Bisbee daily review., 1906-11-23

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22.-Whether the band of Ute Indians, who were brought to a halt last week, after trailing some 500 miles diagopally across the State of Wyoming, were really out on the warpath, or merely playing truant, seems to be open to question. Indian Commissioner Leupp believes they were only "out visiting" The episode serves. at any rate, to draw public attention not only to the history and characteristics of an inter- esting tribe. but to the infrequency with which our red-skinned wards fig ure iA the day's news. Two decades ago such performance as this Of the Utes would have passed all but un- noticed.
 TAe Ute. or Utah Indians. form a division of the Shoshonean family, for merly occupying the, region which ex- tends from the Salt Lake basin in Utah eastward to the highest ridges or the Colorado Rockies- They were largely and towns were perched high up on the mountainside, or hidden in the hollow of some mountain meadowland. In their day of strength they ranked with the Sioux and Apaches as pow erful tribe of warriors. And long after both of those tribes had succumbed to the inevitable advance of civilization, the Utes held out, and 1t was only in 1893 that any of them consented to the opening up of their reservation. In that year . considerable part of the nation under Chief Ignacio withdrew from their 64o, ,000-acre hunting ground and agreed to accept, in lieu of their freedom, $50, 900 a year and rations.
 when. in the early days of the last century, American hunters and pio- neers first came in contact with them. the Utes were a powerful nation of sone z5, 900 souls By the year 1S41, however, when John c. Fremont made his first pathfinding expedition across the Rockies. they had been reduced through constant warfare with the Cheyeanes and the Comanches to something like lS,0o0 persons. More fighting, amalgamation with neighbor- ing tribes, and disease continued toi depete their numbers fearflly. In 1881 they numbered but 1000. and in 1901. when the last enumeration was at tempted. there were scarcely more than 2.0eO of them
 either for their docility or their tract ability, and whenever they have come into close proximity to the palefaces there has been trouble. Still 1t was not until toward the middle of the Nineteenth Century that white settlers ir any number Invaded their extensive hunting grounds These first invaders were the Mormons, who, after their expulsion from Nauvoo, in 1S47-4S, be- gan to cross the plains In great num- bere and settled in the fertile valleys of Utah. Hard on their heels came the thrcngs of goldseekers, bound for California The Utes treated the first MoTnons respectfully, and wondering ly watched them while they raised their houses and planted their crops. As coon as they found out, however, that the new corners intended to stay, and when 1t became daily more evil dent that their stay in the land of their forefathers was endangered, their wonder turned to hate, and dark and terrible was the punishment they meted out to the followers of the prophet. Nor did they distinguish the usurpfng Mormon from the emigrant bound for the Pacific Slope, and many a s.forty-niner." who is supposed to have died in the diggings. never even saw the snowy peaks of the Sierra Ne vadas.
 There was rush of miners into the Pike's Peak region in 185S-60. which marked the beginning of s< new epoch in the history of the Ute nation. The Mormon migration had turned them back from their Salt Lake hunting grounds, but they still had the free don of the plateaus and mesas of Western Colorado. For generations the Utcs had annually been in the habit of crossing the Great Divide to He eastern SlnnA and hunting h,,f1a1oI