While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
The Ute seldom visited Colorado City and
the region round about in the early days,
except in the winter, which was the only
time they could do so with a fair degree of
safety. A majority of the tribe had been on
friendly terms with the English-speaking
people from the time of their earliest
contact with that race. It is true that
straggling bands of Ute occasionally
committed acts of depredation, and such
bands on one or two occasions killed white
people, but these acts were not approved by
the majority of the tribe.
One of these exceptions occurred on
Christmas day, 1854, at Fort Napesta, on the
present site of the city of Pueblo. It is
said that the men who occupied the fort were
celebrating the day with the liquid that
both cheers and inebriates, and in the midst
of their jollity, a band of wandering Ute
came by and was invited to join in the
revelry. The Indians, nothing loath, partook
of the white man's Taos lightning, the
product of a distillery at Taos, New Mexico,
and the natural consequence was an attack
upon the whites which resulted in all the
latter being killed.
In 1866, a small, band of Ute began a raid
upon the settlers on Huerfano Creek, but
when the news reached Ouray, the head chief
of the tribe, he sent runners out at once to
warn the settlers and then went to the scene
of action with a band of his faithful
warriors. He soon afterwards took the
hostile Indians prisoners and compelled them
to go to Fort Garland and remain there, in
this manner quickly ending the trouble.
Ouray was always the friend of the whites,
and is entitled to the very greatest credit
for the able manner in which he held the Ute
under control up to the time of his death,
in 1881.
Ouray was born at Taos, New Mexico, in 1833.
His father was a Tabeguache Ute and his
mother a Jicarilla Apache. His boyhood was
passed among the better class of Mexicans,
chiefly as a herder of sheep. He learned
Spanish and always preferred it to his
native tongue. When eighteen years of age,
he joined the band of Ute of which his
father was leader, then located in
southwestern Colorado. From that time until
about 186o, he led the life of a wild
Indian, passing his time hunting in the
mountains and on the plains, varied by an
occasional battle with the hereditary
enemies of his people, the Kiowa, Sioux,
Cheyenne, and Arapaho of the plains, in
which he acquired the reputation of a
courageous and skillful warrior. In 1859, he
chose a wife, named Chipeta, from among the
Tabaguache maidens, to whom he was always
devotedly attached, and who bore him a son.
This child was captured by the Cheyenne in
1863, they having surprised a hunting camp
of Ute under Ouray's command, near the
present site of Fort Lupton on the Platte
River. The boy was never recovered and,
indeed, was never heard of afterwards.
In person Ouray was of the almost invariably
short stature which distinguishes his people
from those of the plains tribes. He stood
about five feet seven inches high and in his
later years became quite portly. His head
was strikingly large and well-shaped, his
features were regular, bearing an expression
of dignity in repose, but lighting up
pleasantly in conversation. In his ordinary
bearing his manner was courtly and gentle,
and he was extremely fond of meeting and
conversing with cultivated white men, with
whom he was a genial companion, compelling
their respect and favor by the broad
enlightenment of his views. In his habits he
was a model, never using tobacco, abhorring
whiskey, and taking only a sip of wine when
in company with those who were indulging,
and then merely as a matter of courtesy to
them. He never swore nor used obscene
language, was a firm believer in the
Christian religion, and about two years
before his death united himself with the
Methodist Church.
When in active command of his men, his
word was law, and disobedience meant death.
In the summer of 1874 at Bijou, while
returning from Denver to their camp in the
south, one of his men decided to build a
fire and started to cut some wood for that
purpose within the enclosure of a white
settler. Ouray, discovering his intention,
ordered him back, reminding him that they
must not trespass upon the property of the
white man. The obstinate Ute replied that he
must have firewood and that he would cut it
anyway. Ouray answered that if he did, he
would kill him, whereat the other observed
that two could play at that game. Instantly
both started for their guns, reaching them
at about the same time, but Ouray was
quicker than his adversary and shot him.
