%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Meeker Incident http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/meeker-incident <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Meeker Incident</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--536--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--536.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/meeker-incident-1879"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Media2_Meeker_tragedy%5B1%5D_0.jpg?itok=KpvQuqxw" width="640" height="421" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/meeker-incident-1879" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">The Meeker Incident, 1879</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A reproduction of a sketch of soldiers surveying the damages after the fire and battle with the Ute people&nbsp;that broke out on September 29, 1879 at the White River Indian Agency. Nathan Meeker and his eight male employees were killed during the fighting, and his wife and daughter were taken hostage.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> <div class="carousel-item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3339--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3339.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/meeker-incident-site"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Meeker-Incident-Media-1_0.jpg?itok=odCvXgzO" width="1090" height="665" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/meeker-incident-site" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Meeker Incident Site</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>In September 1879, Utes at the White River Indian Agency revolted, killing agent Nathan Meeker and the agency staff. The violence had been provoked by Meeker's poor treatment of the Utes. Today, informative signage is posted at the site of the incident, along the White River near the town of Meeker.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> <button class="carousel-control-prev" type="button" data-bs-target="#carouselEncyclopediaArticle" data-bs-slide="prev"> <span class="carousel-control-prev-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span> <span class="visually-hidden">Previous</span> </button> <button class="carousel-control-next" type="button" data-bs-target="#carouselEncyclopediaArticle" data-bs-slide="next"> <span class="carousel-control-next-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span> <span class="visually-hidden">Next</span> </button> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-01-15T14:21:21-07:00" title="Wednesday, January 15, 2020 - 14:21" class="datetime">Wed, 01/15/2020 - 14:21</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/meeker-incident" data-a2a-title="Meeker Incident"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fmeeker-incident&amp;title=Meeker%20Incident"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The Meeker Incident (September 29–October 5, 1879) was a <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/search/google/ute"><strong>Ute</strong></a> uprising at the <a href="/article/white-river-ute-indian-agency"><strong>White River Indian Agency</strong></a> on the Ute Reservation in present-day <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rio-blanco-county"><strong>Rio Blanco County</strong></a>. Tension had been building on the reservation for months as Indian Agent <a href="/article/nathaniel-meeker"><strong>Nathan Meeker</strong></a> attempted to force the Utes to change their traditional ways of life. On September 29, the Utes revolted, killing Meeker and ten others, and taking Meeker’s family hostage. The violence ended on October 5, when reinforcements relieved US cavalry pinned down by Ute gunfire at nearby <a href="/article/battle-milk-creek"><strong>Milk Creek</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Meeker Incident was the most violent episode in Ute-white relations, and it became the catalyst for the Utes’ expulsion from Colorado. Newspapers across the state quickly labeled it a “massacre,” ignoring the circumstances that provoked the revolt. “The Utes Must Go!” became the rallying cry of Colorado’s white population, and the federal government complied, forcing most Utes from the state in the early 1880s.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Origins</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By the 1860s, Colorado’s Ute people had lived in the <a href="/article/rocky-mountains"><strong>Rocky Mountains</strong></a> for about 500 years. They had managed to avoid major conflict with whites thanks to earlier treaties and the fact that most of their land still lay beyond white settlements. The end of the <strong>Civil War</strong>, however, brought more whites to Colorado’s mountains looking to mine for gold or set up homesteads. In 1868 leaders representing six bands of Colorado’s Ute people <a href="/article/ute-treaty-1868"><strong>signed a treaty</strong></a> agreeing that they would cede Colorado’s eastern Rockies to the United States and live on a huge reservation on the <a href="/article/western-slope"><strong>Western Slope</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The <strong>White River</strong> lay near the northern boundary of the new reservation, which stretched from the Utah border in the west to the 107th meridian in the east and the New Mexico border in the south. The US government set up two <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/indian-agencies-and-agents"><strong>Indian Agencies</strong></a> on the reservation—one on the White River and one farther south—to distribute food and supplies as promised in the treaty.