The Utes Come to Powder River Country

A column on local history, researched and written by Shane Dunning. Shane may be reached at [email protected].

The history of this area and its native inhabitants has, for the past hundred and fifty years, primarily been the story of the Crow, the Sioux, and the Cheyenne. This is naturally the result of those tribes' residence in the Powder River valley as white settlement intruded. Casual students of local history can perhaps be forgiven for being unaware of the tragic story of the Northern Utes when they came to this country in 1906.

The White River Band of Utes in 1905 resided in the Uintah Reservation in Northeastern Utah. They were one of several bands of Utes who once ranged throughout the middle Rocky Mountain region.

The 1870's had been a difficult decade for the White River Utes. Their initial reservation and hunting ground in Western Colorado were opened to white settlement. State and Federal agencies were pressured to force the Utes into smaller and more desolate areas in Utah. A religious zealot was made agent-in-charge of the Uintah Reservation and he quickly antagonized the White River Utes to the point of anticipated violence. The agent, Nathan Meeker, called for Federal Troops to restore order despite attempts by more peaceable Ute leaders to calm the situation. As the troops descended on the reservation, a violent faction of the Utes murdered Meeker, killed several of his white workers, and kidnapped Meeker's wife along with two other women. After order was restored, the guilty parties were executed, and the Utes settled into their considerably smaller, desolate reservation in Utah.

In 1902, however, powerful mining interests arranged for the Ute reservation to be opened ONCE AGAIN to white settlement. Congress passed an act releasing the Uintah Reservation to white settlement. After a USGS survey (which took years to complete) an allotment of land in severality was distributed to the Utes without a new treaty.The remaining land was opened to settlers. Ute Sub-Chiefs Appah and Red Hat resisted this effort to little effect. By 1905 they were completely disillusioned, and they conceived of a great meeting of several Native American tribes to bring attention to their grievances and find better lands to hunt. Apparently, some Sioux visitors years before had impressed them with stories of grand hunting grounds near the Black Hills. Appah decided to abandon their desolate reservation in favor of seeking an alliance with the Sioux. To that end, over 300 Utes began a slow sojourn through the State of Wyoming on their way to South Dakota.

They made their journey in small bands, traveling by horse and travois. They were heavily armed and sullen, hunting game along the way according to their traditions. The lands they traveled over were much better than the reservation lands they had left, and by late August 1906, most of the Utes had gathered near Douglas, Wyoming. As can be imagined, this caused considerable angst among the local ranchers. Wyoming's Governor, B.B. Brooks, demanded action from the Indian Bureau. The Indian Agent in charge of the Utes unsuccessfully tried to convince them to return. With regard to Governor Brooks demand for action, the Indian Commissioner refused to do anything more substantial than persuasion, claiming the Indians were a case "for the local authorities rather than this department."

This reluctance was due to the Indian Affairs' understanding that, by allotting land to Utes and doing so without using a treaty, Congress may very well have conferred US Citizenship on them (Native Americans weren't granted US citizenship until 1924). Unfortunately for the both the Federal and Wyoming Governments, this legal distinction was lost on the Utes, who rejected the very idea of the allotment plan as a violation of previous agreements with an untrustworthy party. Let the white man have the worthless land in Utah, they felt. They had a right to hunt game and graze their herds. Governor Brooks feared violence was imminent and began clamoring for Federal Troops to force the Utes back. Special Indian Agent James McLaughlin was dispatched to renew the negotiations. He caught up with the Utes near Newcastle, Wyoming as breathless reports of violence filled newspapers across the United States. Almost all these reports turned about to be false, but they still had the practical effect of increasing local tensions almost to the breaking point.

McLaughlin recalled his council with Red Cap, Appah and Soccioff in his book My Friend The Indian:

Each one closed with the declaration that he would die rather than return to Utah, and Soccioff was independent and defiant to the point of more than hinting at his willingness to make trouble. The council closed without any advantage to the government...

With McLaughlin's failure, President Theodore Roosevelt approved the use of military forces. The US Army converged on the Utes from three directions. Two troops of US Cavalry from Fort Robinson in Nebraska were transported to Wyoming via rail and made initial contact with the Utes along the Powder River fifty miles north of Gillette. The commander wisely determined he did not have enough troops to make the Indians stop, so he waited for reinforcements. Fearing that the Utes may attempt to join with the Cheyennes (who had threatened their own outbreak less than ten years before), another two units of cavalry were dispatched from Ft. Keogh in Miles City and flanked the Utes from the North and West. A final group of troops were dispatched from Ft. Meade in South Dakota, should the Utes attempt to make for the Black Hills. Since negotiation had failed, the Army intended to impress the potential hostiles with overwhelming numbers.

Locally, this was the state of things in early November 1906, when the Utes crossed the Montana border, following the Powder River. In the Powder River History book, Echoing Footsteps, my great-grandmother Beatrice Tucker Dunning reported that the troops from Ft. Robinson included African American Buffalo Soldiers. As she recalled, this caused considerable excitement.

The Cavalry from Fort Keogh came to Ashland to protect the white people and the Cavalry from Fort Robinson came to meet the Utes. This was a colored unit and many school children saw Negroes for the first time.

Local wolfer Charlie Flory reported meeting the Ft. Keogh cavalry on the Tongue River with Captain Joe T. Brown of the Three Circle Ranch and recalled Captain Brown treated the officers to a turkey dinner at his ranch.

George Linville reported being hired as a scout by the Ft. Keogh Cavalry. Violet Traub Bull and Francis Traub recalled the Utes

went into camp on the 3 Bar Creek near the head of Bay Horse Creek. Some of these Indians came to the ranch (of George Traub) giving Mother quite a scare. They did not bother any of the settlers or their stock but depleted the deer and antelope considerable. A company of Cavalry from Fort Robinson, Nebraska, came in and the Indians (after much pow-pow) agreed to be moved a reservation in South Dakota.

The Utes marched under escort to Fort Meade and later to the Cheyenne River Agency temporarily while the government agreed for the Ute leadership to meet with President Roosevelt in Washington.

This ended the "last outbreak" of the reservation period. Unfortunately for the Utes, the Sioux did not welcome them, as they were struggling mightily themselves on their own reservations. The Utes were settled in the Thunder Basin area of the Cheyenne River reservation for two years before they agreed to go back to Utah. For all the excitement their odyssey had caused, the Utes had violated no laws except for gaming laws (and perhaps some stock depredation), and no Indian or white casualties had occurred. Now, this sad aspect of local history is all but forgotten, with no monuments and few history books to mark its passing.