%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Josephine Meeker http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/josephine-meeker <!-- 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">Josephine Meeker</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.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="2020-03-13T14:12:32-06:00" title="Friday, March 13, 2020 - 14:12" class="datetime">Fri, 03/13/2020 - 14:12</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/josephine-meeker" data-a2a-title="Josephine Meeker"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fjosephine-meeker&amp;title=Josephine%20Meeker"></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>Josephine Meeker (1857–82) was the daughter of <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/nathaniel-meeker"><strong>Nathan Meeker</strong></a>, the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/indian-agencies-and-agents"><strong>Indian agent</strong></a> who oversaw the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/white-river-ute-indian-agency"><strong>White River Indian Agency</strong></a> during the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/meeker-incident"><strong>Meeker Incident</strong></a>, a <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/search/google/ute"><strong>Ute</strong></a> uprising in 1879. After the revolt, Utes took Josephine, her mother, another woman, and her two children captive for nearly a month. Following her captivity, Josephine documented her experience in a book and toured eastern cities as a lecturer.</p> <h2>Early Life</h2> <p>Josephine Meeker was born in Hiram Rapids, Ohio, in 1857. She was the youngest child of Arvilla and Nathan Meeker. Records of her early life are sparse. After the <a href="/article/civil-war-colorado"><strong>Civil War</strong></a>, Nathan Meeker traveled west. He was impressed with the climate and scenery of <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a> and decided to move his family there. In April 1870, when Josephine was in her early teens, Meeker helped found <strong>Union Colony</strong>, the utopian agricultural community that became <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/greeley"><strong>Greeley</strong></a>.</p> <p>Even as a child, Josephine had a dynamic personality. She once fell while racing her horse through town, prompting the <strong><em>Greeley Tribune</em></strong> to publish an article asserting that “girls should be more careful racing their horses.” She also had an affinity for adventure. According to one story, in 1874 she climbed <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/longs-peak"><strong>Longs Peak</strong></a>, the tallest mountain in northern Colorado. In addition to her spirited nature, Josephine had a sharp intellect. In 1877 she enrolled in Denver Business College, where she excelled. There she gained the training to assist her father in his new position as an Indian agent.</p> <h2>White River Agency</h2> <p>&nbsp;In 1878 Nathan Meeker obtained a post to oversee Colorado’s White River Indian Agency, a federal outpost established by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1868. Located in a valley near what is now <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/meeker-0"><strong>Meeker</strong></a>, the White River Agency was built to assimilate into white society the Utes who were living on a large reservation encompassing most of western Colorado.</p> <p>In July 1878, two months after her parents arrived at the agency, twenty-one-year-old Josephine joined them. Nathan offered Josephine employment because he needed help keeping the agency’s books, but the young woman’s duties were not limited to accounting. She also worked as a physician and a teacher. Shortly after she arrived, Josephine established a school for Ute children. Three pupils enrolled, and the agency began to build a schoolhouse in June 1879. Before the building was complete, two of Josephine’s pupils left the school when their parents withdrew them to protest Nathan Meeker’s unpopular policies.</p> <h2>Unrest at the Agency</h2> <p>At the White River Agency, Nathan Meeker aspired to “civilize” the Utes, whose traditional subsistence was based largely on hunting. Meeker pressured the Utes to plant fields, dig ditches, live in houses, and adopt Christianity. Nathan Meeker saw that horses were a key aspect of the tribe’s nomadic culture, so he plowed pastures and sought other means to sever the Utes’ ties to their horses. He decreed that each Ute family could collect weekly rations only if the head of the household was present. This rule forced Ute men to remain close to the agency, interfering with their hunting practices. The conflict escalated when Meeker issued an order to plow land where the Utes had grown crops to feed their racing horses. This was the final straw. A local Ute leader named Johnson shoved Meeker, who sustained a minor injury and sent for federal troops.