USA > Colorado > Arapahoe County > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 21
USA > Colorado > Denver County > Denver > History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado > Part 21
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The first opposition to the bill came from West- ern and Southern members, who suspected that the design was to remove the Utes to the Indian Territory. This was met and silenced by a pro- viso that the Indian Territory should not be selected for their residence.
Then the real opposition to their removal to any point began to be manifested in various forms. The question was raised as to whether the South- ern tribes had done anything to demand their removal from the State. Then somebody wanted
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to know whether the outbreak had not been the natural result of "encroachments " on the reserva- tion. Secretary Schurz and Commissioner Hayt were each on record with statements that the miners were crowding the poor Indians uncomfort- ably on their 12,000,000 acres.
This was, of course, vigorously disputed, not only by the Colorado delegation but by many other members who knew, by personal observation, how false it was. Many Congressmen had visited Colorado during the summer, and each one of them sided with our own members.
Senator Teller introduced a resolution requiring the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to substantiate his statement that miners were on the reservation by detailed accounts of the " encroachments " to which he had referred in his report to Congress. The resolution directed him not only to specify the violations of the Brunot Treaty by white settlers, but also to state what steps, if any, the Indian Bureau had taken to protect the reservation, as required by the treaty " and such other informa- tion as was in his possession," for the information of the Senate.
To this resolution there has been no response, as yet, and none is expected-for the sufficient reason that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs cannot point to one violation of the treaty by white men. The Utes have looked out for that themselves. It has been death for a white man to violate the treaty.
As a part of the history of Colorado Indian troubles, and to show the temper of Congress on the question, the following report of one of the debates in the House of Representatives is repro- duced :
" WASHINGTON, December 19 .- In the House yesterday, the Chairman of the Committee on In- dian Affairs reported back the Senate bill author- izing the Secretary of the Interior to negotiate with the Ute Indians for the relinquishment of their reservation in Colorado, and their removal and settlement, with amendments requiring the con- sent of the Indians to the cession of any part of
their reservation, and providing that no agreement shall be valid unless agreed to by three-fourths of all adult males who have not forfeited their treaty rights, and unless confirmed by Congress.
" Mr. Springer said the time had arrived when civilization had reached the boundaries of the Ute reservation, and all efforts to preserve peace there would be futile in the future. Congress must look, then, at the question squarely, fairly and plainly, and must decide it in the interest of justice. He did not believe in treating with the Indians as equals ; he believed in the poliey of regarding the whole of the lands within the limits of jurisdiction as public domain, and Indians as citizens of the United States, and of teaching them to obey the law, and to understand that, when they killed inno- cent persons, they were guilty of murder.
" Mr. Belford stated that the Ute reservation, in Colorado, consisted of 12,000,000 acres, or 4,000 for every man, woman and child, in the Ute tribe. He was opposed to the committee amendments to the Senate bill, and he predicted that if they were adopted, that next year would witness a renewal of the conflict which had recently attracted the atten- tion of the country. He challenged Conger, or any officer of the Interior Department, to point his finger to a complaint ever made by the Ute Indians against the people of Colorado. If those amendments were adopted, as certain as God reigned above, next spring the teeming thousands which would pour into Colorado would cross the line of that reservation, and would prospeet the mountains for mineral wealth, and the Government would not have the power to arrest the progress of the vast tribe. If the Government desired to pre- vent war and protect the people of Colorado, it must provide some method that would secure the removal of the Indians from the State. In com- ing to Washington to take his seat, he had passed through large States, every acre of which has been stolen from the Indians; and, the gentleman said, ' while our fathers robbed the Indians, we want you to belong to the goody class of people in the West.' He called the attention of Conger to the fact that
albert Brown
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the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1878, showed that more frauds had heen com- mitted against the Indians in Michigan than in any other State or Territory.
