The New York herald., 1879-11-23
Brought On by Meeker's Honest Effort
to Improve the Redmen.
CAUSED BY MlSUNDERSTANDlNGS.
Thomburgh's Careful Reply Construed by
Colorado as a Taunt
HEADQUARTERS WHITE RIVER EXPEDITION.
In CAMP ON WHITE RIVER.

of peace negotiations the campaign directed from
the north against the Utes may be considered at an
end, for by the time negotiations can be concluded
the season will be so advanced that resumption of
field operations and active hostilties will be barred
by the snow in the mountains between the White
and the Grand, which in themselves constitute no
inconsiderable obstacle TO the passage of troops and
which with the added OF winter
become an insurmountable barrier. And as
the forces in the field under General Merritt rest
encamped at the objective point of the recent move
ments in this quarter only does the time but the
place also. present fit occasion for review OF the
events of the campaign and summing up OF its re-
suits. Any attempt. however, to review events and
results in this case must be unsatisfactory. for in
any event Indian campaigns viewed from military
standpoint cannot but be unsatisfactory, owing to
the untimely interference of coordinate branch or
the government in behalf Of the enemy, not
only before he has sued for peace but
while he is yet exultant over victories re-
Gently achieved. and believes that the military
forces would gladly withdraw disarmed and dis
mounted if permitted by the enemy so to do. Not
only are events robbed of their Legitimate results
and military raised to strike arrested in its
descent but one hand of the government caresses
the enemy that the other hand would chastise Such
being the case the important events achieved are
-
massacre. battle and simple tragedy-the arst
provoked by principal victim and precipitated by
the second event. was avoidable; the second, mis-
takenly intended to avoid the first q blunder,
and the last, which unnecessary and uninten-
tional, was even worse than a blunder. for 1t was
purposeless, in far it involved the life OF one
of the most brilliant young officers in the service
When mention massacre to the public my innu-
endo is manifest but is not clear to me that the
killing ofAgent Meeker and the agency employees was
an unprovoked massacre, as that the battle Milk
River a blunder and the death of Weir useless
sacrifce-worse than blunder. And when am not
that it a it is not because insist
upon a strict definition of the term and claim that
inasmuch Mr.. Meeker only killed before re-
sistance was offered and the women and children
saved alive. there not that indiscriminate
butchery of many implied by the term employed as
most nearly describing the event. From the point Of
view in morals occupied by civilized man the late N.
c. Meeker a true phianthropist in its broadest
sense his humanitaranism had not for its basis
that intimate knowledge of humanity in its various
phases essential to the advantageous exercise Of
benevoence. He desired above all things to civlze
his wards, but his wards thought their modes of life
more suitable their condition and more congenial
with their tastes so that they unwilling to
change them for those OF civilization.
CIVILIZATION AND RELIGION.
Christianity favors civilization but civilization
seldom precedes Christianity which has pene-
tra.ed the home Of the Utes ON the
tributaries of the Green and Grand rivers
among the mountains wherein the waters
rise to flow through the great canyon into the
Gulf California. The Jesuit fathers have taught
the Pueblos to the southwark and have established
missions among the Shoshones to the northward.
but the Utes OF the mountains have been left to
themselves They are neither Pueblos nor
Shoshones, although often conrounded with both
account of the similarity of their language and
religion. The language and the religion of the
Puebos essentially Aztec in their origin. while
those of the Shoshones are only modified by the
Aztec. being of hyperborean origin and less cul-
tured. They stand between, but modified by
each. at the time impartng their
own characteristics to their neigbbors and
transmitting the characteristics Of the Aztec
tribes to the hyperborean, and vice versa
They neither. but simply possess acquired char
actcrtstics of both. being. however, more nearly
allied to the Pueblos Aztecs in religion. The
Utes to the westward Of the Great Salt Lake
water worshippers. but the mountain Utes to the
eastward of the Great Basin fire worshippers.
while the Uintahs. who nhabit the country be-
tween, but west OF the Green, both-Dougias, q
chief of the White River Utes or Yanpahs, being q
tempahnah fire hunter) who came from the Uin-
tabs. to which tribe he properly belongs. although
the Sanptches sometimes called San Pete lndians),
who are also Uintahs. are water worshippers or Pah
Utes The squirrel is object of veneration among
both Yampahs and Uncampahgre Utes. and their
legends with reference to the transmission of fire
fr the to the earth similar-the coyote
having stolen the fire from two celestial hags who
brought it from heaven land, not like Prometheus,
directly from heaven) carried it to the bear in the
and the bear transmitted it to the squirrel.
after whom their chief. Unca-cheep (sed squrreD
named. (red) being fsvorite color, be-
cause Uncompahgre (Red Standing water or lake, is
IN the midst of the favorite country which extends
to the Uncopah (Rsd River or Rio Colorado).
MEEKER's MISTAKE.
The agent at White River agency disregarded the
traditions. predictions and characteristics of the
tribe over which he appointed and its relation to
and connection with other tribes and believing that
the savages needed but opportunity to adopt the
modes of civilized life which he thought preferable
to the precarious life OF the savage. attempted to
convert savage tribe into civilized community
without awaiting the tedious lapse of years ordi.
narily required for such change. The Utes
pected that he favored civilization which they
unwilling to adopt. and. favoring such civilization.
would not hesitate to demand from savages the
soh they refused TO cultivate for uses different
from and perhaps more beneficial to society
than the purposes to which they might choose to
appropriate it. Father Meeker probably entertained
such views as the savages suspected. tor men of
his peculiar culture not seldom inclined
to such ways of thinking. and to determine whether
they reason well would involve the consideration Of
many nice and delicate topics as to the nature and
origin of property in the soil and the to which
civilized man may demand 1t from the savages for
cultivation and the support of larger population
entirely different from its present occupants. lie
had not only ploughed and titled field at the
agency. but constructed irrigation ditch intended
TO irrigate much larger area. and while ho taught
the Indians to cultivate the soil his daughter taught
the children to read. This aroused the suspicion of
the moro suspectng sayages who did not want their
children to rclnquish the customs OF their fathers
who, Ike most people prefer their modes OF life
to the modes OF life of other people, deeming that
bhruarism which Is not in accordance with the
toms OF the community ia which they were born and
Ilo on arr ei