Nathan Meeker

Nathan Cook Meeker was born in Euclid, Ohio on July 12, 1817, to Enoch and Lurana Meeker. He had three brothers. Meeker was a writer and submitted articles to area publications when he was a boy. He left home at 17 years-of-age for New Orleans, where he worked as a copy boy for the New Orleans Picayune. In the late 1830s, Meeker returned to Ohio, where he attended and graduated from Oberlin College. ==Early career and family==

After college, Meeker worked as a school teacher in Cleveland and Philadelphia. He saved up his money to move to New York, hoping to fulfill a desire to become a poet. In New York, he became a contributor to the Mirror, which was owned by N.P. Willis. Unable to support himself, he moved back to Euclid and was a traveling salesman. He was baptized a Disciple of Christ to address her concern about his lack of faith. Smith was concerned that Meeker was younger than her. So, he stated that his year of birth was 1814 on their marriage certificate. The couple settled in the Trumbull Phalanx colony in Ohio. The colony was based upon the utopian theories of Charles Fourier. Arvilla taught kindergarten and Nathan was a teacher, historian, auditor, librarian, secretary, and poet laureate. In 1845, their son Ralph Lovejoy was born. Two years later George Columbus was born at the colony. Meeker became made an agricultural journalist and editor at the end of the war for the New-York Tribune. Meeker's novel Life in the West or Stories of the Mississippi Valley was published in 1866. He went to the Rocky Mountains for the Tribune in 1869, and was inspired to live there. ==Union Colony==

Meeker, who was interested in communal and cooperative farms, created his vision of a utopian community based upon Christianity and communal economic enterprise, which was a modification of Charles Fourier’s definition of a utopian society. With the capital from the shares, in 1870 Meeker purchased 2,000 acres (8 km2), primarily from Native Americans, at the confluence of the South Platte and the Cache La Poudre River (Powder Bag) rivers near present-day Greeley. The venture relied on funding from Horace Greeley. The Union Colony failed on several counts. It was not financially successful, Meeker was deeply in debt, and the community members did not meet Meeker's standards for Christian values. ==Indian agent==

In 1868, six bands of the Utes signed a treaty with the United States ceding the lands in the eastern part of their range and being granted a reservation of (25,781 square miles) comprising most of the western one-third of Colorado. According to Article 2 of the Treaty, the lands on the reservation were "set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians." In return for their land, the U.S. was to give the Utes annuities of food and supplies. The White River Ute Indian Reservation was established to distribute annuities, guaranteed by the treaty, to the Utes. However, the annuities frequently arrived late or not at all. In 1878, Meeker was appointed to the salaried position of United States (US) Indian agent at the White River Reservation by Henry M. Teller, the Governor of Colorado. Meeker had no experience dealing with Native Americans (Indians). The U.S. government at the time had the objective of assimilating Indians by converting them to Christianity, forcing them to become sedentary farmers, educate their children in boarding schools, and adopt other "civilized" customs. By contrast, the Utes were nomadic hunter-gatherers and seasonal bison hunters. Their prized possessions were their large herds of horses. Arriving at the agency in early 1879, Meeker's first act was to relocate the agency to a valley suitable for agriculture about west of the present day town of Meeker, Colorado. Most of the Utes refused to plow the valley and plant crops. The valley was used by them to graze their horses and engage in their favorite sport of horse racing. Meeker demanded the Utes accede to his wishes, withheld rations and annuities to force their compliance, and wrote newspaper articles condemning their resistance. He told the Utes that the land did not belong to them, but to the U.S. government. He also requested the U.S. cavalry patrol the borders of the Ute Reservation to prevent the Utes from leaving to hunt on their traditional hunting grounds. ==Meeker Massacre==

The dispute between Meeker and the Utes resulted in a confrontation between Meeker and a Ute leader named "Johnson." Meeker wired for military assistance, after he had been assaulted by an Indian, driven from his home, and severely injured. Meeker requested only a few soldiers come to the agency, but 191 soldiers, led by Major Thomas T. Thornburgh, commander of Fort Steele in Wyoming, advanced toward the agency to settle the affair. The Utes warned Thornburgh and Meeker that the presence of soldiers on the reservation would be an act of war. Meeker requested that Thornburgh halt his advance outside the reservation and proceed to the White River Agency with only five soldiers. However, on orders from his superior, Thornburgh continued his advance onto the Ute Reservation. On September 29, 1879, the Utes attacked both Thornburgh and Meeker's agency. They set the agency buildings on fire and killed Meeker and the 10 members of his staff. They took five women and children as hostages to secure their own safety as they fled and held them for 23 days. Two of the women taken captive were Meeker's his wife Arvilla and daughter Josephine, just graduated from college and working as a teacher and physician. Thornburgh's soldiers (he was killed) were pinned down in the Battle of Milk Creek until October 5. Reinforced by African-American Buffalo Soldiers and 450 additional cavalry, the soldiers advanced to the White River Agency. They found the bodies of Meeker and his men. ==Legacy and honors==

• Meeker, Colorado was named after him. • Mount Meeker, a shorter neighbor to Longs Peak, the tallest mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park, was named for him. • The Meeker Home Museum is located at 1324 9th Avenue Greeley, Colorado. It was originally Nathan Meeker's home. • Meeker Elementary School in Greeley, Colorado is named after Nathan Meeker. • In 1970, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. ==Notes==