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Throughout the 1870s, Utes on the Colorado reservation, especially at the remote White River Agency, became increasingly hungry and agitated. Shipments of food and supplies were delayed or not delivered at all, and Utes often left the reservation to hunt and take supplies from white settlements.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Escalation</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As tensions in western Colorado heated up in the 1870s, President Ulysses S. Grant began turning over administration of the nation’s Indian Agencies to Christian missionaries. In keeping with the government’s doctrine of assimilation, which aimed to “civilize” Indigenous people, these new agents sought to convert Native Americans to Christianity, place their children in boarding schools, and force them to adopt farming, Western dress, and other non-Native ways of life.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Nathan Meeker, a zealous Christian and founding member of the <strong>Union</strong> <strong>Colony</strong> at present-day <a href="/article/greeley"><strong>Greeley</strong></a>, fit this new agent profile perfectly. In spring 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Meeker to head the White River Agency, and early the next year the sixty-one-year-old former newspaper editor arrived on the reservation.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Meeker’s appointment was partly due to his experience with irrigated farming in Greeley, and he quickly noticed that the agency buildings were on land ill suited for irrigation. His first order was to move the agency downstream on the White River, directly onto a pasture where the Utes grazed and raced horses.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Tensions only escalated from there. Meeker became frustrated when the majority of Utes refused to take up farming or cow milking and instead left on hunts that lasted for days. He wrote articles condemning the Utes’ resistance to his teachings and insulting their intelligence and character. Where previous agents might have been satisfied with the Utes’ partial embrace of farming, Meeker would accept nothing but total compliance; he even withheld food and supplies as punishment for their resistance.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>For their part, the Utes resented Meeker’s paternalistic attitude, evident in his declaration that the reservation did not belong to them, and his heavy-handedness, as indicated by his request for federal troops to keep the Utes on the reservation. That summer, the US Ninth Cavalry was dispatched to patrol traditional Ute hunting grounds in <a href="/article/grand-county"><strong>Middle Park</strong></a>, and troops under Major <strong>Thomas Thornburg</strong> were stationed nearby in Wyoming. Desperate, the White River Utes sought help from <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ouray"><strong>Ouray</strong></a>, hoping he might lobby his government contacts to replace Meeker, but to no avail.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Revolt</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By late summer, tensions at the White River Agency were reaching a climax. The breaking point was a feud that erupted between Meeker and Johnson (Canavish), one of the local Ute leaders. Initially, Johnson had curried Meeker’s favor by doing a bit of farming, and the agent had rewarded him with a house. Then, Johnson tricked Meeker into breaking horses for him by saying they would be used for farming when he actually intended to race them.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>When Meeker found out that Johnson was raising crops to feed his racing horses, Meeker ordered the field plowed up. Then, as an agency employee plowed Johnson’s field, Johnson’s son shot at him, driving him off. After a brief truce, Johnson and Meeker met at the agent’s home. They argued, and Johnson assaulted Meeker, who immediately requested troops to protect him and the rest of the agency.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As Thornburgh’s troops advanced from Wyoming in late September, they ran into a Ute party led by <strong>Jack</strong> and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorow"><strong>Colorow</strong></a>. They spread news of Thornburgh’s approach back to Utes at the agency, who warned Meeker that troops entering the reservation would be seen as a declaration of war. The Utes sent their women and children away and began holding war dances.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Despite Meeker’s request that only Thornburgh and a handful of soldiers visit the agency, the major continued his advance. On September 29, near the reservation’s boundary at Milk Creek, Utes opened fire on Thornburgh’s men from nearby heights. The major was quickly killed, and the Utes kept his soldiers pinned down until October 5, when the Ninth Cavalry arrived to force the Utes’ surrender. The drawn-out battle claimed the lives of fourteen US soldiers, three army teamsters, and twenty-three Ute warriors.