OCR Text |
Show 20 effect on the changing fortunes of the native folk, and Smith and his associates were to successfully extract a great number of furs from the Ute area. " It is of interest to note that it was on the Ute borders where the international forces met in their push for fur: Ogden and his brigade from the Hudson's Bay Company, Ashley's men from St. Louis, and Etienne Provost from the Mexican frontier at Taos. In 1825, the Americans and the British met in jarring opposition to each other on the waters of the Weber River at the present site of Mountain Green. In spite of the contending forces, the Utes were able to maintain themselves in peace and prosperity, using all of the various forces to their own economic advantage.2 0 However, it should be remembered that these advantages were of a transitory character. Where the trapper led, others followed. During the l830's, the trickle of white adventurers became a stream. The government of the United States was sending increasing numbers of men to xhe West for a variety of reasons. Captain Bonneville skirted the northern lands of the Utes in southern Wyoming for military reasons, and John C. Fremont crossed their domain many times in his trips through the West.2 1 19lbid., pp. 79-84. 20Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft,1964), pp. 32-35- 21Joseph Williams, "Tour of Oregon," quoted from L. H. Creer, The Founding of an Empire. (Salt Lake City,Utah: Bookcraft, 1887), p.75 • |