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 ... |