Indian Outbreaks Classic Reprint PDF Download

Excerpt from Testimony in Relation to the Ute Indian Outbreak: Taken by the Committee on Indian Affairs of the House of Representatives I was to go to the Southern Agency, see Ouray, the chief of the Utes, put myself in communication with the hostile Utes, and try and obtain the release of the women and children who were then supposed to be in their camp. Nothing definite was known whether they were alive or dead, but it was sup posed that they were alive and captives in the camp. If that was agreed to without any conditions, I was to ascertain whether the Indians wanted to prolong the fight, or whether they would be willing to give up the principal instigators of the massacre and resume their relations with tho government. I started, taking two or three men with me, and also some Indian chiefs, and went to the hostile camp. I think I arrived there on the 21st of October, about ten o'clock in the morning, at the small c& there were only about ten or fifteen lodges of Indians there. A boy that we met about a quarter of a mile away told me that the prisoners were scattered - that is, one woman was in one house at the lower end of the c& another one in the center, and another above. I went to the lower end first, and by inquiring I saw Miss Meeker (this young lady here) peeping out of a tent. I dismounted and asked her who she was, not knowing her personally at that time, and told her that I had come to release her, and asked her where her mother and the other women were. I then mounted again and told Miss Meeker to get ready to leave, if possible, that afternoon. I went up to the upper camp and found all the Indian men, probably about thirty or forty, in a tent together talking very boisterously. I went in side. I knew them all personally, but none of them would speak to me. I found at once that there was a certain hostility amongst them towards me, but was asked to wait, that they had sent for the principal chief, Douglas, that he would come very soon, and then we could talk the matter over. I inquired for the other captives, and was told that they were hidden in the brush about 200 yards distant down a steep bank towards the river. I waited for about an hour, when Chief Douglas, with probably five or six other chiefs, rode up. He informed me that the soldiers were advancing from White River, and that the whites were hostile, and he did not see why he should give me those women. He asked whether I had any conditions to offer for the release of them. I told him I had not; but after he had given them up to me I might then have some thing further to say. He drew a map on the ground, saying that the soldiers were building a wagon road and advancing rapidly towards Grand River. I told him that, from my understanding of the instructions from Washington, I had supposed that at the same time that I entered their country the commanding officer of the soldiers had also received orders not to advance any farther from where he might be at the time, and if they had come there building a wagon road before I had left Ouray's house, I thought they would stay there and not come any farther. He then asked me, "Will you go and see them, and if they are coming farther, stop them?" I said, "I will go to their camp after you give up the women." He then invited me inside, into the lodge where all the others were talking, and I believe they talked there until about four or five o'clock in the afternoon, some in a very hostile manner, others in a peaceful manner. One of the Indians that I had taken with me could speak Spanish, and through him, as interpreter, I had several remarks to make to them, but always to the effect that they must first give up these prisoners without conditions, and then I might perhaps be able to do something for them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com