USA > Colorado > Arapahoe County > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 16
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 16
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" We saw quite a number of Indians after pass- ing this family, one of whom realized, to some ex- tent, the ideal Lo. He was standing on the mountain-side, with only a shirt on, his long hair flowing down his back, and his brown limbs ex- posed. He appeared to have struck wash-day, and he was at it with might and main. We passed
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commands its soldiers not to shoot the first shot. The Government should be instructed that soldiers mean war, and its grim old General has said, ' War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.'
" For the argument, it matters not whether Meeker and his family have been butchered. He has told his situation to every one in authority for more than a month. Had Gov. Pitkin had juris- diction, he would have had a host of frontiersmen at the Agency three weeks ago. He must first have the consent of the General Government. But the General Government has a gang of negro minstrels in Middle Park, 200 miles from the Agency. They are ordered to march to the Agency very cautiously, and before they get a good start, the other Government soldiers are cleaned out.
"Our business at the Agency was complete. We saddled up for a return, bade farewell to the Meekers and started through the villages of tepees homeward bound. We found great commotion in every band. At every camp, we were interviewed. Antelope's band was camped nearest the Agency, and his brother Powitz and his squaw Jane hailed us with the customary 'How?' Our reply of ' How ?' led them to ask ' What yer come fer?' We told them we came to see Meeker. Douglass told them we had come for two Utes, Chinaman and another (whom they did not seem to recognize by the name of Bennett). We did not affirm or deny, but passed on. This conversation was repeated eight or ten times in the three miles our road bordered the river. It was' late when we struck the trail, and we saw no more Indians till we reached Peck's. There we met Capt. Jack and a companion on their return from their visit to Denver-the visit they made to have Meeker removed.
"Jack is an extraordinary Indian. He was very friendly, and spoke English well. He reiter- ated the statement that the Meekers had made, that the Utes would be glad to have white men take up ranches on the reservation. He said the whites and Utes ought to be friends now. The
whites had killed a Ute, the Utes had killed a white man. Good. Heap friends.
" The fires and burned forests extended from the Springs to the Agency. At nightfall, on the day we left the Agency, we saw a large fire started not ten miles from the Agency. We constantly saw the smoke of fires, and many times they were quite close to our road. A large fire was sweeping the forests on Gore Range. The atmosphere was blue with smoke, and on every hand we heard complaints of the fires started by the Utes."
As will be seen, this interesting statement was indited while doubt still remained as to the fate of Mr. Meeker and his associates, and before the colored cavalry made that splendid dash to the rescue of Payne's command which so effectually redeemed the ' negro minstrels' from the charge of cowardice implied in the foregoing.
Mr. Coxe's visit to the Agency was in August. A month later, Col. John W. Steele, a mail contractor, of Wallace, Kan., also paid a visit to White River, and found the state of affairs at the Agency alarming indeed. Col. Steele has also written an account of his visit, which throws additional light upon the direct causes of the out- break, and is given below as furnishing a faithful and very lucid account of Mr. Meeker's manifold difficulties in dealing with the Indians. No apol- ogy is made for including, also, Col. Steele's strict- ures on Indian mismanagement, and his powerful argument in favor of transferring the Indians from the Interior to the War Department-a change that is favored by 200,000 citizens of Colorado:
"Early in July last, I was called to Rawlins, Colo., to look after the mail route from that point to White River Agency. I remained at Dixon, on Snake River, several days. While there, Indi- ans belonging to the Ute chief Colorow's outfit, frequently came to Dixon to trade buckskin and furs for Winchester rifles, ammunition and other supplies. I learned that they were camped on Snake River, Fortification Creck and Bear River, from fifty to one hundred miles from their reser- vation.
