Montrose - Daily Press

Jenny Kishbaugh

MONTROSE - The Ute Indian Museum will present the third annual Chipeta Day on Saturday.

There will be free admission to the museum, plus Ute Dancers, Northern Cheyenne Charlie Rising Sun playing traditional and contemporary Native American music on the flute, children's activities and an outdoor concert. The event starts at 5:30 p.m.

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"The first Chipeta Day allowed three Ute tribes to reunite and pay tribute to Chipeta," Ute Indian Museum Director CJ Brafford said.

Chipeta was the wife of Uncompahgre Ute Chief Ouray. Chief Ouray is best remembered for his patience and unwavering friendship with the white settlers and his leadership through trying times.

"Chipeta's greatest strength was her gentleness," Brafford said. "Chief Ouray was a man of great wisdom and foresight. He was a man of peace between two different worlds that didn't understand each other. The best he saw was to find a balance between the two."

Montana resident Lyle Johnson will show the finished smaller bronze sculpture of Ouray and Chipeta during Chipeta Day. This sculpture is a smaller version of the larger-than-life sculpture the museum will eventually have on display.

Roland McCook, the great-great-grandson of Chief Ouray and Chipeta, will give a Native American point of view on the Meeker incident that occurred in 1879, forcing the removal of the Ute Indians from the Colorado area by the government. The town of Meeker is named after a government agent named Nathan Meeker.

"The Meeker incident was what the Colorado people used as the final straw to have the Utes exiled from this area," Brafford said. "It started with a government agent plowing some land that the Utes valued greatly, and that started flares. There were killings on both sides, and this caused the incident to rise to the top with politics. The Uncompahgre Utes were lumped together with the White River Utes (Meeker area) and were exiled to Utah."

The first Chipeta Day had 1,000 visitors, Brafford said.

"We really would love to see the community come on out and enjoy the sunset and music together," she said. "The community is part of this. There's history here. We really want to encourage cultural awareness in this community."

Jenny Kishbaugh will be a senior at Montrose High School this fall.

Comments

marqthompson wrote on Feb 1, 2010 3:21 AM:

" This is a wonderful article. The things given are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.
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marqthompson
Noosa real estate "




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Kaitlyn Heichel wrote on Nov 3, 2009 2:01 PM:

" My dad was Robert Heichel and i just wanted to thank again everyone that helped looked for him. It was over 3 years ago that he died, but i will never forget him. I think about him still every single day and life without him is so hard. Thank you everyone who spent time looking for him. I wish this could have been a happy ending but life isn't fair. My dad died when i was 12 and i am now almost 16. Thank you again for everything you guys have done. Your amazing. "




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Sarah Bond wrote on Jul 13, 2009 5:31 PM:

" It really makes me sick that people lie about certain events to make themselves look better than they really are... Just to set the record straight, one of those stories is extremely false. Email me if you want the real story from the person who was actually there. "




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