USA > Colorado > El Paso County > The Indians of the Pike's peak region > Part 13
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13
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mistook us for a band of Indians. They gathered around some tall rocks a little way to the eastward of the gateway, and seemed to be preparing for defense. We tried by signaling and otherwise to make ourselves known to them, but were unsuc- cessful until we were almost within gun-shot dis- tance. They were greatly relieved when they ascertained who we were. We then joined them and reached Colorado City without further in- cident.
Events of a similar character were of almost daily occurrence while the Indians remained in this region. Every animal on a distant hill became an Indian horseman to the excited im- agination of the ranchman or cowboy, and without further investigation he rushed off to town to give the alarm. No lone man on horseback allowed another horseman to approach him with- out preparing for defense, and every object at a distance that was not clearly distinguishable was viewed with alarm.
For two weeks following the raid upon the pres- ent town-site of Colorado Springs, the Indians had virtual possession of the northern and eastern portions of the county. During this time they raided Gill's ranch, east of Jimmy's Camp, and ran off his herd of horses, taking them out of the
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corral near his house in the night, although the horses were being guarded by armed men. It appears that the Indians stole up to the corral on the opposite side from where the guards were posted, made an opening in it, let the horses out, and were off with them before the men realized what was going on.
About the same time, the Indians killed a demented man named Jonathan Lincoln, at the Lincoln ranch in Spring Valley on Cherry Creek, just north of the El Paso County line. Lincoln and a Mexican were out in the harvest-field binding oats when they saw the Indians approaching. The Mexican saved himself by flight, but Lincoln folded his arms and calmly awaited the coming of the savages. Without hesitation they killed him, took his scalp, and departed again into the recesses of the adjacent pinery. They also killed John Choteau, on east Cherry Creek, John Grief and Jonathan Tallman on east Bijou, and raided the John Russell ranch at the head of East Cherry Creek, from which place they ran off sixteen horses.
About this time, a small band of Indians, while prowling around near the town of Monument, threatened the house of David McShane at a time when all the men were away, Mrs. McShane and some neighboring women and children being
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the only occupants. Having the true pioneer spirit, the women, under the leadership of Mrs. McShane, put up such a strong show of defense that the savages abandoned the attack in short order, apparently glad to get away unharmed. Soon after, they burned Henry Walker's house, which stood about a mile east of the present Husted station on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad.
The Indians seemed to have established a camp at some secluded place in the timber of the Divide, from which they went out in small parties in every direction, killing and robbing when opportunity of- fered. Every day during these two weeks, Indians were seen at various places on the Divide and the eastern part of the county. By this time, how- ever, our people had taken their families out of danger and were so constantly on the alert that the Indians, while having many opportunities for looting and robbing the deserted ranches, had few chances for surprising and killing defenseless people, who were the only ones they cared to attack. Throughout the raid, those who had been able to make any kind of a defense had been let alone. The Indians seemed unwilling to take any chances or to waste their ammunition, unless they were certain of results.
