Rescued Captives

The women and children taken captive during the September 29, 1879 Meeker Massacre were held in a remote moutain camp.
The 5th Cavalry under Colonel Wesley Merritt arrived at the White River Agency on October 11th. They buried the bodies of Meeker and his employees. Reinforcements arrived bringing the total number of soldiers to 1,000. On October 14th, just as Merritt was ready to set out to find the camp and rescue the hostages, he received orders to halt.
          Secretary of Interior Carl Schurz had arrived in Denver. Two days earlier Chief Ouray and Southern Ute Agent William M. Stanley had assured Schurz that the White River Utes “…will fight no more unless forced to do so.”  Schurz wanted a peaceful resolution. He appointed Charles Adams to negotiate for release of the hostages.  Adams was a former Ute Indian Agent generally trusted by the Utes.  
           Adams arrived at Ouray and Chipeta’s home on October 21, 1879. Ouray sent a message to the Northern Utes that Adams was coming and assigned his most trusted men to lead Adams to the camp. Adams quickly gained release of the captives. The three women and two children arrived at Ouray and Chipeta’s home on October 29th.   
          Adams continued to negotiate with the Utes to surrender the men responsible for the murders at White River Agency.  Finally on November 10th the Utes agreed.
          The Army remained in western Colorado to keep the peace for the next two years.

Perspective

As cold weather chills my bones and my stomach churns over finances, this tidbit from my research files reminds me that I have a comfortable existence. The 1874 payroll record for government employees at the Los Pinos Indian Agency, Colorado, reports total pay for the period January through March. The pay was probably good for the times since these employees received housing (log buildings with no running water, indoor plumbing, or central heat) and some food provided by the agency. The living and working conditions, however, were challenging. The agency for the Ute Indians was located in a cold and remote spot near the top of Cochetopa Pass on the Continental Divide. The name comes from a Ute word meaning “pass of the buffalo.” The men who managed the herds that supplied meat for agency employees lived solitary lives in crude quarters near their grazing animals. (Source: National Archives and Records Administration #8878, Expense Reports, 1874)

           

$250.00           MT [Margaret] Adams, Teacher

$375.00           Charles Adams, Agent

$189.50            Alonzo Hartman, Carpenter

$189.50            Geo. Hardman, Blacksmith

$250.00           Steven Dole, Blacksmith

$150.00           James Downer, Laborer

$   53.33           Charles Eberley, Cook

$150.00           James Kelley, Herder @ Gunnison

$150.00           H.F. Lautter, Herder @ Los Pinos

$150.00           Sidney Jocknick, Herder @ Gunnison

$225.00           Herman Leuders, Chief Herder