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Show Page 34 ties with the Indians having had a Ute foster mother and many friends among the tribes. Settlers in other areas were not so fortunate. The Meeker Massacre occurred in 1879. At that time nine white men were killed by Ute Indians at the White River Agency (now Lay, Colorado) seventy-five miles southeast of Brown's Park. Three women were taken captive. One of the dead men was the Indian Agent, Reverend Nathaniel C. Meeker, the man who, to a degree, was responsible for the massacre. As agent, Meeker had decided to turn the freedom-loving Indians into farmers He made them give up their teepees for houses, their moccasins for shoes, and tried to force them to plow up their race track to plant hay. The Utes loved horse racing and refused. So Agent Meeker, in turn, refused to give them the food and supplies which were theirs by right under the terms of their government treaty. The disgruntled Indians complained to the authorities. Then, believing their grievances to be ignored, they began setting fires and killing the occasional white. The uprising led to a battle between United States Army troops and the Ute Indians a few weeks later and ended in the Meeker Massacre at the White River Agency. The people of Brown's Park were not harmed. According to Ann, "Chief Marcisco had assured them they would not be molested and they were not." The settlers felt threatened enough, however, to band together at one ranch for the winter |