A week or two after the beginning of the Indian
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troubles, the people of El Paso County took steps to form a military company to be' regularly employed against the Indians, its members to serve without pay. It was the intention to keep this company in the field until the Indians were driven out of the region. About the fifteenth of September, eighty mounted and well-armed men, who had enlisted for the purpose, and of whom I was one, met at Husted's saw-mill on the Divide and perfected a military organization by the election of the usual company officers, A. J. Templeton being elected captain. The company took up its line of march through the pinery to Bijou Basin; thence eastward past the place where Simpson's party had been besieged two or three weeks before. After examining with much inter- est the scene of this fight, we went southeasterly to Big Sandy Creek, thence down the valley of that creek to Lake Station on the Smoky Hill wagon road, about ten miles east of the present town of Limon. On our march we saw no Indians, and, judging from their trails and from other indica- tions, we decided that they were leaving the coun- try. As we marched down the valley of the Big Sandy, in the vicinity of the present towns of Ramah and Calhan, we saw hundreds of dead cattle, most of them cows that had been killed by
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the Indians only a day or two before. That these cattle had been wantonly killed, was shown by the fact that no part of the animals had been taken for food. In almost every instance they had been shot with arrows, many of which were at the time sticking in the carcasses. Besides the dead cattle, we saw hundreds of live ones scattered all over the hills and down the valley, which had evidently been driven off by the Indians from the ranches in El Paso and the surrounding counties. At a point about ten miles down the valley from the present station of Limon, on the Rock Island Railway, the trail of the Indians left the valley and turned northeastward. At this place we were about seventy-five miles southwest from the Beecher Island battle ground, on the Arickaree fork of the Republican River, where Colonel George A. Forsyth and his fifty followers were at that very time making their heroic defense against an over- whelming number of Indians under the command of the famous chief Roman Nose, although we knew nothing of the affair until some time later. The trail of the Indians led across the country in a direct line toward the battle ground. No doubt they had been summoned by runners to aid their people, and probably this was the reason for their leaving El Paso County.
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Upon discovering the course taken by the 1 Indians, Captain Templeton, on account of his small force, deemed it imprudent to pursue them farther. An additional reason for facing about was that our supply of provisions was about exhausted, and had we gone farther we should have had to subsist on the wild game of the region, which would have been a risky thing to attempt. As it was, on our way homeward we had to live entirely on the meat of cattle we killed. Having no camp outfit, we broiled the meat on sticks before our camp fires and then ate it without salt. To me this fare was about the nearest to a starvation diet that I have ever experienced. We reached Colorado City in due time, with- out having seen an Indian during our whole campaign. Whether we were the cause of the Indians leaving this region, or whether it was a coincidence that they were just ahead of us, I do not know, but it was evident that the Indians were gone, and on account of approaching winter we had little to fear from them during the remainder of the year. There apparently being no further use for its services, the company was disbanded.
It had been a strenuous period for the settlers from the first appearance of the Indians about the 20th of August until this time. At least a dozen
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persons had been killed in El Paso County and the country adjacent thereto on the Divide. Many houses had been destroyed; crops had been lost through inability to harvest the grain; probably five hundred horses and at least one thousand head of cattle had been driven off, making an aggregate loss of property that was extremely heavy for a sparsely populated county such as El Paso was at that time. The contest was an unequal one from the start. The settlers were armed with a mis- cellaneous lot of guns, most of which were muzzle- loading hunting rifles, while the Indians were armed with breech-loading guns using metal cartridges. Fortunately for the settlers, the ammunition of the Indians was of a poor quality, as was proved in the fight east of Bijou Basin and elsewhere, and, judging by the careful manner in which they used their ammunition, it is probable that the supply was not very large. This un- doubtedly saved the lives of many of our people. It was noticed from the first that the Indians never wasted their ammunition and seldom attacked an armed person.
During all the time the savages were going up and down the county murdering people, stealing stock, and destroying the property of the settlers, the general Government did not make the slightest
15
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attempt to give our people protection, although attention was repeatedly called to their desperate condition. It is true that a week or two after the Indian troubles began, the Territorial authori- ties at Denver supplied our people with a limited number of old Belgian muskets, together with the necessary ammunition, but these guns were so much inferior to those in the hands of the Indians, that they were of very little use. With this one exception, the early settlers of this county were left entirely to their own resources from the beginning of the Indian troubles, in 1864, until the end, which did not come until the building of the railroads into the Territory. Every appeal to the general Government for protection was received either with indifference or insult.
