OCR Text |
Show 142 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. ventured on their reservation to dig for gold, were shot down like dogs. They wandered up and down the country, burning the forests and grasses^ leaving a trail of fire from the Wyoming line to the boundary of New Mexico. Meanwhile, certain members of the tribe became very troublesome to Mr. Meeker. On one occasion he was brutally assaulted by Chief Johnson and quite seriously injured. Immediately after this occurrence Colonel John W. Steele, agent of the Postoffice Department, visited the agency. In a conversation with him, Mr. Meeker said: *" I came to this agency in the full belief that T could teach them to work and become self-supporting. I thought I could establish schools and interest the Indians and their children in learning. I have given my best efforts to this end, always treating them kindly but firmly. They have eaten at my table and received continued kindness from my wife and daughter and all the employees about the agency. Their complaints have been heard patiently, and all reasonable requests have been granted them, and now the man for whom I have done the most, for whom I have built the only Indian house on the reservation, and who has frequently eaten at my table, has turned on me without the slightest provocation, and would have killed me but for the white laborers who got me away. No Indian raised his hand to prevent the outrage, and those who had received continued kindness from myself and family stood around and laughed at the brutal assault. They are an unreliable and treacherous race." Mr. Steele expressed his belief that an outbreak was imminent, and advised him to leave the agency at once. *From " The Ute War," written and compiled by Messrs. Dawson and Skiff. |