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As soon as they got word of the fighting at Milk Creek, Utes at the agency set fire to the buildings and killed Meeker, eight employees, and two other civilians, mutilating their corpses. Ute parties led by <strong>Douglass </strong>captured Meeker’s wife, <strong>Arvilla</strong>, and daughter <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/josephine-meeker"><strong>Josephine</strong></a>, as well as the wife and children of another agency employee, and headed toward <strong>Grand Mesa.</strong></p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Aftermath</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the weeks following the incident, a volatile mixture of rage and fear gripped the white population of Colorado. The Colorado Legislature passed a resolution calling for the Utes’ removal and nearly passed a bill that would have put a twenty-five-dollar bounty on Ute scalps. Governor <strong>Fred Pitkin</strong> had called for the Utes’ removal even before Meeker’s death; afterward, he offered to have the Colorado militia help federal troops drive off the White River Utes, and he sought to punish Utes elsewhere in the state, even as far away as <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/silverton-0"><strong>Silverton</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Outside the state, however, most newspapers blamed the federal government for its neglect of the Utes, as well as Colorado miners for coveting Ute land.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Meanwhile, the army was prepared to hunt down the Utes who captured Meeker’s family, but US interior secretary Carl Schurz instead sent <strong>Charles Adams</strong>, a former Ute Indian agent, to Colorado to find the Ute party and deliver an ultimatum: release the hostages and have peace, or keep them and be hunted down.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In late October, with help from other Utes as guides and interpreters, Adams found the party and negotiated the captives’ release. Arvilla Meeker had a bullet graze her thigh during the chaos at the agency; Josephine Meeker later wrote that the Utes treated them roughly and often threatened them with violence, but Johnson’s wife (Ouray’s sister) eventually persuaded the Ute men to leave their white captives unharmed.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Investigation and Ute Removal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Ignoring calls for violence, Schurz convened a three-member Peace Commission at the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/los-pi%C3%B1os-indian-agency"><strong>Los Piñ</strong><strong>os Agency</strong></a> in late 1879. Consisting of Adams, Ouray, and Army General Edward Hatch, the commission interviewed dozens of witnesses to the agency killings and the Battle of Milk Creek. It ultimately failed in its two main goals: to secure the arrest of the Utes who killed Meeker and his staff, and to begin negotiating the Utes’ removal from Colorado. Represented by Ouray, the Utes refused to deliver or divulge the names of the killers, and they would not leave or sell any of their land.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>With the failure of the Peace Commission, the government brought a Ute delegation to Washington for congressional hearings on the Meeker Incident. Johnson, whose feud with Meeker set off the incident, began the trip with Ouray and others but surrendered to the army in Kansas City, hoping it would help his people’s cause. The hearings ended in much the same way as the Peace Commission, with Utes refusing to turn over their own.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Finally, in 1880 Schurz drew up a nonnegotiable agreement that would remove the White River Utes—the Yampa and Parianuche bands—to Utah and move Ouray’s Tabeguache band to present-day <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/grand-junction"><strong>Grand Junction</strong></a>. Ouray, however, refused to sign the new agreement, and he died later that year. Nor was the agreement good enough for Colorado senator <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/henry-teller"><strong>Henry Teller</strong></a>, who wanted all the Utes out of the state. Eventually, Congress approved an amended declaration in June 1880 forcing the White River and Tabeguache Utes to a new, much smaller reservation in Utah. The next year, the army force-marched the remaining Utes to the new reservation.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the late nineteenth century, many government agents and white observers believed that forcing Indigenous people to adopt Euro-American norms would provide an alternative to violence; the Meeker Incident showed that belief to be mistaken. Nevertheless, the government continued to force Indigenous people to assimilate over the next decade, breaking up reservations into private <strong><a href="/article/dawes-act-general-allotment-act">allotments</a>,</strong> and banning traditional customs and ceremonies. As they did at the White River Agency, these policies provoked backlash and violence, such as when US cavalry massacred hundreds of Lakota at Wounded Knee in 1890.