" Mr. Hooker said that Belford and Springer pro- posed, in violation of the most solemn treaties, to rob the Indians of the territory which had been conceded to them by the Government. If they were a powerful nation, with a great army at their backs which could point cannon at their faces and demand justice, these gentlemen would not dare to take the position they do. He held the Govern- ment was powerful enough to do what was right, and to see that justice was done, even though the people who demand it demand it in the name of law and moral right, and not because they have physical power to compel it.
" Mr. Belford said the tide of civilization-of Anglo-Saxon civilization-is sweeping over the country, and that the Indians must yield to it.
" Mr. Conger asked what sort of bill this was which required for its sanction and support a ref- erence to all the world-renowned rascalities prac- ticed on the Indians since the discovery of America. This great nation had made a treaty eleven years ago with a mountain tribe of Indians, by which those Indians were permitted to go far into unknown mountains, supposed to be uninhab- itable by civilized people, and remain there. They had been driven away from all the land which it was then thought the avarice and greed of white men might desire. But now the enterprise and avidity of the white man had discovered treasures of silver and gold in the neighborhood of these mountains, and one had been found within twenty- five miles of the Ute reservation. In former years, men had waited until miners or agriculturists had stepped over the lines of Indian reservations, but now they were becoming bolder, and now as soon as they came in sight of the mountains-as soon as they came in sight of the foot-hills, twenty- five miles off, the Commissioners appointed to protect the Indians in their rights, brought in a bill to remove the Indians from their territory and
reservation. The whites had not yet passed into their reservation.
" Mr. Haskell denied the last statement, and said already the mountains to the east of Leadville and in the Ute reservation were filled with miners, and the conflict with those miners brought about these difficulties.
"Mr. Conger asked why have the miners gone on this reservation ? Why have the citizens of the United States violated the treaty ? Because they have power to go there, and because they can make a disturbance there and excite the Indians, and can then rush to Congress and demand that the Indians be driven from their reservation. The history of the past and the history of the present run on all fours.
" Mr. Belford-I most emphatically deny that the people of Colorado have given these Indians any occasion for the late outrages, and I challenge the gentleman to point to anything of the kind. The statement of the gentleman from Kansas, Haskell, is not correct.
" Mr. Conger-I thought it was not correct. but I did not dare to correct it myself. I was feeling my way.
" Mr. Haskell-I re-assert what I asserted be- fore, that the miners are on that reservation to- day.
" Mr. Conger-I do not enter into the question of veracity between these gentlemen. My friend from Kansas may, possibly, be able to stand on the plains of Kansas and know more about what is taking place on the mountains of Colorado than the gentleman from that State knows. (Laughter.) If there be any trouble there, it has arisen from the violation by the citizens of the United States of the treaty made within eleven years, and the gov- ernment, it seems, has taken no pains whatever to enforce the treaty, and to keep out of this Indian reservation those who have no right to go there. The very battle to which allusion has often been made, the very fight with our troops, was caused by sending an armed force into the reservation contrary to treaty stipulations, and without notice.
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" Mr. Belford-They were sent at the request of the Agent.
" Mr. Conger-That may be ; it was because in- dividual miners went over the bounds of the reservation and violated the treaty, that all the trouble had arisen. I venture to assert that fair investigation will show that more than nineteen- twentieths of our Indian troubles from the com- mencement of the Government till now have been caused by the violation of the treaty on the part of our citizens. I assert that the provisions of this bill are in violation of the treaty itself, which pro- vides that there shall be no concession of territory except with the consent of three-fourths of the male Indians. I condemn the bill because Con- gress has no right to resolve that no agreement be made to break a treaty made with any power; I oppose the bill because it is unjust to the Indians ; I oppose it because its very advocates say that the Indians must be removed, because they are in the way of the white men ; I oppose it because it pro- vides that these Indians shall be located in some other part of Colorado ; I oppose it because I think it the duty of the United States, with the strong arm of its power, to protect the Indians in their reservation."
Mr. Conger represents a State (Michigan) which, more than any other in the Union, has, in the past, defrauded the Indians of their rights; but of course that does not matter if Colorado is no nearer right than Michigan was when she drove out the Indians, to possess herself of their inher- itance.
