Indian Issue

SUPERIOR HISTORICAL COMMISSION SUPERIOR HISTORIAN VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 JUNE, 2007 NATIVE AMERICANS: Dowdy Draw. Both these sites are only moccasins or beading pouches; men straight- a few miles from Superior, as is the ened arrowwood or strung bows or combed THE REGION’S FIRST Goodhue Farm site. Archeologist Peter and dressed their long hair. SETTLERS Gleichman believes that there were undoubtedly prehistoric camps along Prehistoric People and Coal Creek. Perhaps the cozy setting Southern Arapaho Predated adjoining Original Superior appealed to White Settlers them as well as to later white settlers. Later American Indian people who populated Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains were the Southern Arapaho, Southern Cheyenne, Kiowa and Comanche. The Arapaho and Cheyenne, too, were migrants to this Arapaho men in pose prior to a Sun Dance area; they had taken up residence in ceremony in Wyoming during the 1880’s. what is now Colorado only since the Perhaps Arapaho camps in the Boulder Valley looked like this one. Denver Public Library, Western early 1800’s. Their origins were in History Collection, X-32362 what is now Minnesota. As whites As hunters, the Arapaho followed moved west, indigenous people were game animals, especially buffalo, deer, displaced, and they, in turn, An Arapaho family poses for a and antelope. This put them into displaced other indigenous people who photographer in the 1880’s after being conflict with the Utes who, as a result, moved then even farther west in order moved to a reservation in Indian Territory became the traditional enemies of the (Oklahoma). Denver Public Library, Western to maintain their traditional lifestyle. Arapaho. Historically, the Utes, a History Collection, X-33850 Thus, the Southern Arapaho Shoshonian people, crossed the Rockies entered the Boulder Valley. They had from their Western Slope homes to The lure of gold brought whites in found it to be a good winter hunting hunt buffalo in the east. They disliked 1858 to the Boulder Valley and its ground in their earlier seasonal finding the Arapaho hunting what they tributaries in what was to become migration and also enjoyed the thought was their prey and needing to Colorado. But someone already called therapeutic use of natural hot spring compete with the Arapaho for the this region home and the differences waters, such as those at Eldorado game. between these two groups set the Springs. Being nomadic, the Arapaho table for a conflict of cultures. resided in a large area beginning just Evidence abounds that the first east of Boulder Canyon along Boulder Americans existed in the Boulder Creek ranging clear out to present day Valley for thousands of years before the Brush, Colorado, including the white settlers. An archaeological site at confluence of Cherry Creek and the the Goodhue Farm site where Rock South Platte River (present day Creek flows under Highway 287 has Denver). been determined as occupied 6,200 Boulder author Margaret Coel years ago. Many Folsom and Clovis painted this vision of Southern Arapaho spear points have been discovered in camp life: The Arapaho lady, Freckled Face, posed our area, along with countless stone “Dogs played around the doorways; for the photographer in all her finery in rings that outlined tepees and fire pits. ponies grazed in the open spaces; children 1898. Denver Public Library, Western History One prehistoric site exists near romped with the dogs and climbed on the Collection, F.A. Reinhart. X-32363 Marshall and there are tepee rings near ponies, women sat on the ground sewing “People seeing the beauty of the valley of 1851.White pilgrims were flocking this vision as pointing out the futility will want to stay, and their staying into this area in spite of the Treaty. of fighting the white onslaught. Second, Left Hand witnessed the Left Hand then moved his people will be the undoing of the beauty.” depletion of his people from a away from the Boulder Creek site. —The Curse of Chief Niwot population of many thousands to a few Another treaty in 1861 guaranteed the Although this quote attributed to Left Hand is marvelously prophetic, it is most likely legend hundred due to the onset of disease Arapaho and Cheyenne hunting rather than fact. and warfare, largely the result of the ground in eastern Colorado. In the white invasion. meantime, all Colorado Indians were The Arapaho were not just receiving blame for “depredations” or hunters and warriors. Their name is raids against white settlers along the traced to the word used by the Platte River. Territorial Governor Pawnee for them: Tirapihu, or trader. John Evans told them to move to the Their knack for trading resulted in eastern Colorado reservation for their both a name (Arapaho) and extensive own protection, which they did. contacts outside this area which At that point, November of 1864, contributed to an Arapaho ability with one of the greatest tragedies in all of languages and diplomacy. American History took place: the Sand The personification of these Creek Massacre. Colonel John hallmarks was an Arapaho who, even Chivington and the Colorado as a child in his cradleboard, was Volunteer Cavalry mercilessly observed to favor the use of his left attacked an encampment of Cheyenne hand when reaching for objects. Born Did Left Hand Die at Sand and Arapaho, killing 150 people, in the early 1820’s was the future chief Creek? mostly women, children and old men. Left Hand, also known by the Arapaho There is a bit of controversy over Left Ironically, many of the language version of his name, Niwot. Hand’s fate. Although Left Hand appears in Colorado Cavalry were from the Left Hand thrived in the photographs, recent scholarship indicates the Boulder area and trained at a fort near cosmopolitan environment of the pictures were mislabeled (as in the 1864 Valmont Southern Arapaho. Through the photo above) or of a second, younger Chiefs Black Kettle, White interaction of trade, he learned many Arapaho who took on the name Left Hand. Antelope, and Left Hand all did what other Indian languages and didn’t need The Left Hand who lived in Oklahoma and they were instructed to do in order to to rely upon sign language as died in the 1880’s was the younger man. prevent such an attack, but to no avail. others did. He also learned English Boulder County’s Niwot did not survive the White Antelope and Left Hand both and was quite adept at communicating massacre. Since he was never photographed, died alongside their brothers and with whites. artistic depictions of Niwot are the product sisters at Sand Creek in November of Left Hand was also physically of the artists’ imagination. 1864. In yet another twist, the impressive. The Arapaho tended to be survivors moved to a reservation in tall and slender and Left Hand fit that These developments were on his Oklahoma only to be attacked and characteristic. He was described by a mind when, in the fall of 1858, Left massacred in an equally deplorable contemporary as: Hand found a band of gold seekers in incident, this time at the hands of “. the finest looking Indian I ever the midst of one of his favorite places, Lt. Col. George Custer along the saw. He was over six feet tall, of muscular the Red Rocks at the mouth of banks of the Washita River in 1868. build and much more intelligent than the Boulder Canyon. Conditions between The legacy of The People in average Indian . [He was] the only the Aikens Party and the Arapaho Boulder County is great: the town of Indian I ever saw who did not braid his were tense that autumn and Niwot, Niwot Ridge, Left Hand hair; it hung loosely over his shoulders. exacerbated when another chief, Bear Creek, and the various Arapaho place When wearing his war bonnet and full Head, gave the prospectors an names. Their heritage is treasured. warrior’s regalia, he looked every inch a ultimatum to leave within three days. ~Written by Larry Dorsey~ chief.” However, the tension abated when Sources: Margaret Coel, Chief Left The august chief was aware of two Bear Head received a vision in which Hand, Southern Arapaho; Tom Noel and Dan important trends. First, the Arapaho he saw the waters of Boulder Creek Corson, Boulder County, An Illustrated rise to flood stage and when they History; Phyllis Smith, A Look at Boulder: and Cheyenne had been promised the from settlement to city; interview with Peter land between the Platte and Arkansas receded, only the whites remained. Gleichman; interview with Margaret Coel. Rivers by the Treaty of Fort Laramie Apparently, Bear Head interpreted .

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