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the decades after the Meeker Incident, white newspapers, officials, writers, and scholars referred to the event as a “massacre”—implying an unprovoked slaughter on par with the <a href="/article/sand-creek-massacre"><strong>Sand Creek Massacre</strong></a>. In the 1880s, the nearby town of town of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/meeker-0"><strong>Meeker</strong></a> was named for the slain Indian agent.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Today</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Recent media coverage and scholarship have paid greater attention to the larger context of the incident, recognizing Nathan Meeker’s harsh treatment of the Utes and Thornburgh’s illegal invasion of the reservation as the driving factors behind the violence. The events on the White River in September 1879 are still commonly referred to as the <em>Meeker Massacre</em>, but the term <em>incident</em> is gaining support as a way of acknowledging the accurate historical context of the events. The <strong>Southern Ute Tribe</strong> in Colorado uses “Meeker Incident,” as do scholars and other writers.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The bodies of Meeker and his staff are buried in Greeley’s Linn Grove Cemetery. In 1993 the <strong>Rio Blanco Historical Society</strong> and Ute Indian Tribe agreed to have tribal members erect a monument to the fallen Ute warriors next to the monument commemorating Thornburgh and the other American soldiers killed at Milk Creek.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In July 2008, the historical society, Meeker Chamber of Commerce, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/us-forest-service-colorado"><strong>US Forest Service</strong></a>, and Bureau of Land Management organized the Smoking River Pow Wow, a local reconciliation event that marked the first time Ute people were officially invited to the White River Valley since their removal. An estimated 600 people attended, including Utes whose descendants were forced out in 1881.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/nathan-meeker" hreflang="en">nathan meeker</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/meeker-massacre" hreflang="en">meeker massacre</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/battle-milk-creek" hreflang="en">Battle of Milk Creek</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/utes" hreflang="en">utes</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/meeker" hreflang="en">meeker</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/rio-blanco-county" hreflang="en">rio blanco county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/rio-blanco-county-historical-society" hreflang="en">rio blanco county historical society</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/thomas-thornburgh" hreflang="en">thomas thornburgh</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/jack" hreflang="en">jack</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorow" hreflang="en">colorow</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/johnson" hreflang="en">johnson</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/douglass" hreflang="en">douglass</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/white-river" hreflang="en">white river</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/white-river-indian-agency" hreflang="en">white river indian agency</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/arvilla-meeker" hreflang="en">arvilla meeker</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/josephine-meeker" hreflang="en">josephine meeker</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CLM18791004.2.39&amp;srpos=24&amp;e=-------en-20--21-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-pitkin+utes-------0--">Border War! … What Governor Pitkin and General Hamill Will Do</a>,” <em>Colorado Miner</em> (Georgetown, CO), October 4, 1879.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jeff Burkhead, “<a href="https://www.theheraldtimes.com/smoking-river-powwow-exceeds-expectations/meeker/">Smoking River Pow Wow Exceeds Expectations</a>,” <em>Times Herald </em>(Meeker, CO), July 31, 2008.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Peter R. Decker, <em>“The Utes Must Go!”: American Expansion and the Removal of a People </em>(Golden, CO: Fulcrum, 2004).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Brandi Denison, <em>Ute Land Religion in the American West, 1879–2009 </em>(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CFT18790708-01.2.23&amp;srpos=13&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-pitkin+utes-------0--">Governor Pitkin on the Indian Question</a>,” <em>Colorado Daily Chieftain </em>(Pueblo, CO), July 8, 1879.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CCF18791016.2.1&amp;srpos=39&amp;e=-------en-20--21-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-pitkin+utes-------0--">The Indian War</a>,” <em>Colorado Weekly Chieftain</em>, October 16, 1879.