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The museum lady: `Oh,
we reenact the massacre
every Fourth of July,'
with cheerful pride. `Well, you see'
an old man told me, `he lived
when Longfellow and them fellows
was writing, they were idealists,
he tried to turn these Indians
into farmers in a year,
about, and here it's taken
years, and they still aren't ...' his voice
trailing off . And the lady:
`Mr. Meeker's grand-nephew
visited here (he's living
in Florida) and he said
Mr. Meeker's brothers thought
he might come to a bad end.
He was stubborn. Thought he knew
all the questions and all
the answers. So he said they
wasn't surprised when he was
murdered by the Indians.'
ouray
A clear mind
and a liking for action.
When the brother of his wife Chipeta
tried to kill Ouray with a knife, for giving up
Ute land in a treaty,
Ouray broke the man's wrist and threw him in a ditch.