The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-08-05
lssn~ Day a Ignacio.
BY n, Y. d.
Written for the VIRGINIAN.

with pride by those striving to improve
race SO the government decided ii
would be well to transform war clubs into
peace ppes-in short, TO make OF the war
like Utes shepherds like the Navajoes. In
accordance with this scheme flock OF
fine sheep was apportioned among them.
One month afterwards the rations of the
| Utes were reduced one half. The wise ru
| lers had judged that in thirty days shear
ing, dipping, &C., had taken place, and
that the woo!-clp and increased tlocks
were sufficient to put the Utes nearly or a
plane with the Navajos. The result goes
without saying. The Utes feasted upon
their line-wooled merinos, or sold them
for fifty cents at the next town, to relieve
their pressing needs, and that was the end
of the sheep raising and self supporting
experiment.
| In Il large room-haH shed, half barn
| the distr button of The rationS took place.
1t was at that time the government S Off
| cial intention to reduce the agency corps,
so that Agent Stallstelmer would have to
preside at the flour barrel and the agency
doctor could perform his anatomical expe-
riments on the bodies of the fat beeves and
sheep, as other help was to oe discharged.
| But for the nonce. three or four men were
busiIy employed, and work enough there
was for all, handling bars of soap, cutting
| Joints of meat, anu all in a cloud of flower
dust. The squaws (who present the tick
cts and receive their allotments) formed in
queue at the door on the right, and
were supposed to pass in turn across the
room, taking their provisions as they went
and find exit through an opposite door on
the left side. But whatever are the capa
bilities of the savage mind, heavens first
born, order. y is not among these Sout h.
ern Utes. The squaWs broke line, yelled,
tore one another dress and hair, screamed
.plelives in choice Ute. Finally a brutal old
brave of executive ability, took the matter
in his own hands. With one hand gathering
round him his battered blanket, he placed
the other on the latch, and stood at his
post with determination which seem ed
like a travestied reminder of
''IIow well Horatius kept his bridge,
In the brave days of old"
He opened the door cautiously, just
enough to admit long ray OF sunlight and
one bulky sGuaw, shook his fist in The face
of the tumultuons thrung without, closed
the cHtral &c (haviig with backward
thrust Of lis foot. kicked the Squaw who
c:.ine III half WAY over to the flour barrel
and resumed his unstirred gravity of de
,ne;inor These proceedings were repeated
till HE last squawt mergedsfrom the bnlld-
ing bent nn,ler the load of meat thrown
over Shout Ter and pressed TO her dusky
che, X ,lihl the bowling. turbulent throng
lost lis II iii the purltus of the agency.
y 8 directed nhr s:r,,s toward tie agell-
cy office. But how different was the scene
presented-one of those uncomfortable
combinations of the apostles sageness i'll
his metaphor of the weaker vessel The
cbattering squaws were replaced by cir
Gle of saturnine braves smoking silently.
Here was Ignacio. the great Ute chief
tall, swarthy, muscular, with fine profile
like a bas relief cast in bronze. Here were
Nannice, Quatro and Aquila, and many
other chieftains with names impossible to
pronounce, to whom the writer distributed
cigarettes and matches-till all the office
was wrapped in the faint blue cloud raised
by the recipients. Standing near the
wall was a young brave of great dis,
tinction, a son of Aquila, named An-Ko-
Po-Rah. Indeed this may not be the cor
rect way Of spelling his name, but it is an
English approximation to Ute. An-ko-
Po-Rah wore his attire for high days and
holidays, and evidently thought himself
irresistible to all squaws, and even to pale
faced newspaper correspondents.
The costume deserves special mention.
On his head was placed one of the flap
ping, neutral tinted, broad trimmed felt
sombreros, worn alike by men and women,
by the sheep herder and the cowboy in
Colorado and New Mexico. But his SOM
brero was unique inbeing gaudily trimmed
with pale blue feathers. Under it's brim
shone his countenance decorated with
choice pigments and framed in two dubbed
braids of hair ingeniously trimmed with
red and blue worsted, and thrust through
here and there with eagles feathers. His
neck had the double decoration OF pink
silk handkerchief and string of shells and
beads. Next in order came vest OF
American manufacture. Now, | have re-
marked that. the Utes consider coat and
vest nterchangeable-not all complement
tary portions of apparel. An-Ko-Po-Rah
having vest did not desire the superfu-
GUS luxury of a coat-had he been Invested
of it, he would doubtless have buttoned a
coat across his savage breast. Every seam
in the vest, particularly noticeable in the
curving ones of the back, was sharply de-
fined by rows of little brass buttons sewn
together as closely as possible along the
line of the seams. Under the vest the
young brave wore his toga virolis that is
to say i'll plain English, his shirt. But I'M
confined by civilized fashion, it hung
loosely. surplice-like, bound at the waist
by bristling cartridge belt, and edged at
the hem by red and yellow calico. A broad
streamer of pink calico hung from throat
to knees in front, with a similar lavender
one behind. Fringed buckskin leggins and
beaded moccasins completed the array, and
-Po- Rah stood confessed
A brave in all his charms."
Squatted on the floor near An-Ko-Po.
Rah, sat particularly villainous-looki ing
Ute. with hollow chest and lurid red
paint on his high cheek bones. He was
pointed out as one intimately connected
with the Father Meeker murder, having
been transferred from White River. How
his evil countenance haunted me after
wards in dreams
had come to the agency full Of the
nope of finding Antelope, another White
River Ute. Antelope, as young boy, had
been in the service of friend, the wife
of the former Indian agent, Gen. Charles
! Adams. He was described as being capa-
BILE, docile, affectionate, intelligent, in
short, possessed of all those qualities as
cribed to the developed Indian by his well
wishers. His white friends wanted tidings
of him; so had gone about the agency
| ri in Spanicb (uor 1ip,it for