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"The Indians seemed to be quiet, but the set- tlers complained that the Indians were burning the grass and timber, and occasionally killing their cattle and doing much damage to the country. I also heard much complaint from the mining dis- trict near Hahn's Peak and Middle Park; that the Indians were burning the timber, and had burned the houses of several settlers and killed one man. Smoke was at that time plainly visible from large fires on the head-waters of the Snake and Bear Rivers. On completing my business on the mail route, I returned to Washington. The first week in September, I was called (by disturb- ances on this mail route) to visit it again. Arriv- ing at Rawlins, Mr. Bennett, the sub-contractor for the route, told me that he had attempted to establish his line of mail-carriers on the route ; that he had gone as far south as Fortification Creek, where he was met by Utes belonging to Colorow and Ute Jack's band ; that three Indi- ans stopped him and told him that he must go back ; that he parleyed with them, and finally went on as far as Bear River, where he was met by more Indians of the same tribe, and, though he fully explained his business to them, he was so violently threatened that he returned to Raw- lins without establishing the mail route. Bennett has freighted Indian supplies to the Ute reserva- tion for several years, and knows many of the Indians. He was accompanied by a man who has lived among the Utes for years, and with whom they have heretofore been friendly. Both advised that it would be dangerous to attempt to go to the Agency.
"On the night of September 4, I arrived at Snake River, and on the 5th, went to Bear River, meeting no Indians on the way, but finding the grass and timber destroyed by fire all the way along the route. I remained at Bear River sev- eral days, endeavoring to find parties to carry the mail to the Agency. Many of the settlers were alarmed by the hostile action of the Utes. Others anticipated no trouble, but all complained of the burning of the grass and the timber. On the
morning of September 10, I started, with two mail-carriers, for the Agency. We rode over the route followed by Maj. Thornburgh's command, and at noon rested at the mouth of the cañon where the battle has since taken place. Here, at a tent occupied by an Indian trader, and two miles from the reservation, we met a number of Utes, one of whom asked where I was going. I told him to the Agency. After a short talk with other Indians, he told me we must go back. I made no reply, but, leaving one of the carriers at the tent, I proceeded up the cañon in which the Indians laid the ambuscade for Maj. Thornburgh's command, toward the Agency. The Indians fol- lowed us to the Agency. I afterward learned that they belonged to Ute Jack's party.
" We arrived at White River Agency about 6 o'clock P. M., and found a number of Indians there, some of whom seemed greatly excited. I soon learned that the Agent, Mr. Meeker, had, a short time before my arrival, been violently as- saulted by a Ute chief named Johnson, and severely, if not dangerously, injured. The white laborers told me that they had been fired upon while plowing in the field, and driven to the Agency buildings, but that they were not much scared, as they thought the Indians only wanted to prevent the work, and fired to frighten them. Finding Mr. W. H. Post, the Agent's chief clerk and Postmaster at White River, in his office, I proceeded to transact my business with him. While engaged at this, the Indians began to con- gregate in the building. Mr. Post introduced me to chiefs Ute Jack, Washington, Antelope and others.
"Ute Jack seemed to be the leader, and asked me my name and business. I told him. He inquired if I came from Fort Steele, and if the soldiers were coming. I replied that I knew nothing of the soldiers. Jack said, ' No 'fraid of soldiers. Fort Steele soldiers no fight. Utes heap fight.' He again asked my name and when I was going away. I replied, 'In the morning.' Jack said, 'Better go pretty quick.' I offered
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instead of needing provocation to massacre, require constant and powerful oversight to prevent it.
" Finally, our army has all the blame cast on it. Called to rescue the Agency from danger brought upon it by an idiotic Indian policy, the command of Maj. Thornburg went to White River seeking a peaceful solution of the difficulties there. I had the pleasure of meeting Maj. Thornburg soon after he had received his orders, and gave him full particulars of the situation at the Agency, advising that, if he went with a small force, he might expect to be wiped out. I thought his force sufficient, but am free to confess that I was mistaken.
" I knew that these Indians meant war. Early in the summer, they occupied the territory over which troops must pass to reach them. Slowly they retreated toward the Agency, burning the grass to render it difficult for cavalry to operate against them. They purchased arms and ammu- nition of the most approved pattern and in large quantities. Within six weeks of the outbreak, one trader sold them three cases of Winchesters and a large amount of ammunition, and the last Utes I met inquired of me for more. They gathered disaffected bucks from the Uncompahgre and Uinta Agencies, and got mad because the Agent at White River would not feed them. When everything was ready, they assaulted Agent Meeker and shot at his employes to provoke an attack by the troops, and when the troops ap- proached, with peaceful intent, to adjust the diffi- culty and right the wrongs of all parties, they laid an ambuscade and prepared to annihilate the whole command.