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Sondra G. Jones, <em>Being and Becoming Ute: The Story of an American Indian People </em>(Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2019).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Josephine and Arvilla Meeker, <em>Brave Miss Meeker’s Captivity! Her Own Account of It All</em> (Philadelphia: Old Franklin Publishing House, 1879).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Virginia McConnell Simmons, <em>The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2000).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CFT18791008-01.2.4&amp;srpos=28&amp;e=-------en-20--21-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-pitkin+utes-------0--">Untitled article</a>, <em>Colorado Daily Chieftain</em>, October 8, 1879, p. 2.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Fred H. Werner, <em>Meeker </em>(Greeley, CO: Werner Publications, 1985).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Sandy Shimko, “<a href="https://www.theheraldtimes.com/letter-%E2%80%98meeker-incident%E2%80%99-waters-down-history/meeker/">Letter: ‘Meeker Incident’ Waters Down History</a>,” <em>Times Herald </em>(Meeker, CO), October 9, 2009.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 15 Jan 2020 21:21:21 +0000 yongli 3113 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Battle of Milk Creek http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/battle-milk-creek <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Battle of Milk Creek</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3237--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3237.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/milk-creek-battlefield"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Battle-of-Milk-Creek-Media-1_0.jpg?itok=F_pbgb77" width="900" height="609" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/milk-creek-battlefield" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Milk Creek Battlefield</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The Battle of Milk Creek began on September 29, 1879, when US Army Major Thomas Thornburgh illegally advanced his cavalry onto the Ute Reservation in northwest Colorado. Thornburgh was ordered to the White River Ute Agency to protect Indian Agent Nathan Meeker.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> <div class="carousel-item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3238--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3238.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/monument-milk-creek"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Battle-of-Milk-Creek-Media-2_0.jpg?itok=rT1zzNMH" width="600" height="750" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/monument-milk-creek" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Monument at Milk Creek</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This stone monument is inscribed with the names of US cavalry soldiers killed during the Battle of Milk Creek, September 29-October 5, 1879. Commanding officer Major Thomas Thornburgh was killed in the battle and is buried in Omaha, Nebraska, while his soldiers remain buried in an unmarked grave on the battlefield. Today, a similar monument commemorates the Ute Indians killed in the battle.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> <button class="carousel-control-prev" type="button" data-bs-target="#carouselEncyclopediaArticle" data-bs-slide="prev"> <span class="carousel-control-prev-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span> <span class="visually-hidden">Previous</span> </button> <button class="carousel-control-next" type="button" data-bs-target="#carouselEncyclopediaArticle" data-bs-slide="next"> <span class="carousel-control-next-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span> <span class="visually-hidden">Next</span> </button> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-01-15T13:35:38-07:00" title="Wednesday, January 15, 2020 - 13:35" class="datetime">Wed, 01/15/2020 - 13:35</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/battle-milk-creek" data-a2a-title="Battle of Milk Creek"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fbattle-milk-creek&amp;title=Battle%20of%20Milk%20Creek"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The Battle of Milk Creek was the major military engagement during the <a href="/article/meeker-incident"><strong>Meeker Incident</strong></a>, a revolt by a Nuche (<a href="/search/google/ute"><strong>Ute</strong></a> people) community in northwest Colorado in September 1879. The battle began on September 29, when Utes opened fire from the heights above Milk Creek on an advancing column of US cavalry led by Major <strong>Thomas Thornburgh</strong>. Utes kept the soldiers pinned down for five days, until reinforcements arrived and the Utes surrendered on October 5.