Indian Agent Writes of Reservation Challenges
The history of American Indians is compelling and tragic in many ways. However, it was a clash between an ancient civilization and the discovery of a new land by Europeans seeking religious freedom while escaping the historic feudalism of monarchies. It is hard to believe that this great nation was populated by many Indian tribes, undiscovered for centuries until Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492, aside from some early Viking explorers who revealed that the world wasn’t flat and that a new nation would eventually be born across the vast oceans.
The Indian wars moved westward following the Eastern Indian battle, with the French, English, and colonists fighting over land and who would come to rule this continent. The Indians fought valiantly on many fronts, and the gold rush to Sutter’s Mill, along with the Louisiana Purchase by President Thomas Jefferson, accelerated the expansion westward, leading to the annihilation of Indian culture, the loss of their lands, and the slaughter of their major food source—the buffalo.
As described in the Looking Back pages of the historic Weekly Register-Call (founded in 1862), buffalo herds near the Greeley colony stretched as far as the eye could see. Historic figures such as Buffalo Bill Cody, now buried on Lookout Mountain, earned his name by supplying buffalo meat to the railroad crews. The buffalo herds were scattered and diminished for their hides in just a few years.
The Meeker Herald, a pioneer newspaper founded in 1885, obtained Indian Agent Nathan Meeker’s letters from the White River Museum that preserve life on the White River Indian Reservation. In the March 27 issue of The Meeker Herald-Times, reprinted N.C. Meeker, Indian Agent’s last annual report sent to The Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C. This was his second and final report, written on Aug. 16, 1879. Meeker arrived at the agency site in May 1878 and found it necessary to move the agency 15 miles down the White River to Powell Park, where open meadow lands were available.
He relates through his report how he and a small number of Indians began farming the sod-laden land previously used by the Indians for grazing their horses. He details that only 30 Indians, out of 200 “able-bodied” men, worked. With about 900 Indians in the only a “quarter” were remaining on the reservation. Regarding education, he relates, “They care nothing for it and refuse to send their children to school…they have traditions, habits and methods of thinking to which they firmly adhere.” Meeker continues, “…their needs are so few that they do not wish to adopt civilized habits.” He laments, “This general statement shows how difficult, if not hopeless, the task of civilizing these Utes is.” He concludes, “Whether five, 10, or 20 years will be required to bring them to even a low state of civilization, I do not presume to predict.”
He details how the Indians like to ramble “hither and thither” over vast land…they are compelled to roam. Further, he outlines his economic thoughts: “To permit any class of human beings to do as they please, and at the same time to be supplied with food inevitably leads to demoralization.”
Meeker relates that the reservation comprises about 12 million acres, with an elevation of about 6,000 feet, making it suitable for raising crops. They planted apple, peach, and plum trees. He concludes his lengthy report on a positive note, “If these Indians will only half improve their opportunities, they may become rich and happy.”
The Indians roamed far and wide, with many traveling to North Park beyond today’s Moffat Tunnel and the town of Walden. Some traveled through Central City, but the main trail led through North Park into Wyoming and Montana by horseback.
Some would say Meeker was scholarly and hard-working, with good intentions to model the Indians to be like white men. However, he concludes,” The great majority (of the Indians) look upon the white man’s ways with indifference and contempt.”
The Meeker Massacre was the last major incident of the Indian Wars in 1879. The Sand Creek Massacre occurred on Nov. 29, 1865.
Custer’s Last Stand at the Little Bighorn took place on June 25-26, 1876, in the Montana Territory, on the Crow reservation.
My mother was born in Buford on the White River in 1906, a few miles from the Indian reservation on the White River. Her father and mother were from Leadville, and her father was constructing a building at that location in present-day Rio Blanco County. My grandparents, both Irish immigrants, were married in Meeker in 1887. They homesteaded not far from the Milk Creek Battleground and the last Indian War. They raised five boys who all became cowboys and successful ranchers. I’m the son of Henry, the second-oldest boy.