"The attack on Maj. Thornburg was not war ; it was unprovoked murder, and to the last Indian, the Utes engaged in it should answer for it with their lives.
" During the past week, I have been in the valley of the Sappa, in Decatur County, Kan. To this country our Government had invited settlers, offering them homestcads and protection. Driven by the stress of times in the Eastern States, some
twenty-five families had located in these valleys and erected for themselves homes. They had just finished at the forks of the Sappa, at the little village of Oberlin, their first schoolhouse. They were not boors, but the peers of any like number of citizens of the country. One short year ago, on September 30, 1878, the savage Cheyennes, after receiving from the Government their annui- ties, unannounced and unprovoked, entered these valleys and massacred seventeen of the fathers and brothers of this settlement, and perpetrated on their corpses the most barbarous indignities. They inflicted on the mothers and sisters outrages worse than death. On the evening of the 30th of September, the bodies of thirteen of the victims of this bloody massacre were brought to the little schoolhouse, and there, in that building, erected by the highest inspiration of civilization, lay in death and barbarous mutilation the fruits of unpro- voked and unrestrained savagery.
"Some time next month, some of these mur- derers will be tried, if their case is not continued. Had that crime been promptly and properly pun- ished, the people would not now be mourning for the dead at White River.
" Our denominational humanitarians have had their day. Their Congregational Cheyennes, Methodist Modocs and Unitarian Utes have each baptized their newly-acquired sectarian virtues in the blood of a cruel massacre .:
" The Indian policy of the Department of the Interior has been a humiliating failure. Let the Indian be turned over to the War Department, and let the Government, hereafter, use its iron hand to prevent outrage rather than to punish it."
Thus it will be seen that for three months prior to the massacre, Mr. 'Meeker had been powerless to control his Indians; that they had been roam- ing at will off their reservation, devastating the country and imposing upon the settlers, and that the combined appeals of Agent Meeker and Gov. Pitkin were virtually disregarded by the Indian Bureau. Aid was promised, indeed, but it did not reach the Agency in time to prevent the massacre.
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Finally, however, affairs became so bad that an order was issued for the advance of troops, under Maj. Thornburg, from Fort Fred Steele, to the Agency-not to punish any Indian, but to inquire into the causes of trouble there and to restrain the Indians from further insubordination. Maj.
Thornburg advanced as far as Milk River, near the north line of the reservation, where he was attacked by a force of several hundred Indian warriors, while, at the same time, another force attacked and murdered Father Meeker and all the male employes at the Agency.
CHAPTER III. THE NEWS IN DENVER.
T THE first intelligence of the outbreak was received in Denver about noon on Wednes- day, October 1, in the shape of the following dis- patch :
LARAMIE CITY, October 1, 1879.
To Gov. Pitkin, Denver :
The White River Utes have met Col. Thornburg's command, sent to quell disturbances at the Agency, killing Thornburg himself and killing and wounding many of his officers, men and horses, whereby the safety of the whole command is imperiled. I shall warn our people in the North Park, and trust that you will take such prompt action as will protect your peo- ple, and result in giving the War Department control of the savages, in order to protect the settlers from mas- sacres, provoked by the present temporizing policy of the Government with reference to Indian affairs, in all time to come.
STEPHEN W. DOWNEY.
This telegram was followed within fifteen min- utes by the following :
RAWLINS, October 1.
To the Governor of Colorado :
Messengers from Thornburg's command arrived during the night. Utes attacked the command at Milk Creek, twenty-five miles this side of the Agency. Maj .. Thornburg killed, and all of his officers but one wounded. Stock nearly all killed. Settlers in great danger. About one-third of command wounded. Set- tlers should have immediate protection.
J. B. ADAMS.
There was no hesitation in the action of Gov. Pitkin. Aware for weeks that such an outbreak was liable to occur at any moment, his course had, it might be said, been anticipated, and he sent
the following dispatch to the Secretary of War, at Washington :
DENVER, October 1, 1879 Geo. W. McCrary, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C .:
Dispatches just received from Laramie City and Rawlins inform me that White River Utes attacked Col. Thornburg's command twenty-five miles from Agency. Col. Thornburg was killed, and all his offi- cers but one killed or wounded, besides many of his men and most of the horses. Dispatches state that the whole command is imperiled.
