125th history rich: Ouray, Chipeta had leading roles

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a 17-part series from Marilyn Cox highlighting 125 years of Montrose County history.

For hundreds of years, this valley was the home of the nomadic Ute Indians. In 1860, Ouray became the chief of the Confederated Bands of Utes and was later named Chief of the Uncompahgre and Tabeguache Utes.

Ouray was born in New Mexico in 1833 and came to Colorado when he was 18 years old. Chipeta, a Tabeguache Ute, was born June 10, 1843 near the present Conejos, Colo. She was a young girl of 16 when she married Ouray, who was several years her senior. Ouray and Chipeta were respected, peaceful leaders, willing to negotiate to keep peace with the invading white settlers.

In the summer of 1875, the Los Pinos Indian Agency was moved from its original location on Cochetopa Pass in the Gunnison Country to be re-established 15 miles south of what is now Montrose, near the present town site of Colona. The first cattle were brought in to this region to feed the Indians who were allotted rations from the Agency.

Gold had been discovered in the San Juan Mountains, bringing prospectors over the Continental Divide in search of wealth and adventure. Men such as Otto Mears, who went down in history as the “Pathfinder of the San Juans,” were eager to build railroads and roads into the area in order to service the rich mining areas of nearby Ouray, Telluride and Silverton.

Although the Uncompahgre Utes were peaceful, trouble erupted at the  White River Agency not too many miles away, causing panic among the  whites who were encroaching on the Indian lands in this area.

In 1879, Fort Crawford, a government army post, was established just eight miles south of what is now the town of Montrose, halfway between the Agency and Ouray’s home, which was located where the Ute Indian Museum stands today.

Ouray was well-known and respected for his diplomacy. When he visited Washington, D. C. in 1880, President Hayes referred to him as “a most intellectual man.”

Chipeta traveled with her husband to Washington, D.C. and was photographed on more than one occasion, an unusual thing for an Indian woman of those times. Although Ute women were not considered to have any voice in tribal matters, Chipeta herself testified at some of the hearings.

Chief Ouray died on August 24, 1880, leaving his business unfinished.

When treaty negotiations stalled in 1880, Otto Mears became ruthless in his quest to remove the Indians. He had a great knowledge of the Ute and Spanish languages, so he furthered his goal by strolling out among the braves and bribing their mark or signature for two dollars each.

By September of 1881, the Indians had lost their battle and were removed from their beloved Uncompahgre Valley to the desert of Eastern Utah. The wheels of the white men’s wagons literally obliterated the tracks left by the moccasins of the receding Utes.

Chipeta died on August 17, 1924, of chronic gastritis and was buried in a shallow grave on the Utah reservation. Her body was later removed to Montrose where the local chapter of the D.A.R. purchased land from Ouray’s original homestead and erected a tomb for “Queen” Chipeta. Hundreds of locals attended her services and her pallbearers were some of the town’s leading citizens.

 Her brother, John McCook accompanied her body to Montrose and at his death was laid to rest beside her.