An April Fool Believed

On April 1, 1883, The Denver Republican newspaper offered a tongue-in-cheek report that, after Ouray’s death and the Ute relocation to Utah, Chipeta married a White River Ute with the image-laden name “Toomuchagut”. The humorous piece was taken as fact by some, but it carried a shred of truth. Chipeta did have a second mate after Ouray’s death. She was counted with her husband, Accumooquats, in the 1885 Indian census taken at the Ouray Agency, Utah.

Oddly enough, the 1885 Indian census also records a Ute man named Occuptoomuchakut living on the Ouray Agency with his wife, Tahveeah, and three small children.

Chipeta Testifies

Chipeta by Mathew Brady, Washington, D.C., 1880

Clips of Congressional hearings receive repeat play on TV news these days. Did you know Chipeta once testified before a Congressional inquiry panel?

 

On March 19, 1880 Chipeta entered the Capitol building and took the witness stand facing a group of Congressmen seated behind a long table. Not yet 40 years old, she had lived her entire life in the Rocky Mountains. She was the wife of Chief Ouray and his most trusted advisor and confidant. She travelled to Washington, D.C. with a group of Ute chiefs. Secretary of Interior Carl Schurz welcomed her as a member of the delegation rather than as a tag-along wife.

Her upcoming testimony was announced by The Washington Post, describing her as “a fat, good-humored looking squaw.” The reason for her appearance in the capitol city was an event that had captured national attention the previous year. A group of Northern Utes attacked a column of soldiers, murdered their Indian agent, Nathan Meeker, and all male employees of the agency. They spirited three white women and two children into the high mountains as hostages.  Newspapers across the nation followed the unfolding events for the next 30 days until the hostages were safely released.

In the Congressional hearing, Chipeta responded (through an interpreter) to ten questions about where she was when the massacre took place and what caused the events. Most of her answers amounted to “I don’t know” because she had not been present at the massacre. She told the committee some of the Indians said Agent Meeker “was a bad man, that he talked bad…Some of them claimed that he was always writing to Washington and giving his side of the case, and all the troubles at the agency…I do not know whether that is what they killed him for, or what they did it for.”

      

Source: Testimony in Relation to Ute Outbreak, 46th Congress, 2nd Session, House Miscellaneous Documents no. 38, 1880, 91.

Chipeta National Park?

Many places, things, and organizations have been named for Chipeta. In 1909, while she was still living, her name was proposed for a National Forest.  

President Theodore Roosevelt had authorized the 1905 expansion of Wyoming’s Medicine Bow Forest Reserve into the area of northern Colorado near Estes Park. Three years later conservationist and nature writer Enos Mills proposed creating a national park of more than a thousand square miles to include Colorado’s Medicine Bow Forest Reserve.

The Fort Collins Weekly Courier reported on November 3, 1909, “Suggestions for names for the Medicine Bow forest are beginning to reach the…Courier, as well as Forest Supervisor Wheeler. Mrs. J.W. Skinner suggests ‘Chipeta’…Enos Mills…suggest[s] ‘Long’s Peak’ and ‘Rocky Mountain’.” The Courier noted other submissions included “Ute” and “Roosevelt Bear.”

The following July that section of Colorado’s Medicine Bow Forest Reserve became the Colorado National Forest. The U.S. Geological Survey evaluated the area in September 1912 and proposed a national park of about 700 square miles. The first bill proposing the park was introduced in Congress February 6, 1913. Almost two years later on January 26, 1915, President Woodrow Wilson signed the legislation creating the 358.5 square mile Rocky Mountain National Park. The park has since been expanded to 417 square miles. 

Sources: www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org and www.esteshistory.com/chronology.html 

 

 

Trust but Verify

The Internet is a wonderful research tool that offers an amazing amount of information. However, not all of that information is accurate, even when found on websites of reputable organizations. Here are a couple of examples from my research. They remind me to check facts in multiple sources before using them in print.
          A Google search for “Chipeta” turned up a Colorado State University webpage about potatoes. The university’s agricultural research program develops new potato cultivars and a 1993 russet potato was named for “Chipeta.” That was a fun bit of trivia. However, the page noted, “Chipeta is featured on a stained-glass window in the state capitol building (in Denver).” A visit to the Colorado State Capitol Virtual Tour and the link to the Hall of Fame Stained Glass (Rotunda)  reveals that Chipeta’s husband, Ouray, is honored there. Further search locates Chipeta on the 1976 “Women’s Gold Tapestry” created for Colorado Centennial celebration.
          The webpage of the Meeker [Colorado] Chamber of Commerce reproduces “This Is What I Remember” from the Rio Blanco County Historical Society.  The last ten paragraphs of the article recall the 1879 rescue of three white women and two children after the Meeker Massacre. It reads in part, “When news of the massacre reached Los Pinos…Chipeta…rode alone on the long trip north to intercede for the white captives. This exploit brought her the plaudits of all America.” It was a popular tale that did not happen. She sent runners to find her husband and other chiefs and prepare for a council meeting. After 23 day in captivity the rescued women and children were brought to Chipeta’s home to recover. The facts in this case are more difficult to find but they exist in eye witness newspaper accounts and Congressional testimony.

March Women’s History Month

          Did you know Chipeta is a Hall of Famer? She was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985 for the “courage and valor she demonstrated in her efforts to mediate between Native Americans and whites.” Click here to visit Chipeta’s page.
          It is a lovely honor but some of the information posted about her is questionable. Margaret Adams, wife of Ute Indian Agent Charles Adams, seems to be the source of ”White Singing Bird” as the meaning of Chipeta’s name. Other sources say her name meant “Charitable One,” “The Jewel,” or ”Spring of Clear Water.” One source says it came from the Spanish name Guadalupita. Yet another says it was a pet name used by Kit Carson for his own wife, Maria Josefa Jaramillo Carson. A cursory review of Ute language resources reveals no words for white, sing or bird that are at all similar to any parts of Chipeta. 
          Chipeta did accompany Ouray to the treaty negotiations at Conejos in 1863. However, her name does not appear in Indian Agent expense records for any of Ouray’s trips to Washington, DC until his final trip in 1880. Margaret Adams traveled with the 1872 Ute delegation to visit friends and relatives back East while the men conducted business.