The State of Colorado will furnish you, immediately, all the men you require to settle permanently this Indian trouble.
I have seut couriers to warn settlers.
FREDERICK W. PITKIN, Governor of Colorado.
It is a difficult matter to describe the excite- ment which followed the spreading of the tidings over the city. Denver discusses event and calam- ity, ordinarily, with serenity and coolness; but the news of the ambush and the danger which awaited the whites in and about the Agency at White River startled the entire community, and expressions of sadness would be swept from the face by those of anger and determination. The Governor's office was besieged during the after- noon and evening, not by the idly curious, but by strong men-sturdy old pioneers and hot-blooded young men, who offered their services to the State in defense of her people and in exterminating the savage horde. At least fifty volunteers made bold to see the Governor, while everywhere on the streets men gathered together, and pledged themselves to
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join any volunteer movement to protect the frontier and drive the Utes from Colorado soil or into it.
Meanwhile, the Governor had been taking im- mediate steps for the protection of settlers on the Indian frontier, first, by sending out couriers to warn them of their probable danger, and, finally, by calling the militia of the State to hold them- selves in readiness for service at the shortest possi- ble notice. For convenience, the frontier was divided into three military districts-the north- west under command of Gen. W. A. Hamill, of Georgetown; the center in charge of Gen. J. C. Wilson, of Leadville, and the southwest, or San Juan country, to be commanded by Capt. George J. Richards, of Lake City. Dispatches were sent to each of these gentlemen, instructing them to notify all exposed settlements of the outbreak, and to organize companies of minute-men for defense in case of Indian attack.
These instructions were carried out without loss of time, and very effectually. It happened, how- ever, that the Indians made no demonstrations against the settlers, and the only effect of all this " military activity" was to awaken a sense of inse- curity which could not be allayed for some weeks. There was a frantic demand for arms and ammuni- tion, which Gov. Pitkin was unable to supply, the State being almost destitute of military supplies.
Meanwhile, an almost feverish anxiety prevailed as to the probable course of the Southern or Un- compahgre Utes, under Ouray and Ignacio. Would they join their White River brethren and fight, or would Ouray, the known friend of the whites, succeed in keeping them quiet and peace- ful? As the telegraph line in that direction was only extended to Del Norte, at that time, it was not until Sunday morning, October 5, that news came from that quarter, and then it was in the shape of the following startling dispatch :
LAKE CITY, October 3, via DEL NORTE, October 5.
Gov. F. W. Pitkin, Denver :
Indian Chief Ouray has notified the whites to protect themselves; that he is powerless, and can afford no protection. Capt. Richards, of the Lake City Guards,
has gone to Indian Creek to seize the ammunition destined for the Agency, now en route. George M. Darley has just reached here from Ouray City. He left there this morning. It is reported that Ignacio is on the war-path in the South. The town of Ouray is under arms. The country is all on fire. We will do all we can, but want arms. We must have protection of some kind. Answer.
M. B. GERRY, FRED. C. PECK, and others.
Of course, such a statement, signed by the most respectable citizens of Lake City, could not fail to produce a decided sensation, and thé Executive office was more thoroughly aroused that morning than when the first news of the outbreak came in. Immediate steps were taken to forward arms and ammunition to Lake City and Ouray, and the regular train for the South having left Denver, a special train was sent out, carrying Gen. D. J. Cook, of the State Militia, and a quantity of arms and ammunition. Other dispatches and personal intelligence received later seemed to confirm the impression that trouble was imminent in the San Juan country. It was stated that Ignacio and his band were on the war-path in La Plata County, and grave fears were entertained for the safety of the exposed settlers on that frontier, though reg- ular troops were being moved in that direction under command ef Gen. Hateh.
