Sheriff of Grand County, Mr. Marshall Bessey, with a posse of four men, left Hot Sul- phur Springs at 1 o'clock P. M., August 22, and after a four-days journey, through the rugged country that comprises the northern part of Mid- dle and Egcria Parks, and over the well-timbered Bear River bottom, the Sheriff camped at Pike's Agency ( Windsor), twenty-five miles from the line of the reservation. The party were enter- tained at Windsor by some accounts of Indian deviltry, as well as by the information that Colo- row, with his band, was camped a mile below. The Indians so near the Agency pay little attention to the amenities. Mrs. Peck, wife of the Agent, a timid woman, had been scared into a sick-bed by the red devils. It is no uncommon pastime for them, reaching a house from which the men are away, to command the women to cook them a meal. An Indian never lacks an appetite, and, with the knowledge of the terror his hideous visage and apparel strikes to the women, he manages to get many a square meal by turning 'Big (very big) Injun.' One of them went to the house of a ranchman named Lithgow, elose to Windsor, after a meal, but the sandy little woman declined to feed him. He began his 'Big Injun' tactics and drew a knife on her. She struck him a smart blow on the face with a teacup, laying the flesh open, 'and the subsequent proceedings interested him no more.'
"Peck is, apparently, a clever, business-like man. He has a tremendous stock of goods-a
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general stock, of which the magazine and arsenal are a large part. This stock is to sell to the Indi- ans. There is no law to prevent this, but the many widows and orphans whom this outbreak will make can thank Peck and such as he for put- ting the Indians in fighting trim. I went into Mrs. Peck's kitchen, to heat some water, and, per- ceiving a stack of arms, remarked that she was well prepared for the Indians. She said they were Colorow's guns, which he had left there the day before. When she mentioned his name she shuddered, and she talked with bated breath when she spoke of Indians. Her life is a constant fear, and I could not help but estimate the profits of the business I should have to be in to keep a wife and children in such a country. I could not hold enough ciphers in mind to name the figure.
" Mr. Bessey had a warrant for two Indians, by supposed name ' Chinaman ' and ' Bennett.' We took some pains to inquire of the white people at Windsor about these Indians, but could learn nothing. The dead, Sabbath calm of gossip, which is so noticeable among the Utes, extended even this far, and they were very ignorant of any crimes that might be alleged against the Indians.
" Before we were ready to start for the Agency, which we did just at noon on the 27th of August, an Indian rode up to Peck's and dismounted. I was sitting, with a companion, at the door of the store, when he left his horse and came toward the store. My companion, Dr. Chamberlain, said, as he approached us:
"' Why, that's Washington.'
" And it was; but what an opposite to his namesake-the man who never told a lie !
" I think that Washington is about as ugly a biped as we have at present on the continent, and what homeliness of face he lacked he had at- tempted to supply by dress. I am not a good hand at description of dress, but I shall endeavor to tell you how Washington was attired. His head was surmounted by a soft hat, turn-down rim, which was ornamented by a band of cal- ico. He had on a red flannel shirt, soiled and
torn, and about as poor a pair of pantaloons as the law allows. But the leggings-the one arti- cle of the dress of equestrians which the Indians make better than the whites-were handsome. An old and ragged pair of boots protected his feet. As he came up, I saw he was cross-eyed, and that the 'whites' of his eyes had become ' browns,' as well as bloodshot. He muttered something which I did not understand, as he reached us, and picked up my gun, which was standing at my side. He looked it over care- fully, sighted at a hillside 500 yards off, and then coming to a parade rest, said, 'Good gun !' Con- sidering this a challenge to converse, I replied, and got the benefit of what I should term the 'aphorisms of Washington' (who never told a lie). I could not repeat his full conversation, because I lost much of it by not understanding Indian-English. I had come to look upon the Indian as one that seldom talks and never smiles. But this old Indian overturned that belief. He talked like a machine and chuckled constantly. He was especially merry over a 'tear' that he and six comrades had been on in Denver. His descriptions were unique, thus: 'We come to man. Man have whisky. Utes drink um. Come to man-two-two man. Man have whisky. Utes drink um.' And so on, till Utes had plenty of whisky, and the police took them in. He said the Utes were 'heap scared.' His 'heap scared' was a favorite expression. They were locked up during the night, 'heap scared.' They came before the Judge next morning, 'heap scared.' But they came out all right. The Judge saw that they were Utes, and, according to this vera- cious historian, he said as much, and remanded them to the reservation. Then he drew a map in the sand, explaining as he drew. He first made a very large dot, to indicate Denver City ; two inches off he drew another, for Georgetown ; two inches more, and Hot Sulphur Springs (the name of which he did not seem to know well, and preferred to say 'heap water-drink water'); two inches more, and the Agency-' Utes heap glad.'
