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CHIPETA, QUEEN OF T H E UTES, A N D HER EQUALLY ILLUSTRIOUS HUSBAND, NOTED CHIEF OURAY By Albert B. Reagan, in charge of the Ouray Indian Day School at Ouray, Utah, and Wallace Stark, agricultural agent of the Indian service at Ouray, retired. This is the Indian woman of whom Gene Field penned these lines: "But give her a page in the history, too, Though she is rotting in the humble shroud, And write on the whitest of God's white clouds Chipeta's name in blue. It is of her and incidently of her equally illustrious husband, Chief Ouray, that these lines are written. She was born June 10, 1843, was of the Tabegauche band of the Ute tribe and spent her childhood days near the present Conejos, Colorado. She was a beautiful maiden. She became the wife of Ouray in 1859 and his fortunes with the Utes were hers until his death. Before proceeding further with the history of Chipeta a short sketch of Ouray's will not be out of place here. Ouray (said by Powell to be the Ute attempt to pronounce the name "Willie," given him by the white family to which he was attached as a boy; other authorities give the meaning "Arrow."), a chief of the Uncompahgre Ute, born at Taos, New Mexico, in 1833. He was engaged in a fierce struggle with the Sioux in his early manhood, and his only son was captured by the Kiowas, never to be restored. His relations with the United States government, so far as recorded, began with the treaty made by the Tabegauche band at Conejos, Colorado, October /, 1863, to which his name is signed "U-ray, or Arrow." He also signed the treaty of Washington, March 2, 1868, by the name " U - r e " ; though to the amendment, August 15, 1868, it is written "Ou-ray." He is noted chiefly for his unwavering friendship for the whites, with whom he always kept faith and whose interests he protected as far as possible, even on trying occasions. It was in all probability his firm stand and the restraint he im-