All these fears were happily groundless. Gen. Cook reached Lake City in due time, and found the scare already subsiding, Chief Ouray having asserted his control over the tribe, and Ignacio, instead of being on the war-path, was disposed to treat the matter lightly, having no particular love for the White River Utes. Before it was definitely kuown that no danger need be apprehended from that source, Gov. Pitkin, in answer to a telegram from Silverton, sent the celebrated dispatch which has since caused so much comment and con- troversy in the press of Colorado and the East, and, to the end that the message in question may be fully understood and not misquoted, the entire correspondence is given below. Mr. A. W. Hudson, who signs the first dispatch, is a leading
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lawyer and a most reputable citizen of the town of Silverton :
To Gov. F. W. Pitkin : SILVERTON, October 5.
Your dispatch received at Animas City. Bands of Indians out setting fires on the line between La Plata and San Juan. They say they will burn the entire country over. Chief Ouray, from the Uncompahgre band, has sent out a courier warning settlers that his young men are on the war-path, and that he cannot control them. The Indians setting out these fires, being off their reservation, cannot the people of these two counties drive them back ? We don't want to wait till they have killed a few families, and if they understand we are prepared, there may be no outbreak.
A. W. HUDSON.
The following answer was returned :
A. W. Hudson, Silverton :
DENVER, October 8.
Indians off their reservation, seeking to destroy your settlements by fire, are game to he hunted and des- troyed like wild beasts. Send this word to the settle- ments. Gen. Dave Cook is at Lake City in command of State forces. Gen. Hatch rushing in regulars to San Juan.
FREDERICK W. PITKIN, Governor.
Gov. Pitkin's dispatch has been misquoted and misinterpreted as meaning that the Indians should be hunted as wild beasts, under any and all circumstances, and he has been censured for the alleged inhumanity of the executive order. Those who read the whole correspondence will see that the order was entirely proper under the circum- stances, and as it was originally transmitted. In- stead of referring to Indians in general, it related only to marauders off their reservation seeking the destruction of white settlements by fire, and if such Indians ought not to be hunted like wild beasts, they certainly deserve no better fate.
Meanwhile, although Gen. Merritt, with a large force, had been sent promptly to the relief of the remnant of Thornburg's command, no tidings had been received from that direction, either from the Agency or the Indians. It was almost certain that the Agency people were killed, and it seemed natural to expect an incursion of hostile savages upon some portion of the Indian border. Just
where the blow would fall, no one could possibly foresee, and each mining-camp in the mountains felt itself in instant danger of attack. It was a trying time. Although, in point of fact, the hos- tiles were engaged in watching the movement of the regular soldiers, and made no advance in the direction of the white settlements, it could not be known that such was the case, and the general alarm could not be condemned as causeless. The couriers and scouts did not bring in any news of Indians, but rumors were thick and fast, and no sooner was one scare over than another broke out. Of these successive sensations, however, it is use- less to write in detail at this late day. Suffice it to say that, by prompt action and a judicious dis- tribution of arms and ammunition along the border, Gov. Pitkin was presently enabled to sat- isfy the people that they had little to fear from the Utes, and soon public sentiment perversely set in the opposite direction. Instead of fearing the Indians would come, the miners and prospectors leaned back on their guns and prayed for Indians to come and be shot. When news of the Agency massacre was received, the indignation of the citi- zens of Colorado was so great that it was with much difficulty that Gov. Pitkin prevented the State militia and minute-men from making an advance upon the reservation and the hostile Indians. The Governor foresaw, however, that such an advance would be the death-signal of the captive women and children from the Agency who were in the hands of the hostiles, and humanity prompted an effort to secure their re- lease before any steps were taken toward punishing the assassins and murderers.
The release of the captives could only be effected through Ouray, who was known to be heartily in favor of their surrender as soon as possible. The chief had already sent Indian runners from his camp to that of the hostiles, commanding the latter to cease fighting. A young man named Joseph Brady, an attache of the Uncompahgre Agency, had accompanied Ouray's runners, and had gone with a flag of truce into Gen. Merritt's
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camp to notify him of Ouray's order. Brady was not permitted to see the captives, but carried back assurances that they were alive and well.
Ouray having expressed a willingness to send another party out to bring in the women and children, Gen. Charles Adams, special agent of the
Post-Office Department for Colorado, and a former Agent both at Los Pinos and at White River, was detailed by the Interior Department to accompany the Indians and bring in the prisoners. A detailed account of this thrilling expedition will be found in a subsequent chapter.
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