The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1879-11-06
vIRTuous
Ralph Meeker Properly Condemns
journalistic Faisifers.

COLORADO, NOV, 5, 49,
To the Press aud People Of Colorado: NJ
mother, Mrs. N. c. Meeker, her daugh
ter Josephine and Mrs. Price wish t
express their profound gratitude to tn
people andpress of this state for the sym
pathy and hospitality which have beef
so spontaneously and universally show
them since their escape from captivity
In Denver, Greeley, Colorado Springs
Pueblo, Alamosa, Lake City. Ouray
Los Pinos and at all the stage station
along the route of return for five hun
dred miles the most tender and respect
full attention was shown them.
As q son Of the murdered agent, ant
as a journalist, l denounce the ignor
ance and ~disgraceful incompetency Of
those newspapers which are accusing
my father of cruelty to the Indians.
Their assertions and their argume MT
are simply rubbish and unworthy o.
true journalism. N. e. Meeker was a
graduate of Oberlin college; he was
born and raised in the Western Reserve
Of Ohio; he was a confidential friend
and personal admirer Of Horace Gree.
ley. He believed in justice to all men,
white, red or black-christian or in.
fdel. But the Chicago Interior dis
graces the christianity it processes,
trails its journalistic pretensions in the
mud by echoing the malicious state
ment of Charles A. Dana that my faith
er robbed the Indians of their pasture
lands. These are the facts: The old
agency had just moved to a new and
unoccupied place selected by my father
as an agent of the government. 1t was
he, not the Indians, who moved there,
though he went by their assistance and
consent. They helped move the agency
and erect the buildings, and then when
he was established they pitched their
tents at his door, and the woman Jane
discovered that the blowing might in
terfere with the pasturage of the ponies.
My father at once called a council OF
the Indians, accepted new conditions
by which the absured claim was relin-
pushed. The Indians said they were
satisfied and there was no more COM
plant until the one man johnson came
In from the wood, and began to find
fault. But for arguments sake 1 will
admit for ten minutes that 1 am a liar,
that my father was an oppressor, that
Douglas, johnson, Jane & Co. were as
immaculate as the editor of the Chic
ago Interior-while 1 ask this question:
Why did Chief Ouray denounce the
massacre? Why did his wife rise up in
the night and denounce the murderers
as her husband told me she did? By
the words of the noblest of all the Utes
by the words Of his wife Chepeta,
who cried like a child over the agency
butchery- by the words of Henry Jim
and all honest Utes, the editor of the
Christian Interior newspaper, of Chic
ago, and Charles A. Dana, of New
York, are branded as incompetent jour
~nalists, because they malign the in
nocent and despise the truth. My faith
er was a sincere man; and because he
sought to lead the Indians from bar
barism to civilization by the plow-be-
cause his daughter taught young Doug
las how to read and use soap-because
my mother nursed the sick Indians,
planted flowers around the agency and
made the place beautiful, the editor of
the Presbyterian Interior abuses my
father and makes himself the laughing
stock of all intelligent Presbyterians in
the west and east. I would advise
this editor and Charles A. Dana to GO
west and start a little agency of their
RALPH MEEKER.