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The battle delayed Thornburgh’s advance to the <a href="/article/white-river-ute-indian-agency"><strong>White River Ute Indian Agency</strong></a>, where Indian Agent <a href="/article/nathaniel-meeker"><strong>Nathan Meeker</strong></a> had called for assistance because of rising tensions with the local Ute population. While the Utes at Milk Creek held up Thornburgh, Utes at the agency revolted, killing Meeker and ten others and taking his family captive. In the long term, the violence was brought on by Meeker’s harsh treatment of the Utes; in the short term, it was a result of Thornburgh’s decision to advance onto the Ute reservation, which the Utes took as an act of war in violation of the <a href="/article/ute-treaty-1868"><strong>Treaty of 1868</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Origins</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By the 1860s, Colorado’s Ute people had lived in the <a href="/article/rocky-mountains"><strong>Rocky Mountains</strong></a> for more than 400 years. In 1868 leaders representing six bands of Colorado’s Ute people signed a treaty that ceded Colorado’s eastern Rockies to the United States in exchange for <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/indian-annuities"><strong>annuities</strong></a> and the creation of a permanent reservation on the <a href="/article/western-slope"><strong>Western Slope</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the far northern part of the reservation, on the <strong>White River</strong> near present-day <a href="/article/meeker-0"><strong>Meeker</strong></a>, the US government set up one of two <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/indian-agencies-and-agents"><strong>Indian Agencies</strong></a> to distribute food and supplies as promised in the treaty. Throughout the 1870s, Utes at the White River Agency became increasingly hungry and anxious. Shipments of food and supplies were delayed or not delivered at all, and Utes often left the reservation to hunt and to take supplies from white settlements.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1878 President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Nathan Meeker, a cofounder of the <strong>Union Colony</strong> at present-day <a href="/article/greeley"><strong>Greeley</strong></a>, as head of the White River Agency. A devout and ambitious man, Meeker was seen as the perfect agent to carry out the government’s policy of assimilating, or “civilizing,” the Utes of western Colorado. Upon his arrival at the agency in early 1879, Meeker moved its buildings onto a Ute horse pasture, the beginning of a poor relationship with his charges that would only get worse in the ensuing months.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As the Utes continued to resist farming and leave the reservation to hunt, Meeker’s patience wore thin, and at one point he even withheld rations from the Utes as punishment for their refusal to follow his teachings. He kept plowing the Utes’ horse pastures, determined to sever their centuries-long bond with the animals. Where other agents might have taken a more lenient approach toward the Utes in exchange for cooperation, Meeker would accept nothing but total compliance.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Meeker’s stance began to wear on local Ute leaders <strong>Johnson</strong> and <strong>Douglass</strong>. After Meeker arrived, both were initially willing to try a bit of farming, but as the agent’s conduct toward them worsened, they grew increasingly agitated, to the point of shouting matches. During one argument late in the summer of 1879, Johnson shoved Meeker and hurt the agent’s arm. Fearing for his life, Meeker requested federal troops to come to the agency to protect him.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Thornburgh’s March</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Stationed at Fort Fred Steele in Rawlins, Wyoming, Major Thomas Thornburgh had little idea of the tensions building at the White River Agency in the summer of 1879. In mid-September, he was about to leave for a hunt when he received urgent orders from his superior, General George Crook, to ride to Meeker’s assistance some 200 miles away. It took Thornburgh five days to get his cavalry ready, and on September 21 his column of 191 officers, soldiers, and civilians, with its 370 mules and horses, left Rawlins for the White River Agency.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On September 26, Thornburgh happened upon Jack, a White River Ute leader, at a general store near the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/yampa-river"><strong>Yampa River</strong></a> in northwest Colorado. The clerk told Thornburgh that Utes had recently purchased 10,000 rounds, and Jack asked Thornburgh about his destination. When Thornburgh told him that Meeker had asked for help with Utes at the agency, Jack replied that Meeker had brought the trouble on himself, and that if Thornburgh entered the reservation, it would be taken as an act of war.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The next day, Thornburgh got word from Meeker: the Utes at the agency knew of his advance and asked him to stop his column at some point outside the reservation and proceed to the agency himself, with only five soldiers. All parties would then discuss a resolution. Thornburgh responded affirmatively, writing the agent that he would make camp at Milk Creek, a tributary of the White River near the boundary of the reservation, and proceed from there with a handful of soldiers.