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57
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.
There being Whites
by the hundreds of thousands out here
and Utes
by the hundreds, to place the obvious
fi rst, each time
he thinks, is his solitary distinction, and
crushing a Ute,
compromising with a White
impartially,
in honor of that fi rst thought,
telling lies
to White commissioners, without hesitation