The People's Songbag

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30823, 7 August 1965, Page 5

The People's Songbag

Chipeta’s Ride

(Specially written Jor “The Press" by DERRICK ROONEY.)

'Twas in the early springtime, in the merry month of May. When Meeker’s family was murdered, just at the close of day.

The unfortunate demise of N. C. Meeker, an insignificant United States Government agent in north-western Colorado in the 1870’s is barely remembered by historians today as one more minor incident in the Indian wars; but in the folk-lore of Colorado it looms large, not for its own sake but because of the heroic act which it inspired the hundred-mile ride by Chipeta, queen of the Ute Indians, in a vain attempt to prevent it. Chipeta's ride is so superb a folk myth that it seems churlish to cast doubts on its authenticity. It ranks alongside the more celebrated equine marathons of Paul Revere and Dick Turpin, not as a triumph over evil but as a gesture of good. Meeker’s inability to cope with the consequences of his actions was, in a sense, the cause of his death. Appointed agent to the White River Utes in 1878, he determined to waste no time about civilising them and ordered them to send their children to school, to plough their land, and to become farmers. When they protested that “ploughed land was not Ute land” and that if the Great Spirit had wanted i furrows in the land he woud have put them there. Meeker retaliated by ploughing over their race track. The Utes did not actually carry out reprisals for this, but their grumblings terrified Meeker, and he yelled for help to the nearest garrison. And although the Government had signed a treaty with the Utes, promising that no troops would go to their reservation while they kept the peace, troops were sent under Major T. T. Thornburg. The Utes met Thornburg at Milk Creek, the northern boundary of the reservation, and warned him that if he

crossed the creek he and his men would die. Thornburg, who would appear to have been a very brave man, replied that he did not doubt it, but he had been ordered to proceed to the Agency, and he would obey orders. He crossed the stream and was immediately attacked by Indians from an ambush on the hillside. Many of the soldiers were killed; the survivors made a breastwork of dead animals, and behind it withstood the Indians for six days. Simultaneously with the ambush, a band of Utes attacked the Agency, killed Meeker and every white male and took prisoner Mrs Meeker, her daughter, and another woman and her two children.

This much of the story is historical fact: the rest is tradition. The legend is that the wife of the ringleader of the attack on the Agency was Susan, a sister of the Ute chief, Ouray. When she heard of the plan, she rode at once to Ouray's home in southern Colorado to warn him. But Ouray was hunting in the mountains, and Chipeta, his wife, began her marathon ride to find him. The legend says she rode for more than 100 miles, without food or rest, before she found him. Ouray immediately sent a runner to demand an end to the siege of Thornburg’s men and the release of the hostages. The tribesmen withdrew. t le hostages were released, Chipeta entered folk-lore, and I don't intend digging around in the history books to find out if the story is true. It’s good enough for me as it is.