BULL. 30] 



COLORADO COLOR SYMBOLISM 



825 



Colorado. A White River Ute chief, 

 leader in the outbreak of 1879. The 

 Ute agent, N. C. Meeker, an enthusiast 

 who believed that he could readily inure 

 the Indians to labor, interested himself 

 in the internal quarrels of the tril)e and 

 thus incurred the resentment of Colo- 

 rado's faction. He removed the agency 

 to their favorite pasture lands, but when 

 he attempted to make a beginning of agri- 

 cultural operations they stopped the plow- 

 ing by force. They were hunters and did 

 not care to learn farming. Troops under 

 Maj. T. T. Thornburgh were dispatched 

 at the request of Meeker, but after a parley 

 the Indians understood that they would 

 not enter the reservation. When they 

 nevertheless advanced, Colorado, or Colo- 

 row, as he was popularly called, led one 

 of the parties that ambushed the com- 

 mand and killed Thornburgh and many 

 of his men on Sept. 29, 1879. Others 

 then massacred employees of the agency 

 and made captives of some of the women. 

 The Ute head chief, Ouray, induced the 

 Indians to cease hostilities before the 

 arrival of reinforcements. 



Color symbolism The American Indi- 

 ans had extensive and elaborate systems 

 of symbolism which was sometimes ex- 

 pressed by means of color. Perhaps the 



European and Asiatic races have systems 

 as elaborate, but they are not generally 

 employed, and knowledge of them is 

 not so well diffused. The aborigines 

 throughout the western continent either 

 painted or tattooed their persons. In 

 details they may have been governed to 

 some extent by individual caprice, but 

 there is good evidence that they usually 

 followed established and rigid laws of sym- 

 bolism, particularly in ceremonial decora- 

 tion. There are records of such symbolic 

 decoration among savage and barbarous 

 peoples in all parts of the world, and the 

 custom of tattooing, not always devoid of 

 symbolism, remains among the most civ- 

 ilized. The four cardinal points are sym- 

 bolized by color among many American 

 tribes, and it is probable that at some time 

 all had such a symljolism. In addition to 

 the four horizontal points or regions of the 

 universe, three others were sometimes 

 recognized, which may be termed the ver- 

 tical points or regions, namely, the upper, 

 middle, and lower worlds. It is probable 

 that the symbolism of the vertical regions 

 was very extensive, but knowledge of it 

 is meager. The following table shows a 

 few of these systems of symbolism. The 

 order in which the regions are placed is 

 that of the Navaho: 



There are accounts of such symbolism 

 among the Winnebago, Osage, and other 

 tribes which do not give the orientation 

 of the different colors. 



Of the two schemes of color recorded 

 for the Navaho the first is applied in all 

 songs, ceremonies, prayers, and legends 

 which pertain to the surface of the earth 

 or to celestial regions, places of life and 

 happiness; the second to songs, etc., 

 which refer to the underground world, to 

 the regions of danger, death, and witch- 

 craft, where the goddess of witches and 

 wizards dwells. In regard to other tribes 

 where more than one system has been 

 recorded there is a tendency among stu- 



dents to attribute this to an error on the 

 part of narrator or recorder, but the Na- 

 vaho afford evidence that more than one 

 system may properly exist in the same 

 tribe and cult. When the Hopi make 

 dry-paintings the yellow (north) is first 

 drawn, followed by green or blue (west), 

 red (south), and white (east) , in order, 

 and the same sequence is observed in 

 all cases where colors are employed 

 (Fewkes). 



The colors of the cardinal points have 

 ))een used to convey something more than 

 ideas of locality, Vmt which may often 

 have some connection in the mind with 

 locality. J. Owen Dorsey tells us that the 



