Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-10-03
THE COLORADO INDIAN var

THE COLORADO INDIAN WAR.
Under date of Sept. 10th last Indian Agent
Meeker, from White River, Colorado, notified
the Governor of the Territory and his own
superiors at Washington that some of the
Utes of his agency were disobedient. They
refused to work, under his direction, for ra-
tions, and demanded that provisions and
other supplies should be issued to them, in
accordance with the treaty of 1928, in
consideration for the lands they had con-
veyed by that treaty. Something was men,
toned in published accounts of the trouble
about the agent, or one of his employees, be-
ing assaulted by disafected Indians, who
drove the man from his house. Soon after
there was published since ccntradicted ru-
NOR to the effect that the agency buildings
had been burned and the agent and his family
and employees had been killed. Sept. 10th two
companies of the Fifth cavalry were sent
out from Fort Randall to march to the pro-
lection of Agent Meeker. About the same
time Major T. T. Thornburgh, commanding
at Fort Steele (the nearest po ct to White
River agency, on the Platte river, at the
Union Pacific orossing) was also ordered to
the agency. There was then at Fort Steele
two companies of the Fourth infantry and
one of the Third cavalry. Major Thornburgh
had marched less than half way to the agen-
cy-whioh is, on an air line, about one hun
dred and twenty miles from Fort Steele-on
the Goth ult., when his command was at
tackled and he killed by the Utes, as told in
the GLOBE dispatches of yesterday. The
White river bands, from which came the
warriors who inflicted this disaster upon our
troops, number not more than eight hun
dred souls and could hardly mus
ter, men and boys, over three hun
dred warriors. But the grievances which
have driven this handful of aborigines to re-
bel against the authority of the United
States are shared by all tho Utes of Colorado,
by affiliated bands of Apaohes and by neigh
boring bands of Arapahoes. All of these
could place in the field over two thousand
warriors. They occupy mountainous re-
gions, difficult of approach and easy of de-
Tense, and have at their mercy hundreds of
ranches and mining settlements. They can
make long, costly and bloody war. At
this distance from the scene-relying upon
the information conveyed in official reports
of the last eight years-we see but one
chance of escaping such war, and that rests
upon the influence of Ouray, head chief of
the Utes, resident at Los Pinos agency, who
is wise enough to be prudent.
The Utes of Colorado have long been
loyal subjects of the United States,
friendly to the whites, patient IN
der provocation, and only asking,
what they conceded, that the wrongful acts of
individuals should not bring punishment
upon communities. They helped subdue the
Navajoes. They themselves punished Of
tenders of their bands whom they could not
surrender to the courts. They trusted to
the officers and courts of our government
for their own protection and for the pun
ishrnent of whites who wronged them. IN
til 1868 they claimed to own territory which
covered large part of Colorado and ex-
tended into New Mexico and Utah. By a
treaty made that year they oeded a part of
this territory and had their title confirmed
to reservation in the western par of COL
orado which embraced 14,784,0O0 acres.
The Indians coded by natural land marks.
The whites bought by incorrectly surveyed
lines, which were subsequently corrected
and gave to New Mexico fifteen or
twenty miles of territory, which resident
whites as well as the Indians had thought
belonged to Colorado and the Ute reserva-
ton. BY 1872 the gold hunters wanted a
large part of the reservation. There was
only four thousand Indians, it was argued,
and they couldn't use SO much land. Con-
gress authorized negotiations, and after one
failure, Felix Brunot, in 1873, persuaded
the Indians to sell the San Juan mining
country. The treaty of sale was not, as re-
quired by the treaty of 1868. signed by three
fOurths of the proprietors of the land, but
Congress ratified it. the miners and mine
spectators we're in possession, and that
completed the San Juan purchase. In this
instance again, the bargain was made !. by
natural boundaries, the Indians aiming to
reserve the arabic valleys, but when the
lines specified in the written
treaty were run, the Indians found
that they were held to have sold with the
mountains the best part of their valleys.
While the boundaries we're yet undecided,
the Indians were constantly worried by the
encroaohments of mining prospeotors, and
by the frequent visits of the government
''scientific'' survey parties which are en-
ployed to hunt out gold and silver prospects
for the bullion kings who have ''friends' at
Washington. Frequent complaints Vere also
made against the Utes, in the interest of
those who desired their removal, which
when Investigated, invariably proved un-
founded or based upon outrages actually
committed by whites upon Indians.
For the past five years the Indian bureau,
which is beaureauoratic and therefore stupid,
has applied to these Utes Of Colorado the
same rules it applies to the Chippewas of
White Earth, of giving provisions instead of
money and issuing provisions only
in reward for labor performed. But the
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