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Battle Lines</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>After another Ute leader, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorow"><strong>Colorow</strong></a>, visited his camp to ask where he was going, Thornburgh was alarmed. But he knew he outnumbered the Utes and doubted they would actually fight him. Instead of heeding the Utes’ warning, Thornburgh deferred to his orders from Crook, who had told him to proceed through the reservation to the agency. Thornburgh and his officers believed that leaving their full force beyond reach of the agency was too risky, so they devised a cautious plan to invade the reservation.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Utes, meanwhile, feared Thornburgh’s advance might signal another <a href="/article/sand-creek-massacre"><strong>Sand Creek Massacre</strong></a> in which peaceful Indigenous people were promised safety only to be cut down by federal troops. Led by Jack and Colorow, several dozen Utes waited behind rocky outcroppings on the heights above Milk Creek, armed with rifles. About fifty more waited with their mounts below, just off the main wagon road that led to the agency. If the soldiers crossed the creek, in violation of the 1868 treaty, the Utes would fight.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Five Days of Fighting</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>At the agency on the morning of September 29, Meeker assured Douglass that Thornburgh would not enter the reservation. But Thornburgh had already made his decision. The major crossed dry Milk Creek with all his troops, leaving behind only his cumbersome wagons. The lead unit promptly ran into Jack’s Utes, and even though both sides signaled that they wanted to talk, a shot was fired—it is not known by whom—and the battle began.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Utes rained gunfire down from the heights, inflicting immediate casualties. They targeted the soldiers’ horses to prevent the cavalry from quickly regrouping or retreating. Meanwhile, Thornburgh took a sharpshooter’s bullet to the head and died instantly. Back at the agency, Utes got wind of the battle and decided that Meeker had misled them for the last time. The Utes killed him and his entire staff and captured their wives and children.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Meanwhile, the dismounted cavalry retreated to the other side of Milk Creek, hunkering down behind the wagons and taking fire from the front and both sides. The troops used dead horses and mules for additional cover, returning fire as the Utes moved closer. Unable to retreat that night, Captain J. Scott Payne, the ranking officer after Thornburgh’s death, hastily sent messengers for reinforcements. Word reached both Captain Francis Dodge, commander of the Ninth Cavalry near <strong>Steamboat Springs</strong>, and Colonel Wesley Merritt in Rawlins.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On October 1, after a seventy-mile forced march, Dodge’s three dozen <a href="/article/buffalo-soldiers"><strong>Buffalo Soldiers</strong></a> arrived to help Payne’s besieged troops. While unable to turn the tide, the Ninth Cavalry forced the Utes to cease their barrage and regroup. Ultimately, the Buffalo Soldiers extended the battle by four days, enough time for Merritt’s 450 men to arrive from Wyoming. When they finally did, on October 5, the Utes retreated. In the six-day battle, seventeen whites were killed and forty-four were wounded. About two dozen Utes were killed, most on the first day of fighting.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The soldiers marched to the agency, where they found burned buildings and the mutilated bodies of Meeker and his staff. A party of Utes had carried the women and children, including Meeker’s wife and daughter, off toward <strong>Grand Mesa. </strong></p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Aftermath</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Word spread quickly of the battle and Meeker’s death. Led by Governor <strong>Fred Pitkin</strong>, Colorado’s press and white officials called for the Utes’ removal or extermination. The state legislature passed a Ute removal declaration. Outside the state, however, newspapers blamed Colorado miners for coveting Ute land as well as the federal government for not supplying the Utes with the provisions and money promised in the treaty.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Meanwhile, the US Army mobilized to hunt down the Utes who took Meeker’s family captive. With the help of other Utes, government agents negotiated the peaceful release of Meeker’s family and the rest of the captives in late October.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Two separate investigations into the Meeker Incident—one at the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/los-pi%C3%B1os-indian-agency"><strong>Los Piñ</strong><strong>os Indian Agency</strong></a> in 1879 and congressional hearings the next year—failed to identify or punish the Utes who killed Meeker. The Battle of Milk Creek was considered a legitimate engagement—the army had trespassed on the reservation—so Jack, Colorow, and the other Utes who fought in the battle were not punished.