Ute Indians along Civil War Communication Lines BY S . L Y M A N
TYLER
is K N O W N T H A T Ute Indians occupied the mountain areas of what is now Colorado, as well as northern New Mexico, and hunted buffalo on the plains further east, one has to be reminded periodically that they are not just Utah Indians. As late as the 1850s the Colorado Utes continued to be relatively free to move throughout their mountain domain and on into western Colorado and eastern Utah. T h e Rocky Mountains h a d formed a barrier to the westward flowing stream of immigrants who tended to follow the trail further north through South Pass or further south to Santa Fe and beyond. T h e discovery of gold in the Pikes Peak region in 1858 and the rush to the Rockies in 1859 had changed this pattern, and soon miners were scaring away the game in San Luis Valley, and the Tabeguache Utes who had been assigned to the Conejos agency were going hungry. Food that had been sent to them was reported to have arrived spoiled. Eight hundred acres had been placed under cultivation by 1862, but only small patches of corn and vegetables were grown. Tabeguache chiefs visited Fort Garland near their agency to seek relief, and they were given a small amount of lead and powder for hunting. T h e inadequacy of the food supply eventually led to trouble a considerable distance away along the route of the Overland Stage Company north of the Colorado border, for a number of the Utes went to Fort Halleck, Wyoming, to beg for food. T h e spread of settlements in Utah, with the resulting disappearance of game animals and lack of food there, had brought on the Black H a w k War. T h e starving Utes were raiding settlements in search of food. O n J T V L T H O U G H IT
Dr. Tyler is professor of history and director of the American West Center, University of Utah.