In September, 1866, General William T. Sher- man, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army, on his way north from an inspection of the forts in New Mexico, accompanied by a large number of staff officers and a strong escort, stopped overnight in Colorado City. Having been in constant danger from the Indians since the begin- ning of the trouble in 1864, our people thought this an opportune time to lay the matter before him and ask that proper means of protection be provided. My father, the Rev. Wm. Howbert,
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was appointed spokesman of the committee that waited upon the General. In his speech, father explained our exposed and defenseless condition, and suggested that a force of government troops be permanently stationed at some point on our eastern frontier, in order to intercept any Indians that might be attempting a raid upon the people of this region. General Sherman received the appeal with utter indifference, and replied that he thought we were unnecessarily alarmed; that there were no hostile Indians in the neighborhood; and then sarcastically remarked that it probably would be a very profitable thing for the people of this region if we could have a force of govern- ment troops located near here, to whom our farmers might sell their grain and agricultural products at a high price. With this remark he dismissed the committee, the members of which left the room very indignant at the manner in which their appeal had been received. Later in the year, General Sherman evidently was of the opinion that there were hostile Indians in the western country and that they needed severe punishment, for after the massacre of Lieut .- Col. Fetterman and his entire command near Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming, he telegraphed General Grant, saying: "We must act with vindictive
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earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women, and children; nothing else will reach the root of the case."
Two years later, in 1868, the General came to Denver along the line of the Kansas-Pacific Rail- way, at that time under construction, and was glad to have a strong escort to guard him through the region of the hostile Indians. Following this trip, he made a strenuous effort to punish the savages elsewhere, but apparently made no attempt to protect the settlers on the eastern borders of Colorado.
I venture to say that no civilized nation ever gave less attention to protecting its frontier people from the incursion of savages than did our general Government. It was always a question of the in- fluence that could be brought to bear upon the government officials at Washington. After the outbreak of the Indians in Minnesota, in 1862, the Government took prompt measures and punished the savages unmercifully. However, this was due to the fact that Minnesota at that time had two Senators and several members of Congress who were able to bring the necessary influence to bear. During all of our Indian troubles, Colorado had only one delegate in Con- gress, who had no vote and very little influence.
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Consequently, we were left to protect ourselves as best we could
The whole eastern frontier of El Paso County faced upon the territory occupied by the Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes, the most crafty and bloodthirsty savages upon the American conti- nent. There were at all times bands of these Indians roaming around on the headwaters of the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers, and it was easy for them to reach the settlements of this county without being observed. Considering these facts, it now seems a wonder that we were not wiped off the face of the earth. Doubtless, as I have said before, the reason that we were not exterminated was the fact of our contiguity to the country of their hereditary enemies, the Utes, for whom, on account of their fighting ability, they had a wholesome respect.
During the Indian troubles, a few settlers left the county and sought places of safety elsewhere, but the great majority of our people pluckily stood their ground. The ranchmen who had brought their families to Colorado City for pro- tection left them there until the trouble was over, but went to their homes as often as they could get two or three armed men to accompany them, to harvest their grain and take care of their stock.
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Every time they did this, it was at the risk of their lives, for no one could tell when or where the savages might next appear.( The people who now live in the cities and on the ranches of El Paso County can have no true conception of the dangers and the anxieties of the early settlers of the Pike's Peak region. As soon as it was definitely known that the Indians had left the county, most of the ranchmen moved their families back to their homes. From previous experience it was known that, as winter was coming on, there was little danger to be apprehended until the following spring.
By the spring of 1869, the Government, in a winter campaign with troops under the command of General Custer, had administered such severe punishment to the Cheyennes and Arapahoes in the battle of Washita and in other engagements that thereafter the people of El Paso County were unmolested by them, although spasmodic outbreaks occurred at various places out on the plains for several years afterward.
THE END
A
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Date Due
PD
1
1098
NOV 17
1998
JUL.
2002
JUL 0 9
2002
F 782 .E3 H8 Howbert, Irving, 1846- The Indians of the Pike's peak 010101 000 0 1163 0221593 8 TRENT UNIVERSITY
F782 .E3H8 Howbert, Irving The indians of the Pike's Peak region
DATE
JE228240 228240
P
~
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