THE UTE INDIANS - Part III
by Larry Meredith
Over the years, the Utes, led mainly by “Chief” Ouray, negotiated treaty after treaty with the white man,essentially granting more and more of their tribal lands for prospecting or settlement, but all the while maintaining a certain amount of freedom to hunt and live as they always had.
Ute shrewdness later became better known as “Ute Luck.” For two centuries they had jealously and successfully resisted white incursions into their lands, including the Crystal River Valley. Intelligence and a fortunate geographic location allowed these rugged, individualistic people to live in freedom for 200 years, generally isolated from the overwhelming northward and westward migration of settlers going on around them. The central Rockies, after all, were too rugged for travelers heading in covered wagons for the West Coast and were out of the way for merchants on the Santa Fe Trail. But gold, silver and other minerals (including coal and marble found in the Crystal Valley), was reachabledespite the mountainous terrain. Still,hardship and danger lay ahead for those seeking wealth in our rugged valley. In this case, a kind of isolation was, for the most part, a good thing.
Finally, in September of 1879, a horrible incident known as the Meeker Massacre propelled the Utes into nationwide headlines. For the Ute people, spread throughout the mountains, the Meeker affair was the final disaster in their long struggle for freedom. It was to permanently affect the entire tribe, especially when Governor Frederick Pitkin (Gov. 1879-1883) and his anti-Indian faction of politicians and newspaper editors decided it was time to “rid the state of the Ute menace.”
Following 1879 the Ute People would never again be free to roam their beautiful high county as the undisputed possessors of the shining mountains. They could boast, however, that they were one of the last American tribes to pass under government control.
While the Utes, and Ouray in particular, could still accurately claim they had never been decisively defeated by the white man’s military force, they would soon be forced to make a sad and difficult retreat to reservation land.
As they passed through the Crystal Valley on their despondent way to reservations it is said that, in a final act of retribution, a Ute Holy Man placed a curse on the valley that would deter any white man who made efforts to exploit the valley for its riches.
In the Crystal River Valley residents and visitors alike continue to thrill to the stories of these remarkable people and admire their courage and their distinctive lifestyle.
The Redstone Historical Society is working hard to preserve the memory of the Utes and their roles in making our history interesting, important and full of life’s significant lessons to those of us fortunate enough to be able to live in or visit this rugged country which was so loved by the Ute Nation.
By Larry K. Meredith
Author of “This Cursed Valley”
Material from a wide variety of sources including “Elk Mountains Odyssey” by Paul Andersen and Ken Johnson, Published by the West Elk Loop Scenic and Historic Byway
THE CURSE OF THE UTES
reprinted from "Elk Mountain Odyssey"
by Paul Anderson & Ken Johnson
In the treaty of 1863 the Utes ceded eastern portions of their mountain homeland to the white settlers and miners who anxiously swarmed the region for mineral wealth and homestead land. In that treaty the Utes were promised the Crystal River valley would be theirs “for as long as the rivers might run and the grasses might grow.”
Subsequently, as part of a national policy where Indians were deemed to be in the way of settlement, that pledge was broken and the Utes were forced out of their cherished valley. . . . (Angry at the whites)the Utes are said have placed a curse on the valley, a jinx that would frustrate any and all efforts of whites to exploit its riches and establish settlements.
In the August 25, 1917 edition of the Marble Booster, a bankrupt newspaper editor, mourning a severe economic downturn, suggested that the curse was proven by the failure of four once-thriving towns in the Crystal Valley – Crystal City, Marble, Placita and Redstone.
“First there was Crystal, once a mining town of several hundred souls and a metropolis of several other smaller mining camps. Then came Redstone, where millions of dollars were spent to make the prettiest, most ideal coal camp in the world. There was Placita, at one time a prosperous coal camp of several hundred, and where scarcely a remnant is left. Then comes Marble. Twelve millions of dollars are invested here in quarries and the finishing plant of the Colorado-Yule Marble Company, besides thousands upon thousands in stores and homes. Now there are scarcely 50 men in Marble. It is pitiful to contemplate such hard luck.”
While the Crystal Valley today enjoys a resurgent economy based on tourism, the tides of success and failure run in a regular ebb and flow. Perhaps the Utes will have the final word after all if their curse remains “for as long as the river might run and the grasses might grow.”
