half ready to appear
with Meeker, now that he's here;
and behind them stands the dark
shape of a mountain barely
discernible, a scrap
of smoky red light in it
from a fi re; and voices carry
through the pre-dawn air -- the scene,
the White River high country,
is coming back, with all those
who lived in it at that time,
when another voice begins,
a calm dry offi
empties of life, and Meeker,
it is clear, is listening
though still looking at his corpse --
of any moment pertaining to themselves but what they understand; the
fact that the commissioner had recommended that Utes be sent to In-
dian territory was all understood by the wisest Indians, and they did not
want to go there, they wanted to remain at home, in Colorado; all these
causes, the failure to give them their supplies, their starving conditions
away back, Mr. Meeker's unfortunate appointment and administration --
had been said they should come; the Utes met the soldiers out there with
this fi erce fi ght; one of the Indians who was in the fi ght starts for the
agency and carries the news there of this bloody fi ght, and then follows in
this wild excitement the massacre. This is about the story as I ...