Chipeta and Ouray in Technology

Photo by Sam Barricklow courtesy National Weather Service

Computers named “ouray” and “chipeta” processed weather data at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) from 1995-2002. NCAR is a nongovernmental research institute focused on atmospheric and earth system science.
          The ouray and chipeta computers were part of the J90 series of vector-processor machines built by Cray Research, Inc. They were used in weather research and national security projects. In 2002 they were replaced by newer technology. Chipeta was the last Cray J90 decommissioned on September 3, 2002.
          See real time weather  forecasting tools provided by NCAR computer technology.

The Name “Chipeta” in Africa

While there is no apparent connection to the Ute or Spanish name of Ouray’s wife, Chipeta is a family or tribal name, in parts of Africa, particularly Malawi.
     The name Chipeta appears in letters written by Dr. David Livingstone during his travels in Africa in the 1860s. Copies of a few such letters were published on June 3, 1868 in the Daily Evening Bulletin (San Francisco, California). 
          On February 1, 1867, from a stop at Bemba on the way to Zanzibar, Livingstone wrote to the Earl of Clarendon: 
“…The people…under different names as Kanthunda, Chipeta, Echewa, etc. Their land is high and cold; their huts are mattered all over, even on the roofs, for the sake of [illegible] by night. They are great agriculturists, and so many by number that one village is scarcely a mile from some other…”
          On February 2, 1867 Livingstone wrote to Sir Roderick Murchison from Bemba:
“…The Kanthunda live on the mountains that rise out of the plateges. The Chipeta live on the plains, the Eschewa still further north.  
          An August 29, 1999 article in The Seattle Times reports that the modern country of Malawi grew out of Livingstone’s 19th-century expedition.. “We think warmly of Dr. Livingstone,” said Sam Chipeta, a clerk in Lilongwe, the capital…He is basically known as a man who really helped with the abolition of the slave trade.”
          In the Chichewa language of Africa, chipeta means “tall grass or savanna“. The people who speak Chichewa trace their origins to the Maravi who migrated from the lower basin of the Congo in Central Africa and eventually settled in the land mass now covered by Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Taking the Census: The Name “Chipeta”

Many people ask the meaning of Chipeta’s name. Various sources suggest diverse meanings including: White Singing Bird, Charitable One, The Jewel, Spring of Clear Water, and Rippling Water.
          United States census records suggest it is a Spanish name. The 1860 census for Bernalillo County, New Mexico Territory lists Chipeta Baca, born 1825 in Mexico. Living in Texas, at the same time, with a slightly different spelling of the name, was Chipita Gonzales, born 1800 in Mexico. These women were born long before Chipeta wife of Ouray.
          Further play with spelling revealed the more common version of this name: Chepita. In 1860 there were 5 Chepita’s in New Mexico Territory and 19 in Texas (15 of whom were born in Mexico).
          “Meaning of Names“ sites list Chefa, Chepita, and Josefa among the many Spanish feminine variants of Joseph.
          Perhaps Ouray gave his Ute bride a special name. He spent much of his youth living with a Mexican family where he learned to speak fluent Spanish. As was customary for Indian children living with Spanish families (as slaves or as part of the family) Ouray was baptised and trained in the Catholic religion. Chepita would have been a popular name in Catholic Nuevo Mexico province.

Dancing in DC 1880 Style

Social events in 1880 Washington, DC were late night affairs. During a delay in treaty meetings, Chipeta and Ouray were invited guests for the Friday, January 30th Literary and Social Entertainment at the Columbia Commandery No. 2 of the Knights of Columbus. The evening started with musical performances and literary readings. The dancing began with a promenade that allowed the ladies to show off their elegant dresses. To claim a dance with a lady, gentlemen signed the dance card dangling from her wrist. Waltzes, lanciers, quadrilles and polkas were popular. Supper was served during the intermission, which lasted from 10:30 pm to 12:30 am. Then the dancing resumed until 3:00 am.
           Chipeta and Ouray likely found the music and dancing quite strange, the food odd, and the evening very long.

Arriving in Washington, DC 1880

The Baltimore and Potomac Station once occupied the corner of Sixth and B (now Independence Ave) Streets NW, where the West Wing of the National Gallery stands today.

One-hundred-thirty years ago on January 11, 1880 the Western Express pulled into the Baltimore and Potomac Station in Washington, DC. The train arrived right on time at 8:55 am on Sunday morning.  Expecting angry crowds like those that had attacked the Utes in other cities, a detail of metropolitan police guarded the station. No crowds appeared.

Henry Andrews of the Indian Bureau met the delegation and escorted them to the Tremont House Hotel at Second and Indiana Streets. Andrews moved into the hotel to supervise every detail of the Utes’ stay. Likewise, Officer Farrar of the Metropolitan Police took a room at the hotel to protect the Utes from harm.

News of the arrival of the Colorado Ute delegation appeared the next day on the front page of the Washington Post:

Chipeta and Ouray appeared benevolent…while in the others there was a shodow of fierceness and vindictiveness. [Chipeta] is a large squatty woman, about forty-five years old wth broad flat features, a large round head and long black hair parted in the middle and thrown carelessly at either side, almost concealing her features. Her form was enveloped in the folds of a large black and gray woolen shawl concealing her attires, the only part of which visible was a pair of handsomely worked buckskin leggings. Artic rubbers covered her feet, which were encased in buckskin moccasins.