It is not a question of comparison, but of fact. If the Utes of Colorado have, as Mr. Belford claims, forfeited their treaty rights by outlawry and resistance, why should the " strong arm of the Goverment " reach out to " protect the Indians in their reservation ?"
The duty of the Government to protect the Indians existed when the latter were living at peace with the Government; and if there had been, as there were not, any "encroachments" upon the reservation by white men, it was clearly
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the duty of the Government to have removed the usurpers. It was also the duty of the Govern- ment to protect the people of Colorado from Indian encroachments and outrages, by keeping the latter on their reservation at the same time the whites were kept off of it. But the Government did neither.
It left the Indians free to roam over the entire State at will, armed and equipped for robbery, arson and murder, all of which crimes have heen committed from year to year, until the very day when Mr. Conger rose in his place and demanded -what ? Not that the murderous and trespass- ing Utes should be restrained, but that they should be " protected." Congress has no power, says Mr. Conger, to break a treaty. Then the Utes are more potent than Congress, for assuredly they have broken the treaty of 1868, and have defied the " strong arm of the Government," by making war upon its army and massacreing its Agents.
Apparently, however, there is no power on earth which will convince the East that Colorado does not want the Utes removed, in order that she may inherit after them. Even if this were as true as it is false, there would be both reason and justice in the demand. Their reservation is euor- mously too large for their diminished numbers, and its mineral wealth is of no value to them what- ever. They ceded the rich San Juan country to the United States for a consideration, and it has more than repaid the outlay already, while the l'tes themselves are no poorer, or would not be if the Interior Department would pay them their just dues. Now the Government might go down into its pocket a little deeper and buy the rest of the reservation, with equal or exceeding profit. Pay the Indians as much or as little as may be neces- sary for their land. Colorado does not demand that they shall be robbed, even by the Indian Bureau.
Congress cannot be expected, however, to rise above the influences of the Interior Department in this Ute business, and the people of Colorado
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expect little from that quarter. A " delegation " of Indians is going on to Washington, and the average Congressman is no match for the guileless child of the forest when the latter has a grievance. Ouray will have a larger, more sym- pathetic and far more powerful audience at the Capitol than Teller, Hill and Belford combined. Capt. Jack will be the hero of the day-the Indian who whipped Thornburg in a " fair fight" -so called by the Ute apologists, although the brave men who died with Thornburg in that death- cañon of Milk River may have entertained a dif- ferent idea as to the fairness of that foul attack. Capt. Jack will claim that it was a fair fight, of course. Congress will believe him, and the penny- a-liners will dilate upon the " wrongs " of the poor Indian, ad nauseam. After settling the Ute question to suit themselves, the Indians will come back to Colorado and become ten times more intolerant and dangerous than before, feeling that they have nothing to fear from the "strong arm" of the paternal but, apparently, idiotie Gov- ernment
The Ute war is not over, though a truce is called for the moment. The inquiry now in progress at Washington as to the merits of the matter is too superficial and ex parte to result in anything but a complete surrender to the Indians. Apparently. there is no disposition to hear white testimony on
the question. The House Committee on Indian Affairs was, some time since, notified that Gov. Pitkin, of Colorado, was a material and competent witness for his people; but, while a palace car load of Utes are sent on, at Government expense, to justify the murders committed by themselves and their kinsmen, the Governor of the commonwealth is not even asked to be present when they are examined, nor is it known that a single white man, other than Government agents, will be present with them in Washington.
The result will be, no doubt, that Congress will do nothing toward their removal or better manage- ment, and, in the early spring, there will be more and greater troubles between the hostile Utes and the white settlers, but with this difference-the whites will not get the worst of it in the next encounters. The misfortune of this will be that, in addition to the inevitable casualities of these conflicts, the people of the State will be accused of waging a mercenary war upon the Utes. In that case, they must answer that the "strong arm" of the Government was not raised for their pro- tection, and it became a virtuous necessity to defend themselves. The blood of the martyred Meeker cried from the ground in vain to the Government in whose service he was assassinated, but the brave men of Colorado are not deaf to its demands.
