Reviewed by Kathryn Retzler

IT'S AN APPALLING STORY. Historian (and former Ouray County rancher), Peter Decker, tells the shameful story of a people forced from their homeland by  the 19th Century tide of inevitable pioneer settlement, unforgivable racism and greed in the name of God and Manifest Destiny. 

He explains what really happened at Mill Creek in 1879. 

Meeker’s relentless mission to turn Indian hunters into farmers was doomed to fail. When he plowed up their beloved race track—horses were the Ute’s personal wealth and recreation—and invited the military to illegally enter restricted, supposedly Ute-owned reservation land, the usually peaceful Indians revolted, killing Meeker and  the hapless Major Thornbourgh, who was equally ignorant of Indian customs and culture. As a result, the infamous “Meeker Massacre” “allowed” Colorado politicians and land-hungry pioneers to follow then Governor Pitkin’s decree, “The Utes Must Go!” 

The end was inevitable. “The only good Indian is a dead Indian,” proclaimed the greedy Governor, aspiring politicians, Denver newspapers and real estate moguls. “It’s either move the Red Devils out of Colorado or exterminate them!” they insisted (fervently favoring the later solution). Thus, fueled by an irresponsible press and fodder for unemployed ruffians and misguided miners and ranchers looking for a fight, the Utes and their supposed protectors were given no choice. They had to go. It took just three decades to remove the Utes from their homeland of seven centuries or more.

“The ultimate betrayal of the Utes occurred in a much wider context,” says Decker. “Before the Mexican War in 1848, the Utes lived under the
jurisdiction of Spain and later Mexico. The Indians had forged a working arrangement where they were semi-citizens—they could own property,
intermarry, testify in court and join the church. After the United States [won the war], the Utes suddenly found that the United States considered them savages who must be removed and confined to reservations.... There was never a comprehensive public debate at that critical time on how to live alongside Indians and their culture, or how and why they lived with the land,” says Decker. “So now, their hunting grounds are ski resorts and gated communities.”

Softcover, 256 pages. From Fulcram Publishing. Available at local bookstores.