Colorow was a Ute chief of the Ute Mountain Utes, skilled horseman, and warrior. He was involved in treaty negotiations with the U.S. government. In 1879, he fought during the Meeker Massacre. Eight years later, his family members were attacked during Colorow's War. [1] He was placed in the Jefferson County Hall of Fame in recognition of for the contributions that "he made to our county and, indeed, our state and nation." [2]
Colorow was born a Comanche about 1810. Five years later there was a battle in Northern New Mexico which resulted in him being kidnapped by the Muache band of Utes. He received the nickname "Red" or "Colorado" for his particularly red skin, as compared to the Utes. [1] His name is spelled with a 'w' at the end, which is a reflection of english language speakers who would have heard the Spanish pronunciation of his name, "Colorao", which is a regional accent in Colorado and New Mexico Spanish where the 'd' in an 'ado' ending word is often softened or dropped, thus, Colorado would be spoken as Colorao, which to a non-Spanish speaker would sound like Colorow. [3]
Colorow was a skilled horseman and warrior. He traveled across the trails of Colorado, having known many chiefs of other tribes, fur trappers, military men, and the Spanish. [1] He visited Colorado towns. [4] He engaged in battles with the Arapaho, one near Aspen where he was called a hero and another in 1839 against the Arapaho and Cheyenne in the future valley of Golden, Colorado that was so severe that the Utes and plains tribes carefully avoided the valley, making it effectively a Demilitarized zone. [5] In the 1840s he thought to surprise Black Kettle and his band he found camped at a spring where the Golden Mill stands today (1012 Ford Street) in the valley, but was thwarted when Black Kettle made an overnight tactical withdrawal to the top of North Table Mountain to be found the next morning upon the rim with his men shaking their blankets at Colorow in defiance. [6] In 1856, a band of Arapaho and Cheyenne stole about 40 Ute horses. With Nevava and Ouray, Colorow fought for the stolen horses and although outnumbered eight-to-one were able to retrieve them and killed four of the enemy. [1]
Colorow traveled with the band and more than 1,000 horses and goats to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains near present-day Denver. A camp was first established on Lookout Mountain until fresh pastures were required. They then moved to Rooney Valley, east of Dinosaur Ridge near Morrison. They stayed near mineral springs, called "Iron Spring". Other Native American tribes—Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Companche—visited the springs, but the visits were always peaceful there. Colorow held tribal councils at "Inspirational Tree" or "Council Tree" at the foot of Dinosaur Ridge. [1] [7] He used a cave near Morrison for temporary shelter, which was named for him, Colorow's Cave. [4] The town of Mount Vernon was built in the area in 1860, and Rooney Ranch that was built in their grazing area. [1] The Ute and Colorow had friendly relations with the Rooney family as they kept their word to them and the other tribes on letting them continue to use Iron Spring, and at Mt. Vernon when friend and mainstay resident William Matthews brought his new wife Frances from far away England on April 20, 1871 the band turned out to see her in what remains a largest recorded wedding reception in Jefferson County history, seen en route through Golden dressed in "rich attire." [8] Colorow and the Ute also had friendly and productive relations with Golden, Colorado, visiting the town seasonally around May and late summer, [9] trading with its merchants, [10] having wrestling and gambling contests with the townspeople including Golden Globe editor Edgar Watson Howe, [11] with Colorow himself dining multiple times with Jefferson County Sheriff W.L. Smith and wife Sophrona, [12] and with family socially visiting with Golden Transcript editor George West. [13] Although West faced Colorow in hostilities later in 1887 as Adjutant General of the Colorado National Guard, West, late in life, told the public he considered Colorow his "more or less esteemed and somewhat obese friend." [14] Lookout Mountain and Indian Gulch at Golden were named because of Colorow, the mountain being a place where he camped, and Indian Gulch was where Colorow came to trade ponies with the townspeople. [15] Colorow also spent part of each summer with his band in the Roaring Fork Valley between Aspen and Gunnison, Colorado. [4]
He was a sub-chief by 1868 and was considered for the chief of the Northern Ute. He was involved in treaty negotiations with the United States government and met with President Ulysses S. Grant at a reception in Denver in 1873. He identified himself as a Yampa and Grand River Ute when he signed the 1878 treaty. [1] During the Meeker Massacre (1879), he first tried to negotiate for peace [1] and ultimately was said to have stabbed Nathan Meeker in the mouth to stop his lies. [4] The conflict led to Utes being put on reservations. Colorow left for the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in August 1881, and under a treaty he continued to hunt in western Colorado and did not spend much time on the reservation. [1]
In 1887, some minor incidents occurred near Meeker, Colorado, which caused a Rio Blanco County sheriff to establish a posse and hunt down Utes. He burned down Chipeta's camp and injured many of Colorow's family members, include sons, sons-in-law, and grandsons. Utes had begun to return to Utah when a state militia of about 1,000 men began shooting at them. They were rescued by Buffalo Soldiers from Fort Duchesne. The incident, which caused the loss of more than $30,000 (equivalent to $1,017,333in 2023) in property, was called Colorow's War. [1]
He married three women, who may all have been sisters. His first wife, Recha, gave birth to three of his children Uncompahgre Colorow, Patchoorowits "Gus", and a girl named Topollywack. Recha died when riding a horse; she fell off the horse and her foot was caught in the stirrup and she was dragged to her death. He had six other children with sisters Poopa and Siha by 1857. [1]
He died on the Ouray Reservation on December 11, 1888, and was buried three days later. [1]
The Arapaho are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota.
The Cheyenne are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enrolled in the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma, and the Northern Cheyenne, who are enrolled in the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana.
West Pleasant View is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population of the West Pleasant View CDP was 4,327 at the United States Census 2020. The Pleasant View Metropolitan District provides services. The Golden post office serves the area.