</p> <h2>Revolt and Captivity</h2> <p>On September 29, 1879, as the requested troops approached the reservation boundary at Milk Creek, Utes opened fire on them. When news of the battle got back to the agency, Ute men there began to fire on agency employees. Josephine and her mother fled with another agency woman, Flora Price, and Price’s two young children. The group took shelter in the agency’s milk house. When they began to smell smoke, they left in fear that their shelter might burn. By the time the women made their way into the juniper woods around the agency, Nathan Meeker and all nine of his male employees were dead. Ute men spotted Josephine and her companions as they left the milk house. Josephine’s mother had been wounded and the children were too young to run on their own, so the Utes easily captured the group. They held the three women and two children captive for twenty-three days, traveling over a vast stretch of western Colorado.</p> <p>During and after their time in captivity, Josephine and her companions captured the imagination of the US population. Newspapers indulged public curiosity with a wide range of conflicting accounts. Reports claiming the women had been raped or had willingly engaged in sexual acts with the Utes were especially popular. According to one story in the <em>Sacramento Daily Union</em>, “the women were forced, under THREATS OF TORTURE AND SLOW DEATH, to yield to the lust of their hideous captors.” A later narrative, written in 1914, claimed that Josephine, her mother, and Flora Price were all “the willing consorts of braves of the Ute tribe; .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Josephine Meeker had fairly to be torn away from her dusky lover, Chief Persune.”</p> <p>Josephine did not mention rape or any of its nineteenth-century equivalents, such as “outrage,” in her official narrative of the ordeal. Victorian social norms might have deterred her from publicizing such treatment out of fear of appearing dishonored. Flora Price and Josephine were teenagers at the time, writes historian Brandi Denison and so “had their social clout at stake.” In her published account, Josephine said that Persune, the Ute man who took her captive, “treated [her] with respect and considerable kindness.” She also described Persune’s wife as “a kind hearted woman.”</p> <p>In a more private deposition, however, Josephine claimed that she and the other women had been subject to “outrageous treatment at night.” When asked if she had been forced against her will, Josephine replied, “Yes.” Arvilla Meeker corroborated this account when she published an article in the <em>Colorado Chieftain </em>to counter accusations that she and the other women were protecting their former captors. The women may well have been subjected to sexual abuse, though some contemporary observers accused them of offering the revised stories in attempts to sway public opinion against the Utes. Whether the women were sexually assaulted in captivity remains a point of dispute, but Denison argues that the debate is a distraction that “obscures the subsequent ethnic cleansing” carried out by the government against the Utes.</p> <p>Josephine’s public narrative is in accord with her reputation as someone who had spent a great deal of time at the agency building relationships with the Utes. According to some accounts, the Utes had taught her some of their language and had even included her in healing ceremonies. Because she already had a rapport with members of the band, she did not have to work as strenuously in captivity as her mother or Flora Price. Josephine also claimed to have developed a relationship with Shawsheen, a sister of the prominent Ute leader <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ouray"><strong>Ouray</strong></a>. According to Josephine, this relationship played an important role in her captivity because the Ute woman treated her and the other captives kindly and made good shoes for Flora Price’s children to wear.</p> <h2>Release</h2> <p>According to Josephine’s published account of her captivity, federal troops pursued the party the entire way, and the Utes often stopped to debate their next move. On October 21, 1879, Charles Adams, a former Indian agent and special agent of the US Post Office, guided a US cavalry detachment to the place where the Utes were camped, freed the captives, and took them on a six-day journey to Ouray’s home. There, they rested for a night before continuing to <strong>Alamosa</strong>.</p> <h2>After Captivity</h2> <p>After Josephine and her fellow captives were freed, many whites used their captivity to argue that the Utes should be forced out of Colorado. Josephine did not call for removal, but her written and oral testimonies fueled public outrage. In 1880 she spoke before a congressional commission. She also delivered a series of lectures. With the help of her brother, Ralph Meeker, Josephine published a number of newspaper articles about her captivity, and several months after the massacre, a Denver press released a book detailing Josephine’s account. The story of the massacre and the women’s captivity narratives provided powerful images that advocates of Ute removal eagerly deployed. In 1881 the US Army forcibly moved the White River and Uncompahgre Utes from their ancestral homeland to small reservations in eastern Utah, where many of their descendants live today.</p> <p>At some point between her release in 1879 and her death three years later, Josephine Meeker obtained a position at the Department of the Interior in Washington, DC, as an assistant private secretary in the office of the secretary of the interior. She died of a pulmonary infection on December 20, 1882, at the age of twenty-five. She was buried in the Meeker family plot at Linn Grove Cemetery in Greeley.