Year: 1879

Tho Ute Indian Outbreak.


Another Indian revolt another surprise
of our soldiers an officer and thirteen
men killed, two officers and twenty-five
men wounded and the remainder of the
command intrenching themselves that they
may hold out until reinforcements arrive.
So runs the latest Indian news. This time
it is the Utes, long celebrated in Indian
Bureau reports as peaceable; the wild north
western corner of Colorado is the scene.
1t is the old story. Parties of miners in
vaded the country last June, prospecting tor
the precious metals; then some OF the
Indians sailed out from the reservation,
committing incendiary acts Troops were
called for and tho trouble subsidized for
while. Finally. seeing Agent Meeker plough
ing new ground around the agency build
ings at White River, the chiefs became
obstreperous. Another call was made for
troops on the 9Th Of last month, and last
week three companies Of cavalry started.
with supply train from Rawlins, on
the Union Pacific Railroad, for tho White
River Agency, over q hundred miles to the
south. Within twenty-five miles of their
destination the troops were met in o diff
cult canyon on Milk Greek by the hostile
bands. BY q cleverly combined attack
large body of Indians got in the rear of the
troops, who were advancing to charge their
first assailants Major Thornburg, who
was in command, ordered charge
upon the party in his rear, and
during this charge fell while leading
his mon. Under heavy fre they gained
the shelter of the wagon train and-are
there intrenched and waiting. A terrible
cloud Of anxiety will hang over the coun-
try until the reinforcements now being
hurried forward with commendable speed
are heard from at Milk River. The fate of
the agent, Mr.. N. G. Meeker, formerly of
the New York Tribune, and later editor of
the Tribune at Greeley, Col. is left in
most painful doubt. His family was with
him. They were safe on the Goth ult.
though he had been driven from his house
by one of the chiefs. The hostiles, flushed
with victory and maddened with the sight
of blood, are between the agent and human
help.


The agency to which these Utes belong
is the most northern of three for the same
tribe on their reservation in Westera
Colorado. They number nine hundred
and have some two hundred warriors. It
appears that they have had no difficulty in
supplying themselves with arms. The re-
port for 1877 says on this point that the
sale of arms and ammunition was forbidden
on the reserve, but "they had only to
90 off the reserve to obtain all
the arms and ammunition, both loose
and fixed, which they desired" from
white traders. In the same report, in
reference to mining "prospeotors, is
found these significant words:-'' have
thus far been successful In sending them
away. Their number, however, will in
crease, I am afraid, another season, and
the presence Of military force, devoted us
much to the interests of the Indians as to
those OF the whites." Here, then, are the old
irritating causes-the white man seeking for
gold, the soldiers necessary to keep off
the whites. To the Indians the cure seems
al bad as the disease. II can thus DO seen
how these suspicious creatures would re-
gard even an extension OF the agency farm
as fresh inroad upon their domain, al
though the reservation for the tribe, of less
than tour thousand souls, covers over
eighteen thousand square miles They OBJ
jected to the troops AS much as to the
miners, and hence the advance of tho for
mer was met with the cunning and ferocity
OF the savage who believes he is defending
the last stronghold of his doomed raco.
The advance of civilization is o tragedy.