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PART II.
SKETCH OF ARAPAHOE COUNTY AND LITTLETON.
T THERE was a time, in the not very far distant past, when the county of Arapahoe, then in the State of Kansas, was one of the richest counties in the United States. It embraced nearly all the territory since included in the State of Colorado. The wealth of Leadville lay locked up within its limits, to say nothing of Gilpin, Clear Creek and other mining districts, since developed so wonder- fully. Its shining sands carried a wealth of golden grains, which, in later years, made fortunes for thousands. Nevertheless, in its infancy, it was distinguished for nothing but magnificent scenery and some uncertain reports of hidden riches, which might, or might not, be verified.
of the talking and voting, and perhaps attracted no more attention at the capital than the average member from the counties on the western limit of settlement, save in the amount of mileage to which he found himself entitled.
The present boundaries of Arapahoe County were defined by Government Surveyors in 1861. The Territory of Colorado had been established by an act of Congress, and William Gilpin had been commissioned Governor. It was under his direction that the Territory was subdivided into thirteen counties, of which Arapahoe was still the chief in importance though not in size. Weld, on the north, was more than twice as large, and on the south, Douglas, since divided into Douglas and Elbert, was considerably larger. Arapahoe County was then, and is now, a parallelogram,
The first political division of that portion of the State of Kansas, which embraced the Pike's Peak gold region, was organized by the people of Aura- ' ria, in the fall of 1858. Its boundaries seem to thirty miles wide, and 162 miles long from east to have been rather loosely defined, but the intention west, extending from the line of Kansas on the east to within a few miles of the mountains. was to embrace all the country which had been explored as well as all which had been settled up As originally constituted, there did not seem to be much " outcome" in Arapahoe County. Of gold it had no abundance. The Cherry Creek and Platte sand showed " color," but it was little worked in Arapahoe County, except a few bars on Dry Creek, a few miles above Auraria, on the Platte. At that time, agriculture and stock-grow- ing were undeveloped industries, and, without gold, little could be expected, even of such an ambitious " settlement " as Denver. To the east the Great Plains stretched out almost into infinity, aban- doned to the buffalo and Indians. The Platte crossed the western end of the county, but its Nile-like valley gave forth no promise of future to that time. The great chain of parks was included together with most of the mountain ranges and river valleys encircling them. Auraria was the county seat, and the only settlement. It wasn't much of a settlement, to be sure, but the absorbing interest in politics which has since char- acterized Colorado, was developed in the early days of the settlement, and Auraria, instead of grow- ing up on a milk-and-water diet of politics, seemed to spring at once, full-panoplied, into existence as a political center. A mere handful of men organ- ized the county and sent its first representative to the Kansas Legislature. History is silent as to the effect his appearance produced in that body, prosperity. Gov. Gilpin's strong faith in the but, as he drew his pay along with the other future of Denver as a commercial metropolis was Solons, it is to be presumed that he did his share not generally shared by the people of the town and
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county, and, if the latter had been put up at auc- tion, in 1861, it would have gone cheap, if it had sold at all.
The county, however, was well watered, con- sidering the fact that it lay entirely on the plains, and possessed all the peculiarities of the arid belt. Besides the Platte, it could boast of such water- ways as Cherry Creek, a portion of Clear Creek, the Kiowa, Bijou and Beaver, and the middle fork of the Republican, known as the Arickarce, from the Indian tribe of that name. All the last-named streams are now lined with cattle instead of buf- falo, and the eastern part of the county is increas- ing fast both in wealth and population.
Before Gov. Gilpin "reconstructed " Arapahoe County, however, and while it was still a depend- ence of Kansas, Capt. Richard Sopris, now Mayor of Denver, represented the county in the Kansas Legislature. The Captain was also largely instru- mental in keeping up " friendly relations " between the State and county, when the latter, beginning to " feel its oats," began to throw off its county allegiance and to set up a home-rule government of its own. For a time, it was hard to tell where the people belonged. some of them adhering to the Kansas regime, some to the provisional Territorial government, and others recognizing only " miners' law," which, by the way, was about the best of the lot.