&nbsp;</p> </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/micaela-cruce" hreflang="und">Micaela Cruce</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/josephine-meeker" hreflang="en">josephine meeker</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/nathaniel-meeker" hreflang="en">nathaniel 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/meeker-incident" hreflang="en">meeker incident</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/flora-price" hreflang="en">flora price</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/shawsheen" hreflang="en">shawsheen</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/utes" hreflang="en">utes</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>David Boyd, <em>A History: Greeley and the Union Colony</em> (Greeley: Greeley Tribune Press,1890).</p> <p>Dee Brown, <em>The Gentle Tamers: Women of the Old Wild West</em> (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1958).</p> <p>“<a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/political-science-and-government/us-government/bureau-indian-affairs">Bureau of Indian Affairs</a>,” <em>Encyclopedia.com</em>, n.d.</p> <p>Max Carocci and Stephanie Pratt, eds., <em>Native American Adoption, Captivity, and Slavery in Changing Contexts</em> (New York: Springer, 2012).</p> <p>Robert R. Crifasi, <em>A Land Made From Water </em>(Louisville: University Press of Colorado, 2015).</p> <p>Carlyle Channing Davis and William A. Alderson, <em>The True Story of “Ramona”: Its Facts and Fictions, Inspiration and Purpose</em> (New York: Dodge, 1915).</p> <p>Thomas F. Dawson and Frederick James Volney, <em>The Ute War: A History of the White River Massacre/Facsimile, Comments and Notes by Nolie Mumey</em> (Boulder, CO: Johnson,1964).</p> <p>Peter Decker, <em>The Utes Must Go!: American Expansion and the Removal of a People</em> (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 2004).</p> <p>Brandi Denison, “A Christian Disposition: Religious Identity in the Meeker Captivity Narrative,” in <em>Native American Adoption, Captivity, and Slavery in Changing Contexts, </em>ed. Max Carocci and Stephanie Pratt (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).</p> <p>Brandi Denison, <em>Ute Land Religion in the American West, 1879–2009 </em>(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017).</p> <p>Brandilyn Denison, <em>Remove, Return, Remember: Making Ute Land Religion in the American West</em> (PhD dissertation, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, 2011).</p> <p>Greeley History, “<a href="http://www.greeleyhistory.org/pages/josephine_meeker.html">Josephine Meeker</a>,” December 16, 2012.</p> <p>“<a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49861528/josephine-meeker">Josephine Meeker</a>,” Find a Grave, March 17, 2010.</p> <p>Katalyn Lutkin, Caroline Blackburn, and Jean Hansen, “<a href="https://greeleymuseums.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Meeker-Manuscript-Collection-AI-4154-.pdf">Guide to the Meeker Manuscript Collection</a>,” n.d.</p> <p>Josephine Meeker, <em>The Ute Massacre! Brave Miss Meeker’s Captivity! </em>(Philadelphia: Old Franklin Publishing House, 1879).</p> <p>Meeker, Colorado, “<a href="http://www.meekercolorado.com/HSociety.htm">The Last Major Indian Uprising: The Meeker Massacre and the Battle of Milk Creek</a>,” n.d.</p> <p>Mesa County Libraries, “<a href="https://mesa.marmot.org/Archive/mesa%3A431/Audio">Interview with Dottie (De Hart) Wiley</a>,” February 23, 1977.</p> <p>Mesa County Libraries, “<a href="https://mesa.marmot.org/Archive/person:11600/Person">Josephine Meeker</a>,” n.d.</p> <p>“<a href="https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1879-11-01/ed-1/seq-3.pdf">Mrs. Price’s Story: Terrible Scene of the Massacre Recounted</a>,” <em>New York Herald</em>, November 1, 1879.</p> <p>Emily Rader, “El Capitan: Adaptation and Agency on a Southern California Indian Reservation,1850 to 1937,” <em>Western Historical Quarterly </em>44, no. 1 (2013).</p> <p>Rio Blanco County Historical Society, “<a href="http://www.meekercolorado.com/museum.htm">The Last Major Indian Uprising and the Meeker Massacre from the RBC Historical Society</a>,” n.d.</p> <p>JoAnna Luth Stull, “<a href="https://greeleymuseums.com/history-restitched/">History Re-Stitched: Josephine Meeker and Shawsheen</a>,” Greeley Museums, n.d.</p> <p>“The Ute Outrage: Horrors of the Captivity of the Agency Women. THE INDIANS’ ENORMOUS CRIMES. Mrs. Meeker, Her Daughter, and Mrs. Price Outraged,” <em>Sacramento Daily Union,</em> January 5, 1880.</p> <p>Michael Welsh, “Troubled Trails: The Meeker Affair and the Expulsion of Utes From Colorado,” <em>Western Historical Quarterly </em>44, no. 1 (2013).</p> </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>Virginia McConnell Simmons, <em>The Ute Indians of Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado </em>(Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 2000).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Fri, 13 Mar 2020 20:12:32 +0000 yongli 3175 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org