Ouray was a Native American chief of the Tabeguache (Uncompahgre) band of the Ute tribe, then located in western Colorado. Because of his leadership ability, Ouray was acknowledged by the United States government as a chief of the Ute and he traveled to Washington, D.C. to negotiate for the welfare of the Utes. Raised in the culturally diverse town of Taos, Ouray learned to speak many languages that helped him in the negotiations, which were complicated by the manipulation of his grief over his five-year-old son, abducted during an attack by the Sioux. Ouray met with Presidents Lincoln, Grant, and Hayes and was called the "man of peace" because he sought to make treaties with settlers and the government.
Nathan Cook Meeker was a 19th-century American journalist, homesteader, entrepreneur, and Indian agent for the federal government. He is noted for his founding in 1870 of the Union Colony, a cooperative agricultural colony in present-day Greeley, Colorado.
Ute are the indigenous, or Native American people, of the Ute tribe and culture among the Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. They had lived in sovereignty in the regions of present-day Utah and Colorado.
The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe is one of three federally recognized tribes of the Ute Nation, and are mostly descendants of the historic Weeminuche Band who moved to the Southern Ute reservation in 1897. Their reservation is headquartered at Towaoc, Colorado on the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation in southwestern Colorado, northwestern New Mexico and small sections of Utah.
Meeker Massacre, or Meeker Incident, White River War, Ute War, or the Ute Campaign), took place on September 29, 1879 in Colorado. Members of a band of Ute Indians attacked the Indian agency on their reservation, killing the Indian agent Nathan Meeker and his 10 male employees and taking five women and children as hostages. Meeker had been attempting to convert the Utes to Christianity, to make them farmers, and to prevent them from following their nomadic culture. On the same day as the massacre, United States Army forces were en route to the Agency from Fort Steele in Wyoming due to threats against Meeker. The Utes attacked U.S. troops led by Major Thomas T. Thornburgh at Milk Creek, 18 mi (29 km) north of present day Meeker, Colorado. They killed the major and 13 troops. Relief troops were called in and the Utes dispersed.
South Table Mountain is a mesa on the eastern flank of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. Castle Rock, the 6,338-foot (1,932 m) summit of the mesa, is located on private property in Jefferson County, Colorado, 0.56 miles (0.9 km) directly east of downtown Golden.
North Table Mountain is a mesa on the eastern flank of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 6,555-foot (1,998 m) mesa summit is located in North Table Mountain Park, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) north by east of downtown Golden, Colorado, United States, in Jefferson County.
Chief Niwot or Left Hand(-ed) was a Southern Arapaho chief, diplomat, and interpreter who negotiated for peace between white settlers and the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush and Colorado War.
Sapiah, is also commonly known as Charles Buck and Buckskin Charley, was the leader of the Southern Ute tribe from about 1870 until his death in 1936. He led a group of Utes to rescue women and children from the White River Agency during the Meeker Massacre (1879) that resulted in the deaths of Nathan Meeker and his soldiers. The northern band of Utes were forced out of Colorado after the massacre.
White River Utes are a Native American band, made of two earlier bands, the Yampa from the Yampa River Valley and the Parianuche Utes who lived along the Grand Valley in Colorado and Utah.
Chipeta or White Singing Bird was a Native American leader, and the second wife of Chief Ouray of the Uncompahgre Ute tribe. Born a Kiowa Apache, she was raised by the Utes in what is now Conejos, Colorado. An advisor and confidant of her husband, Chipeta continued as a leader of her people after his death in 1880.
Bear Creek is a tributary of the South Platte River in central Colorado in the United States. It begins as a small creek up in the Mount Blue Sky Wilderness in Summit Lake and makes its way through Evergreen, CO, Kittredge, CO, Idledale, CO and Morrison, CO before entering Bear Creek Lake Park, managed by the City of Lakewood, Colorado.
Colorow Point Park is a park located on Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 15, 1990. It is named for Colorow, a Ute chief, who used to camp on Lookout Mountain during the summers and held tribal councils at Inspiration Tree at the slope of Dinosaur Ridge. Although it is the smallest park in the Denver Mountain Parks system, at .37 acres, it is notable for its outlook at 7,500 feet in elevation. It provides views of the main peaks of the Rocky Mountain National Park and the Continental Divide, as well as the plains and Clear Creek.
Shawsheen (Shoshine) otherwise known as She-towitch, or Susan, was a Native American woman who was a part of the Tabeguache (Uncompahgre) Ute tribe and sister to Chief Ouray. She is known for her capture by the Cheyenne and Arapaho in 1860 or 1861, her protection and care for Arvilla and Josephine Meeker during their captivity, as well as her role within the politics of her tribe as a female leader alongside her sister-in-law, Chipeta.
Friday (Arapaho: Teenokuhu or Warshinun, also known as Friday Fitzpatrick, was an Arapaho leader and interpreter in the mid to late 1800s. When he was around the age of eight, he was separated from his band and was taken in by a white trapper. During the next seven years, he was schooled in St. Louis, Missouri and went on trapping expeditions with his informally adopted father, Thomas Fitzpatrick. After he was recognized by his mother during an encounter with the Arapaho, he returned to the tribe.
Nicaagat, also known as Chief, Captain and Ute Jack and Green Leaf. A Ute warrior and subchief, he led a Ute war party against the United States Army when it crossed Milk Creek onto the Ute reservation, which triggered the Battle of Milk Creek. Prior to the conflict, he had traveled to meet up with Major Thomas Tipton Thornburgh to learn of his intentions and warn him that crossing the Milk Creek onto the White River Ute reservation would be seen as an invasion and an act of war. When the army entered the reservation, a shooter from Nicaagat's band shot and killed Thornburgh.
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