ROCKY MOUTITAIIi HEWS, 
The Old Man of the Mountains. 
— _ i 
Eistory of tne Eboiiy*“€omi>leeJedl ” 
Ute and Mis Band of Assassins who 
Atiaehed the Hayden Explorers— An 
Indian Istiniaellte whose Hand is 
Asfaiast Every 9Ean. 
I The following official document supple- 
menting the account of the attack on Prof. 
Gardner’s party, and describing the renegade 
t Ute who has instituted a “ reign of terror ” 
in the Sierra La Sal, has been forwarded to 
Dr. Hayden : 
Denveb, September 18, 1875.— Srit : Hav- 
ing had until now no access to the news- 
papers for many weeks, I am surprised to , 
learn from the Hew York Herald's Washing- 
ton correspondent of September 6th that the 
acting secretary of the interior, in a conver- 
sation with the correspondent, seemed to 
understand me as placing upon the Ute tribe 
the responsibility of the attack on our party, 
and he very justly says that a powerful peo- 
■ pie like them, familiar with every foot of the 
| country, could certainly have killed every 
| one of our little band of explorers had they 
intended to. It was not my intention to 
make the Utes, as a tribe, responsible for the 
outrages ; nor do I consider them so, except 
in the same sense that the community of i 
Washington would be responsible for a band S 
' of highwaymen infesting the road to Arling- i 
j ton Heights. For the past thirteen years I 
have been conducting geological and geo- 
graphical explorations among the Arapa- 
hoes, Cheyennes, Sioux, Shoshones, Pah 
Utes, Apaches and Utes, often trusting to 
the rifle alone for security, and often shot at 
! by Indians simply to frighten. The differ- 
j enee between an attack to kill and an 
i attempt to intimidate become very obvious 
after a varied experience with these tribes. 
During the past few years our work has 
been among the Utes, requiring ns to traverse 
every part of the reservation. Though the 
explorations have been objected to by the 
more ignorant part of the nation, yet we 
have had the constant support and protec- 
tion of the most powerful chiefs, Ouray and 
Douglass, and consequently, in general, good 
treatment at the hands of their followers. 
Our intercourse with these chiefs has led me 
me to think highly of their wisdom, and to 
regard them as true friends of the whites 
and of peace. That it may be clearly under- 
stood to whom we are indebted for the warm 
reception we received at the Sierra La Sal, I 
will give, in a condensed form, such infor- 
i mation as I have been able to gather about 
i them. 
Iu 1873 I learned from some source not 
. now remembered, that a small but high 
group of mountains standing in the eastern 
j edge of Utah, about latitude 39°, and called 
the Sierra La Sal, was not inhabited 
by Utes, but by a band of Pah Utes, 
who had never made peace with the 
; whites, but were in the habit of 
committing small depredations over in Utah, 
and then retreating across the Colorado river 
Gallons to their mountain home. This must 
have come but as a vague rumor through 
the Indians, for no government expedition 
had ever entered the range, nor prospector, 
nor hunter that I have met. Knowing Prof. 
Powell to be more familiar with the Pah 
Utes than anyone else, I applied to him for 
further information. He confirmed the re- 
port that the range was inhabited by a band 
of renegade Pah Utes, but I do not recall 
what he said about their depredations. He 
did not consider it unsafe for me to go among 
them with a party of seven armed men. A 
party of renegades is, as you know, a band 
made up of the worst elements, who bid defi- 
ance to all peaceful treaties of their tribes, j 
and unite under some chosen chief to live by ; 
plunder, fighting as guerillas. 
Denver, September 22, 1875 
year, I had 
chief of the 
On the 11th of July, of this 
an interview with Ouray, head 
Utes at the Los Pinos agency, in the pres 
ence of Mr. H. F. Bond, the agent. Ouray 
being convinced that we were sent to the res- 
ervation by an express act of congress to col- 
lect such information as the government 
needed, and without which the respective 
rights and relations of the whites and Indi- 
ans could never be properly be adjusted, 
promised full protection to our parties. He 
then asked our routes of travel. It was all 
satisfactory until I spoke of going to the 
Sierra La Sal ; then he said that was not 
good ; that the Indians there were robbers ; 
! that they never came into any reservations, 
either of the Utes or Pah Utes, but lived by 
depredations in Utah, and by trade with the 
Havajos ; that they were in the habit of kill- 
ing one or two men found alone and stealing 
i a few head of stoek over in the direction of 
j Salt Lake, and then retreating aoross innu- 
merable and almost impassible canons to 
their mountains. He said nothing of their 
trading with the Utes, at this time, nor did 
he speak of nny Utes being among them, 
and from everything said, I inferred that 
they were Pah Utes. He said the band was 
small and would not probably dare to attack 
seven armed men, but that we must watch 
our mules well. He also said that they were 
farming in the vallies on the east and west 
side of the mountains alternate years, and 
that this year they ought to be on the east 
side of the range. About two weeks after 
this we met, accidentally, a Ute with his 
family, traveling alone in the western 
part part of the Elk Utes. After a hearty 
dinner he grew quite genial, told us where 
he was going, and asked our destination, 
j We pointed out towards the Sierra La Sal 
I aad explained that we were going there. He 
seemed alarmed for our safety and tried to 
persuade as not to go ; indicating by signs 
and words that the Utes on the north, the 
j eas ^ and the south were friendly, and that 
| we could hunt there in peace; but that the 
; Sierra La Sal Indians would steal our stock 
and kill us. From these warnings it is evi- 
dent the band who attacked us have an es- 
tablished reputation as robbers and murder- 
ers, whatever may be the tribes to which 
they originally belonged. It was this knowl- 1 
edge which caused me to join Mr. Gannett’s 
party wilh my own. 
After our fight and the rescue of Messrs. 
Holman and Dallas from their perilous po- 
sition at the supply camp, I marched at 
once to the Los Pinos agency, reaching there 
September 10. Agent Miles acting as spe- 
cial commissioner to investigate the Utes 
was at the agency when I arrived. Agent 
Bond sent for Ouray, chief of the Utes, and 
Mr. Harris, the well known interpreter, and 
I had a long talk with Ouray m the presence 
of Agent Bond and Commissioner Miles. I 
told the chief all that had occurred. He 
immediately asked if the leader of the band 
was an old man of unusually dark complex- 
ion, and if he had several young men with 
him of similar appearance. This very dark 
complexion had been noticed by our party 
as a characteristic of the old leader and two 
°u Z b i men > when they came to 
shake hands with us before the firing com- 
menced. It was this old man and a boy 
that we had seen at a corn patch on the south 
end of the Sierra La Sal. There could be 
no mistake about the identity and Ouray 
said that the old man and his family had 
been farming around these mountains for 
y f ar ?L 116 was a very bad man, 
who had robbed ana murdered for a long time. 
Three years ago he paid Ouray a visit and 
the chief advised him to stop raiding and 
ir.l heressrvafcioa IadiaES - He answered 
that he was not a dog to eat bread from the 
hands of the white men, but intended to live 
at war with them. Since that time Ouray 
has not seen him, but through his Utes he 
learned that last year the band killed cer- 
tainly one and perhaps more miners on 
their way from Salt Lake to the Sun Juan 
mines. Ouray seemed surprised that the num- 
