* gpp % & " ' ' "t i py OTW"i ' nw
e tTbe Conservative ,
r JIM BAKER , THE SCOUT.
Baker came to tlio Rocky Moun
tains in 18137 , a young man of twenty ,
Ho was raised on a farm in Illinois
and has visited his old homo but once
or twice after lie left.
I first met Baker in 1860 at Denver ,
Colorado. Ho then lived on a ranch on
? fi Clear Creek some four miles north-
v d _ f west of Denver , where he erected
'f * ' } ' and kept , from an early day , a toll
%
tS i X bridge across the creek , on the old
n 'O- Cherokee trail from the Indian Terri-
' / . fpry to California. It was on this
1 that gold was first discovered at
* <
-
. * - . * * *
n. n. OAKES. KIT CARSON. LAFAYETTE HEAD. II. V. JlnKNET.
UINTAH UTE COMMISSION OF 18CO.
the head of Cherry Creek in 1838 by
the Green Russol party. This trail
was used by the military in passing
from the Santa Fo trail north to Laramie -
amie , and to Salt Lake ; it entered
the mountains at La Porto and crossed
the range at Bridger's Pass and so on
via Ft. Bridger and Salt Lake City ,
and was a section of the Overland
Stage Route in 1868.
In 1866 I traveled from Denver into
the Middle Park in company with
Baker and D. O. Oakes , going to meet
he Uintah Utes to effect a treaty.
Jim Bakor'was interpreter und D. C.
Oakcs was the Indian Agent.
The conference was held in the
Middle Park near the Hot Sulphur
Springs. It lasted for several days ,
long enough for the Indians to con
sume a lot of provisions and a herd
of some fifty beef cattle , which the
government had furnished them on
the ground. When this was all con
sumed the Indians loft , nothing agreed
to , the treaty was a fizzle. It was
lucky for us that it did not result in
a massacre of all the whites , some
fifty or more of whom were present.
Colorow , an old fraud among the In
dians , was a sub-chief of a small
band present at the treaty. Ho it
was who suddenly broke out in a loud
voice , with threatening gesticulations
towards where Baker stood surround
ed by the whites. What he said none
of us understood , but it startled the
Indians and seemed to threaten bad
work ; this made old Jim , who heard
and saw it all , spring for his rifle ,
which stood at a tree hard by , and
caused the hair to rise on the heads
of the whites present. Ancotash , the
head chief of the Uintahs present ,
however , at once cried out some-
tiling authoritatively , which soonl
allayed the excitement and restored !
order and made all again quiet.
Old Jim never told us what Colorowl
said that created tlio excitement , until !
after the conference was ended and !
the Indians had gone ; then he told" !
.Tim Baker , about 1880.
us that Colo-row's words .were to
"take the scalps of Old Jim and
every white man there" Avhich might
have been attempted had not Ancotash
yelled out to Colorow "to leave the
camp at once or ho would take his
scalp , " so Jim said. The result was
no scalps taken , heap eating , no trea
ty.
ty.Old
Old Jim was quite a philosopher in
his way and could moralize on men
and things quite as intelligently as
many men of far more school educa
tion than he ever had. He told me
that he had travelled with Sir
George Gore as guide and hunter , and
Ir
Jim Baker , about 1897. "
with two other English travellers ,
through the Rocky Mountains and
got lots of ideas from them. General
