COLORADO. 



117 



or in stock, wagons, agricultural implements, 

 etc., at the discretion of the President. For 

 furnishing such articles, as also saw and grist 

 mills, sufficient to enable them to carry on farm- 

 ing operations from the moment when the set- 

 tlement is effected, other provisions are made. 

 The stipulations of the compact are to be car- 

 ried out by a special commission, which shall 

 superintend the settlement, and pay over the 

 money appropriated in the proportions of one 

 third to those settling on the La Plata River, one 

 half to those going to the Grand River, and one 

 sixth to those settling on the Uintah reservation. 

 The Indians are to receive in addition, as a fur- 

 ther consideration for giving up the Colorado 

 reservation, an annuity of $50,000 to be distrib- 

 uted among them i ndi vidually, besides their pres- 

 ent annuity of $25,000. Provision is also made 

 for supplying the necessities of life until the 

 Indians become self-supporting, and also for 

 the education of their children. This is the 

 first assignment of lands to an Indian tribe on 

 the basis of individual ownership. 



The lite lands in Colorado comprise about 

 16,000 square miles. The Utes showed them- 

 selves loath to give up the fertile river-bottom 

 lands, though they placed no value on the hill- 

 regions in which the mineral deposits are found 

 whose discovery has made it politic for the 

 Government to induce the Indians to exchange 

 these reservations for others in Utah and New 

 Mexico. The people of Colorado have been 

 exceedingly impatient at the tardy acquiescenee 

 of the Indians, and dissatisfied because the Gov- 

 ernment has not proceeded summarily with 

 the Indians and dispossessed them without their 

 consent. A party of raiders entered the reser- 

 vation in March, and had a conflict with the 

 Indians. Other raids were threatened continu- 

 ally. The mineral deposits of the mountains 

 within the limits of the reservation are reported 

 to be, according to all indications, among the 

 largest and most valuable yet discovered. 



The Ute commission intrusted with the work 

 of carrying out the provisions of the compact 

 encountered many difficulties in the accomplish- 

 ment of their task. The death of Chief Otiray 

 made it a much more difficult matter to arrive 

 at an understanding with the Indians. The 

 death of the secretary of the commission also 

 occasioned delay and confusion. The Indians 

 were suspicious and difficult to treat with ; and 

 after they had signed the treaty, and even after 

 a portion of the stipulated sums had been paid 

 over to them, they were evasive and exacting 

 in their behavior, some affecting to believe that 

 they had not relinquished their agricultural 

 lands in the old reservation, but only the min- 

 eral districts. The impatient behavior and 

 threatening acts of the people of Colorado were 

 an additional impediment to the arrangement 

 of the matter. A body of United States sol- 

 diers were posted in the reservation to prevent 

 the invasion of the reservation by the whites, 

 as well as to restrain any hostile or rebellious 

 movement on the part of the Indians. A tragic 



episode occurred in the fall, which aggravated 

 the dangerous state of feeling between the citi- 

 zens and the Indians, and several times threat- 

 ened to lead to an explosion of vindictive fury 

 on the part of the savages like that which had 

 resulted in the murder of Agent Meeker and 

 his assistants, and the sacrifice of Thornburgh 

 and the soldiers of his command. Two Indians 

 rode into a freighters' camp at Blue Divide, 

 about thirty miles from Los Pinos Agency, on 

 the evening of the 29th of September, and asked 

 for supper. According to the freighters' story, 

 they bore the marks of intoxication, and de- 

 manded food in an insolent manner ; and, upon 

 being told by the cook to wait until the meal 

 was prepared, they flew into a passion ; one of 

 them put a fresh cartridge in his gun, and when 

 the whites fled behind the wagons fired a shot, 

 which was returned by A. D. Jackson, a young 

 nephew of J. H. Jackson, the owner of the 

 train, both Indians thereupon mounting their 

 horses and riding away, apparently unhurt. 

 About fifty armed Uncompahgre Utes appeared 

 at the Los Pinos Agency the following morning 

 at sunrise, in a state of the wildest excitement, 

 stating that Young Johnson, a son of the chief 

 Shavanaux, had been killed by a freighter, and 

 demanding the murderer. A. B. Meacham, one 

 of the Ute commissioners, and Agent Berry 

 started for the scene of the homicide, escorted 

 by a detachment of fifteen soldiers, under Cap- 

 tain Stille. The guard of soldiers had been 

 asked for by Agent Berry to satisfy the Indians. 

 The freighters' train had been stopped by two 

 whites, named Holmes and Hoyt, and an Indian 

 chief, the main body of the Indians standing in 

 the background with rifles pointed at every man 

 in the train. The freighters had been taken to 

 Kline's ranch, where they were found by Berry 

 and Meacham on their arrival in the evening. 

 That night they were guarded by the soldiery, 

 the Indians posting an outer guard and watch- 

 ing them like beasts of prey. At the agency 

 Chief Plnh, acting as spokesman, had threatened 

 to avenge the death of their young chief by a 

 massacre of the whites. During the night they 

 were restrained with the utmost difficulty from 

 taking forcible possession of the person of young 

 Jackson, and the following morning they made 

 a start as though about to carry into execution 

 their menace of a general butchery of the 

 whites. The agent, who exercises great influ- 

 ence among the tribe, and Mr. Meacham, who 

 possesses their confidence, were obliged to use 

 their utmost tact and power of persuasion to 

 prevent such an outburst of savage fury. Mea- 

 cham had obtained their signatures to the treaty 

 on the promise that the arrear annuities would 

 be paid over to them shortly. It was the failure 

 of the Government to pay these moneys prompt- 

 ly which had wrought the Indians up to such a 

 tense state of feeling. They had grown to con- 

 sider the presence and continued assurances of 

 Meacham as a guarantee for the payment, and 

 he was therefore placed in the position of a 

 hostage. 



