American West: 1861-76

Lesson 2: The Army, Politics & Government, Indians & Wars

Colorado Territory Governor Evans, Colonel Chivington, and John Bozeman

Major John M. Chivington, a former Methodist preacher, was six and a half feet tall. In The Great West David Lavender describes him as being “round-headed and crop-bearded.” Lavender also depicts Chivington as “a roaring abolitionist in the pro-slavery frontier counties of Missouri.” There, he delivered his sermons with a revolver, cocked and lying alongside his Bible.

Colonel John M. Chivington

He came to Colorado in 1860 to establish the Rocky Mountain Conference for his church. When the American Civil War started he stepped from his pulpit and donned a Union Army uniform. It is said he was a dynamic leader and possessed nearly hypnotic powers over his men. This was also about the time that gold was discovered along present-day’s Idaho’s Salmon River and when Elias Pierce snuck into forbidden lands on the Nez Perce reservation and discovered gold on Orofino Creek. Two years later the miners were still swarming westward, this time to Montana and the gold discoveries on Alder Creek.

Of the thousands who went to Montana in search of riches, at least one left his name there and along the entire route to those rich diggings. Before arriving in Montana John Bozeman, like John M. Chivington, came to Colorado Territory.

When Bozeman headed for Montana there were only two routes to western Montana from the East. One followed the Missouri River north and west and then turned south. The other route went to present-day western Wyoming and then passed north through what is now Idaho.

Determined to find a more direct way, Bozeman traced what became known as the Bozeman Trail. This trail ran from western Montana east past the Bighorn Mountains, where it turned south. The only problem was that the trail passed through lands that were reserved by treaty to the Sioux Indians.

Wagon Train on the Bozeman Trail

Now, not only were miners pouring into Colorado Territory but also fanning out across the Plains to the northwest, as well as northward from the diggings in California. The number of wagon trains crossing the Plains along the Oregon and California Trails were constantly increasing, bringing with them the dreaded cholera, while their cattle stripped the grass that was food for the buffalo. With the wagon trains also came white hunters who were killing the buffalo, that storehouse of the Plains the Indians needed to survive.

Colorado Grass Land

Though Bozeman had moved on to Montana, Colonel John M. Chivington remained in Colorado Territory as military commander in that area. And the governor of Colorado Territory, John Evans, had Chivington’s full support. These two men had a common bond, other than their hate for the Indians.

Congress had authorized Colorado to apply for statehood and both Evans and Chivington had political ambitions far and beyond their individual present status. While Evans aspired to a seat in the U.S. Senate, Chivington hoped to be elected to the House of Representatives. The votes would be cast on September 13. Saving homesteaders and miners, before the election, from the depredations of the Indians would put both men in the limelight for advancement.

How about some history of the Nez Perce? Here's a good article:

Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce War of 1877 By Elizabeth Gibson http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/old_... Chief Joseph’s real name was Hin-mut-too-yah-lat-kekht, which means "thunder rolling in the mountains." The tribe called themselves Nimiipu and their language was a Shahaptan dialect. French-Canadian trappers called them Nez Perce.

Sources for this section are:

David Lavender.The Great West Utley, Robert M. The Indian Frontier of the American West, 1846-1890. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. 1984.

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