The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-08-29
THAT ALLEGED ELIXIR.
1t is Said to Have Been Used by the Utes for
Hundreds of Years.

Hundreds of Years.
A correspondent writing from the Ouray
Indian agency says: 1.-The Brown-Sequard
elixir, which seems to have captured the
effete east, is an old and established remedy
among the Ute Indians. L is as common
as milk, and has been in use among them
for centuries. Colorow, Stavenan, Doug
las, Yammen, Plat and other Indians have
testified to the use of the method by reach
ing an age equal to the average years famil-
lar to students Of the Bible.
Not only do the Indians use mutton It's
sue, but the goat is brought into requisi-
ton. In conversation with prominent
UncOmphagre medicine chief your CORES
pondent was told that heap big medicine
had been
IN Use AMONG THE UTEs
for more than two centuries. He also
made the startling statement that Colorow
was more than three hundred years old
when he died, and that more than one
thousand goats had contributed to his
physical support in his advanced age.
| When asked regarding the use of sheep
| tissue, he replied that it was all right when
people were not more than sixty orseventy
! years OF age, but that goat tissue carried
more force with it, and that goats were
never uHsound or unhealthy.
The medicine chief, whose name is CotOe,
made some startling revolutions also. He
said that OuIay, who died i'll 1879, was a
very old man, anG that the cause Of his
death was elixir. Ouray was at all times
credited with having more than ordinary
Indian intelligence and commanded the re-
spect of all the white people, COtoe says
he acquired this from his association with
COrtez in the sixteenth century. Proceed
ing further he said that Ouray and Saiovo-
nara was taken into captivity by CorteZ
when he swept through the west mountain
valley of Colorado during the sixteenth
century, and that they were compelled to
work in the mines of the Sangre de Christie
range.
Sajovonaro is now the head chief of the
Uncomphagres and the medicine man,
Cotoe, says that he is
ABOUT THREE HUNDRED YEARS OLD
and is 126 times widower He has always
been the owner OF large f1ocks of goats and
has goats and sheep in his herds to-day.
When asked how it happened that the
lives of Ouray, Stavenan, Piatt and Colo
row and others was not prolonged to a
greater point, he truthfully stated that
Stavenan and Plat had died violent deaths,
but as regarded the death of Ouray, he said
he did not die of heart disease, as reported,
but he went on trip to visit the southern
Utes, and took along q supply of elixir to
last twenty days. Chipter, his faithful
squaw, realizing the Importance of the
situation, at all times guarded the ''medi-
cine bag" but her pony was drowned while
crossing a swollen stream, and the elixir
floated down the stream with the dead
pony's carcass and, before more could be
obtained Ouray shriveled and mummified
in the presence of his friends.
In the case of Colnon, he said, misfortune
struck him that fatal morning on the battle
field of Pangely. The old chief made his
escape, but some troops captured his medi-
cine charm. The old man returned the
next day and looked over the field fOrSit,
but failed to find that which had been lost.
His goats and sheep had been stolen by
scouts, and it was several days before he
obtained more OF
THE MUCH NEEDED ELIXm.
hut he had received such backset i'll not
having the stuff when needed that he never
rallied, and the jail would not save him.
He. too, crumbled away one morning while
looking for letter from Washington con
tanning 81, 900 indemnity for stolen horses
by kendall's deputies.
When asked how the elixir is prepared,
Cotoe replied that the tissues We're dried
and reduced to powder and concentrated
by delicate process, and that the elixir
must be taken at least every other day.
He also said it was often applied to
broken down horses with good results,
and that very old horse can be regene1-
ated and made to appear as sound as dol
lar. He says that there is an old doctor in
this vicinity who buys up all of the old,
broken down horses and gets him (Cotoe)