Although, as has been said, the first discoveries of gold, in paying quantities, were made in Arap- ahoe County, the amount was inconsiderable, and the diggings were soon exhausted or abandoned for the more promising fields of the mountain gulches. No subsequent discoveries were made ; for, though the Boulder coal measures have been developed to the very line of Arapahoe County, coal has not been mined inside of its limits. The fossil remains of the county are no doubt interest- ing to geologists, but even these have attracted as yet but little attention. Arapahoe County is also almost destitute of timber, with the exception of a few cottonwoods along the Platte and its tribu- taries. The magnificent forest which enfolds
Denver, is of artificial growth, and so are most of the trees surrounding the adjoining farms and farmhouses.
For a long time, Denver and its immediate sub- urhs (now consolidated), were the only " towns " in the county; hut with the era of railways, came several more or less pretentious way stations, which will eventually, no doubt, grow in substantial and enduring prosperity.
Of these, Littleton, on the Denver and Rio Grande railway (ten miles south of Denver, and in the extreme southwestern corner of the county), is the most important. It is located on the Platte River, and is surrounded by a fine farming coun- try, well watered and well tilled. Its proximity to Denver reduces its trade to small proportions; but, otherwise, Littleton is a flourishing suburb, and is steadily growing in size and natural beauty. In the summer months, it is almost embowered in a mass of foliage, through which its white cottages gleam and shine like a New England village in its bower of elms. In time, no doubt, Littleton will become, in fact, a rail suburb of Denver, and night and morning trains will carry back and forth deni- zens of the latter city to their delightful cottages in the former. Littleton has long boasted of the leading flouring-mill in the country, and its famous " Rough and Ready" brand of fancy flour is known almost as well in Boston and New York as in Den- ver. It was the product of this mill which first attracted the attention of the East to the superior qualities of Colorado flour, which is now admitted to be the best the country affords.
Oo the Kansas Pacific road, there are several small stations in Arapahoe County, all of which as yet are merely headquarters for stock men. Of these, Deer Trail is the most important, being a considerable shipping-point for cattle, and pro- vided with extensive stock yards built by the Company. Deer Trail is fifty-seven miles east of Denver, and is in the center of an extensive and well-watered stock range. Mr. John Hitt- son, a well-known stock man, makes his head- quarters here. Mr. Hittson was formerly a heavy
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operator, but, of late years, his rivals have out. stripped him in the race for supremacy, and the former cattle king is now in effect a dethroned monarch.
The Denver Pacific as yet has furnished forth no suburb worthy of note in Arapahoe County, although the Platte Valley, along which the rail- road runs, is well settled and highly cultivated. Island Station, about twelve miles out of Denver, is only a flag station. Hughes, seven miles further on, is the junction of the Boulder Valley Branch with the main line, but has no population.
Arapahoe County has seventeen voting pre- cincts, of which six are in Denver, and the remainder outside. It has a population of about fifty thousand souls, three-fourths of whom are in its principal city. Its taxable wealth is $20,- 000,000, according to the Assessors' returns- about one-half its actual value by any other com- putation.
The county government has been well adminis- tered, and its finances are in good shape, although there is an indebtedness for railway bonds which requires a considerable annual tax levy. Bonds were first voted to the amount of half a million dollars in aid of the Denver Pacific road, and afterward $300,000 more were voted to the Den- ver & South Park. The latter has proved a good investment in every sense, but the former has only indirectly benefited the county, and the stock issued for the county bonds is now absolutely worthless, the road having been sold out to the bond-holders. Nevertheless, it was the issue of these bonds and the consequent building of this road, which brought the Kansas Pacific into Den- ver and gave a direct connection between Denver and the East, at a time when such connection was most desirable.
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