On another occasion he shot and broke the
arm of Johnson, a member of his tribe, who
afterwards caused much of the trouble at the
White River Agency. Johnson was given to
gambling, horse-racing, lying, and trickery
of all kinds. In the present case, he had
stolen some horses from white men, and
refused to return them when commanded to do
so, thereby, in Ouray's opinion, bringing
disgrace upon the Ute nation, for which he
had to be punished.
In the foregoing, I have quoted freely
from General Frank Hall's History of
Colorado. General Hall had unusual
opportunities for knowing Ouray and of his
dealings with the whites.
It was through the prompt and decisive
action of Ouray that the leaders of the
massacre of Meeker and others at the White
River Agency, in 1879, were surrendered to
the authorities for punishment. The early
settlers of Colorado owe to Ouray a debt of
gratitude, and a monument to his memory
should at some time be erected by the people
of this State. Ouray frequently came to
Colorado City in the early days, and
sometimes his visits were of considerable
duration.
In the winter of 1865-1866, a large body of
Ute Indians camped for several months on the
south side of the Fountain, opposite
Colorado City. On departing in the spring,
they abandoned a squaw who had broken a leg,
leaving her in a rudely constructed tent, or
tepee. Had not the women of Colorado City
taken her in charge she would have starved.
After the Indians left, she was moved into a
log cabin in Colorado City and provided with
all she needed until her death, which
occurred a few months later. The Ute seemed
to think nothing of this heartless act, and
even the abandoned squaw did not seem to
resent it. It was a very common occurrence
for the Indians of most of the tribes to
abandon the aged and disabled, as in moving
around, they did not wish to be burdened
with those who were incapable of taking care
of themselves.
In the winter of 1866-1867, a thousand or
more Ute camped for several months below
Manitou, between the Balanced Rock and the
Fountain. Game was very scarce in this
region during that winter and the Indians
suffered for want of food. Finally, they
reached such a strait that their chiefs made
a demand upon the citizens of Colorado City
for twenty sacks of flour, and intimated
that unless it was produced forthwith, they
would be compelled to march into town and
take it by force. The citizens, realizing
their utter helplessness in the matter,
obtained the flour without delay and turned
it over to the Indians. This was the only
time in all the early period that Colorado
City suffered from the presence of the Ute.
Chaveno and Colorow were the principal
chiefs of this band. Chaveno was an Indian
of a good deal of intelligence. When
visiting the whites he always went about
dressed in an army officer's uniform of dark
blue which had been given him by an officer
at Fort Garland. Chaveno was always
strutting around, and seemed very proud of
him-self in his uniform, of which he took
the greatest possible care. In the matter of
dress, Colorow was the reverse. He seemed to
have no liking whatever for the white man's
costume. His physique was like that of
Ouray, short, but of powerful build. He had
been a noted warrior in his early days and
delighted in telling of his exploits in the
various battles with the Cheyenne and
Arapaho in which he had taken part. Colorow
was treacherous by nature and his
friend-ship for the whites was not always to
be depended upon.
In the winter of 1874-1875, Ouray, with a
band of six hundred Ute, camped at
Florissant for several months. One day a Mr.
Marksberry, living on Tarryall Creek, rode
up to the Post Office at Florissant, tied
his horse, and went into the building. The
pony attracted the attention of an Indian
named Antelope, who claimed the animal as
his own; he slipped off the saddle and
bridle, and, jumping on the pony's back,
rode away. Marksberry and a friend, being
determined to recover the pony, followed the
band to their camp in Beaver Park, south of
Pike's Peak. Marksberry found his pony with
the Indian herd, caught it, and was turning
away, when Antelope, hidden behind a tree,
shot and instantly killed him. Chief Ouray,
always ready to "travel the white man's
road," gave up Antelope to justice. Upon
trial of the case in the courts of Arapahoe
County, some months later, he was acquitted.
The Ute, by treaties made in March, 1868,
April, 1874, and March, 188o, ceded to the
general government all the lands claimed by
them within the boundaries of the present
State of Colorado, except a small
reservation retained for their own use in
the southwestern part of the State.
