419
acknowledgments and a note
The poem owes a great debt to the two most recent studies of the White
River uprising which I have consulted -- the histories by Marshall Sprague
(Massacre: The Tragedy at White River, Little, Brown and Co., 1957) and
by Robert Emmitt (The Last War Trail, University of Oklahoma Press,
1954) -- for many details and suggestions for understanding the events, as
well as for the events themselves.
My acknowledgement of, and tribute to, my main source for the ma-
terial in Book Two appears in the form of a lyric that begins on page 375.
Two passages in Book Three, and the monologues in Book Four, are
adapted from passages in certain of the often quite wonderful recollec-
tions and memoirs printed over the years in The Colorado Magazine, offi
-
cial publication of the State Historical Society of Colorado. Specifi cally:
The rancher who speaks in `Piah' in Book Three is A.K. Clarke; his
memoir, "The Utes Visit My Ranch on the Plains," is in The Colorado
Magazine, August 1928, 144;
Wolf Londoner's Colorow story in Book Three is adapted from his
"Colorow Dines Out," The Colorado Magazine, May 1931, 9394;
In Book Four, the fi rst monologue is adapted from "Early Days at
Paonia," by Ezra G. Wade, The Colorado Magazine, March 1927, 66;
the second, from "Childhood Memories of Kittie Hall Fairfi eld," as
told to Margaret Isaac, The Colorado Magazine, October 1959, 293;
the third, from "Pioneering on the St. Vrain," by Zerelda Carter
Gilmore, The Colorado Magazine, July 1961, 214;
the fourth, from E.P. Wilbur's "Reminiscences of the Meeker Coun-
try," The Colorado Magazine, September 1946, 200;
the fi fth, from "Pioneer Life," by Mrs. Daniel Witter, The Colorado
Magazine, August 1928, 144;
the sixth, from "Experiences in the Bear River Country in the Sev-
enties," by Joseph S. Collum, The Colorado Magazine, July 1934, 153;
the seventh, from "We Move to Egeria Park," by Mary Adella King
Wilson, from recollections which Mrs. Wilson recorded on tape and
which were transcribed by her daughter, Mrs. Hazel W. Hanson; this
article appeared in The Colorado Magazine, April 1963, 121;