Ouray, who is fifty years old, is in appearance very like his squaw, except that his hair was plaited and rested on his shoulders. He had a dark blue blanket thrown around him concealing a white calico shirt with red figures, and a dark cloth vest, and wore overshoes and decorated blue flannel leggings. His head was covered with a large broad-brim…slouch hat. He carried a bundle of wrappings trapped together.

Leaving Colorado

High in the Rocky Mountains the temperature hovered near zero in the early hours of December 29, 1879. Before dawn, a delegation of twelve Ute Indians gathered on horseback at Los Pinos Agency to begin the long journey to Washington, D.C. Ouray and Chipeta led the delegation which included Uncompahgre Utes–Wass, Golata, Jocknick, Sieblo and Augustine–and White River Utes–Nickaagut (Jack), Sowawick, Toppaganta, Alhandra, and Unca Sam. Los Pinos Agency farmer William H. Berry served as interpreter. The group rode out before dawn escorted by General Hatch, Lieutenant Taylor, and ten soldiers.
           The 140 mile trip from Los Pinos to Saguache, Colorado took six days due to heavy snow on Cochetopa Pass. Joined by General Charles Adams and Otto Mears, the group spent the night at the Perry House Hotel in Alamosa. The soldiers fended off an angry mob that gathered outside the hotel, threatening to hang the Utes for the murders of white employees at the Meeker Agency four months earlier. The next morning the Ute delegation left town on the 6:20 am Denver & Rio Grande train.
          The delegation arrived at the South Pueblo station at 1:45 pm. Before they boarded another train to Chicago, General Adams led the group into the station to eat lunch. A crowd of angry local citizens gathered outside. They shook their fists and shouted “Hang the red devils.” The soldiers held back the crowd while Adams, Mears and Berry hurried the Utes to the eastbound train. People in the crowd threw rocks and lumps of coal at the Utes and one man hit Sowawick on the head with a club. When the Utes were safely aboard the train, the soldiers and railroad workers convinced the citizens to go home.
          Displays of hatred for the Utes did not end when they left Colorado. People in prairie towns gathered along the tracks to shake their fists and shout as the Utes passed by. Another mob waited at the Rock Island depot in Chicago. The Utes and their travelling companions worried about what waited for them in the nation’s capitol.

Chipeta’s Legend

Stories still circulate that Chipeta rescued the hostages after the 1879 Meeker Massacre. In these tales, she jumped on her horse, rode through the night, and demanded that the Northern Utes release the captive women and children. Part of this legend comes from a poem titled “Chipeta.” The author, Eugene Field, read it at the 1882 Colorado Press Convention. The key verse about the Meeker captives reads:
          She rode where old Ouray dare not ride,
          A path through the winderness rough and wild;
          She road to plead for woman and child;
          She road in the valleys, dark and chill.
         
          Chipeta did play a vital role in the hostages’ release but she did her work “behind the scenes.” A Northern Ute runner brought the news. Chipeta sent another runner to bring Ouray home from hunting. She assembled the Uncompahgre chiefs ready for a council as soon as Ouray returned. Later, she talked Ouray out of going to war.
          The Northern Utes asked the other Ute bands to join them. They proposed an all-out war against the white miners and settlers who had invaded traditional Ute territory. Ouray was ill with Bright’s Disease. He knew his body was failing. Dying as a warrior in battle, rather than as a sick man confined to bed, appealed to him. Chipeta talked all night to convince him that war with the citizens of Colorado would doom the Ute people. In the end he ordered the talk of war to cease.

Lincoln Bicentennial

This year the nation celebrates the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Did you know Colorado’s Ute Chief Ouray met Lincoln in person?

          In the spring of 1863, Ouray and a group of Ute chiefs or headmen traveled to Washington City with their Indian Agent, Lafayette Head. They wanted a treaty that would define Ute land and protect it from the gold seekers and settlers who began invading Ute land in large numbers in 1859.
          During that trip the delegation met President Lincoln at the White House. Ouray was identified as the leader of the group and Lincoln presented him a silver-tipped cane, his typical gift to Indian chiefs. Ouray insisted that all the chiefs of the various Ute bands must be involved in a treaty decision. Lincoln agreed to send government representatives to Colorado Territory the following October for a great treaty conference.

Chipeta is a WILLA Finalist!

Chipeta: Ute Peacemaker  was named the Finalist in the WILLA Literary Awards competition for the Children’s/Young Adult Fiction and Nonfiction category. The announcement was made late yesterday by Women Writing the West.

Rush To The Rockies

 This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Colorado Gold Rush. Thousands of men, and a few women, came west in wagons, on horseback, and on foot expecting to find gold lying about like fallen leaves waiting to be collected. Some gold seekers were daunted by the hard work of panning or digging for gold and returned home. Of those who remained, a few made fortunes. Others started businesses to supply the communities that built up around the mining areas.  Within two years Colorado Territory was established and settlement continued to grow. 

          If the gold rush had not occurred, we probably would not know Chipeta’s name today. Without the conflicts resulting from this invasion of Ute territory, Ouray might have become a chief, but one known only among the Ute people.  Chipeta would have lived her life as a traditional Ute wife and died in the mountainous land her people had called home for many generations. I think she would have preferred it that way.