RESIDENCE OF J. W. BAILEY, DENVER COL.
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He then explained about how dreadfully he had hurt his arm, a long time ago, and this was inter- esting talk to us, for we remembered that just one year before, a band of ten intrepid men, under command of William N. Byers, of Denver, had gone to the Agency to capture the murderer of Mr. Elliott, of Middle Park, and to get some stolen stock. The stock they got, and they sent a surgeon who was with them to see whether a wounded Indian had stowed away a ball, or had really been hurt by the fall. This Indian was Washington-the surgeon was my companion ; and nothing would have saved Washington from their vengeance if he had had a gun-shot wound.
" He soon passed on to politics, and, as politics go (or should go) in the Ute Nation, I should class him as an independent liberal kicker. He did not like Meeker. 'Meeker heap fool. Me no like'm work. Make Washington heap tired. But me shoot'm blacktail,' etc. Then he told us about Ouray, whom, he assured us, was no Ute, but an Apache papoose. He told us how Ouray had sold Uncompahgre Park and pocketed the $10,000 received for it. After blackguarding Ouray for some time, he came to Douglass, whom he seemed to have no faith in. I think, if he had understood the beautiful slang of the street, he would have pronounced Douglass a fraud. He claimed that if Douglass 'went on' (at what I know not), the Utes would soon have no ground, no agency, no agent, no nothing. But this Ute, who had no good word for any in authority, soon came to speak of one whom he seemed to like. It was no less a personage than Washington. He was a good Ute-liked the white man, never troubled the whites, wouldn't lie or steal, and so on. After an eulogy on his virtues, he took care- fully from his vest pocket a soiled envelope, from which he took a piece of legal-cap paper, which he handed to us with much satisfaction of manner. We read it. It was a 'character,' and read about as follows: 'The bearer, George Washington, is a good Ute. He will not steal the white man's horses, nor anything else from the white man.'
The signature was a scrawl, which meant nothing. When we returned the paper to him, he put it away as carefully as if it had been his last dollar- bill, and he a thousand miles from home. We soon left him, and saw him no more. The unan- imous opinion among those who know the Indian is that he is the meanest Indian in the mountains -meaner than that monument of meanness, Colorow, his friend and co-chief. We camped, on the 27th, some fifteen miles toward the Agency from Windsor, and early the next morning started on.
" We soon crossed the east line of the reserva- tiou, but traveled fully ten miles into the reserva- tion before meeting an Indian. As we reached the top of a divide the trail led through a natural gateway of rocks, and from this point we saw in the distance Indians coming toward us. As they came nearer, we saw there were but three, and soon that they were a brave, a squaw and a girl. As we met, the brave extended his hand, with the customary salute, ' How ?' I had learned enough Injun to answer him in his own language, and found no hesitancy in telling him how! The brave was a jolly-looking fellow, easy to smile. He wore a straw hat (quite the thing among the Utes), and his locks were oiled and plaited. He was, evidently, dressed for a holiday, and so, indeed, it was for him, for he was taking his ' outfit' (his home, his family and all his posses- sions, I judge) to the store, where the hides packed on his ponies were to be disposed of, and he was to get ammunition, possibly a gun for himself, and gewgaws for the squaw and children, for there was a papoose at the mother's knee, swinging to the saddle in one of those contrivances which take, with the Indians, the place of cradles.
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