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The Utes’ victory at Milk Creek was short-lived, as it soon led to their expulsion from Colorado. Although only the Parianuche and Yampa Utes participated in the Meeker Incident, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ouray"><strong>Ouray</strong></a>’s more numerous Tabeguache band was implicated by association, in part because the government considered Ouray the de facto leader of all Ute bands. Ouray and Interior Secretary Carl Schurz lobbied to keep the peace on both sides, and their efforts avoided further bloodshed. In 1880, however, the government forced the Yampa and Parianuche, as well as Ouray’s Tabeguache, to give up all their land in western Colorado and move to a new reservation in Utah.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Battle of Milk Creek and the Meeker Incident showed that the government strategy of assimilating Indigenous people was deeply misguided. Not only had the Utes resisted farming, but attempts to force them into it had provoked the very sort of violence—from both sides—that government agents and Christian reformers sought to avoid.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>White observers, however, ignored this lesson and simply assumed that Colorado’s Utes were “bad Indians” who acted against their own interests by resisting “civilization.” Indeed, over the next several decades, the government continued its policy of forced assimilation by breaking up Indigenous reservations into private <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/dawes-act-general-allotment-act"><strong>allotments</strong></a> and banning traditional customs and ceremonies. Just as they did at Milk Creek, these policies provoked outrage and violence, such as when US cavalry massacred Lakota at Wounded Knee in 1890.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Commemoration</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1990 the <strong>Rio Blanco County Historical Society</strong> established Milk Creek Battlefield Park on the site of the battle. Informative signs detail the events of late September 1879, and a stone monument memorializes Thornburgh and the other soldiers who died there. Thornburgh’s body was eventually recovered from Milk Creek and is buried in Omaha, Nebraska. In 1993 the Rio Blanco Historical Society and Ute Indian Tribe agreed to have tribal members erect a monument to the fallen Ute warriors next to the US Army monument.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/milk-creek" hreflang="en">milk creek</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/meeker" hreflang="en">meeker</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/utes" hreflang="en">utes</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/rio-blanco-county" hreflang="en">rio blanco county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/nathan-meeker" hreflang="en">nathan meeker</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/thomas-thornburgh" hreflang="en">thomas thornburgh</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ute-indians" hreflang="en">ute indians</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/treaty-1868" hreflang="en">Treaty of 1868</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/jack" hreflang="en">jack</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorow" hreflang="en">colorow</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/white-river-indian-agency" hreflang="en">white river indian agency</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/white-river" hreflang="en">white river</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CLM18791004.2.39&amp;srpos=24&amp;e=-------en-20--21-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-pitkin+utes-------0--">Border War! … What Governor Pitkin and General Hamill Will Do</a>,” <em>Colorado Miner</em> (Georgetown, CO), October 4, 1879.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Peter R. Decker, <em>“The Utes Must Go!”: American Expansion and the Removal of a People </em>(Golden, CO: Fulcrum, 2004).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Sondra G. Jones, <em>Being and Becoming Ute: The Story of an American Indian People </em>(Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2019).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Virginia McConnell Simmons, <em>The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2000).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Sacha Smith, “<a href="https://www.sudrum.com/top-stories/2015/10/01/remembering-the-milk-creek-battle/">Remembering the Milk Creek Battle</a>,” <em>Southern Ute Drum</em>, October 1, 2015.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Fred H. Werner, <em>Meeker </em>(Greeley, CO: Werner Publications, 1985).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p><a href="https://www.colorado.com/meeker/history-heritage/historic-places-districts/milk-creek-battlefield-park">Milk Creek Battlefield Park</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Rio Blanco Historical Society, “<a href="https://www.historymeeker.com/milk-creek-battlefield-park-dedication/">Milk Creek Battlefield Park</a>.”</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 15 Jan 2020 20:35:38 +0000 yongli 3110 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org