safety, and with the
dead bodies of their comrades, the carcasses of dead horses and mules
and the wagons, formed a temporary shelter until breastworks could be
thrown up. The command was not relieved until the 5th of October.

Runners carried the news of the ambuscade to the Agency, reaching there
at noon of the same day. During the excitement which followed and the
shots directed first at the men who were putting a roof on a building,
the venerable agent was killed and a barrel stave driven down his
throat, log chains placed around his neck, and subsequently the savages
in their fury held up the dead man's legs, imitating a man plowing.

[Illustration: ANTELOPE, THE CIVILIAN, 1902.]

The women were taken by Douglas, Johnson and other Utes to the old Rock
Creek village and there held as prisoners until the middle of October.
Susan was left at the Agency and did not know that her brave warrior had
taken unto himself a new squaw under penalty of blowing her brains out,
nor that Douglas threatened another with death unless she, too, became
his Ute squaw, while the other Indians jeered, scoffed and insulted the
wives of the men who lay dead at the Agency. Yet these bucks dared do
nothing but taunt the poor, helpless women, as Douglas and Johnson were
big chiefs, and the women owed their personal safety to the declaration
that they were respectively Douglas's and Johnson's squaws.

Upon the body of Major Thornburg was found a picture of Colorow, this
signifying that the death-dealing bullet that killed the officer had
been fired by that crafty old savage.

After a tedious examination of both Johnson and Douglas by
commissioners, Douglas was confined in the prison at Fort Leavenworth
for one year. Colorow never was taken into custody.

When Susan learned that her wily spouse (Johnson) had been unfaithful to
her, she started at once for Rock Creek with the intention of murdering
the white woman; but she was too late, as the prisoners had been led
away and delivered to their friends in a place of safety.

The Utes were afterward moved to the Uintah Reservation[B] in Utah, but
many of them visit the old Agency grounds, and at this writing (1902)
Antelope again favored the White River people with his presence and his
photograph in civilized attire.

[Footnote A: "Hot Springs"--now Glenwood Springs.--EDITOR.]

[Footnote B: For authentic documents on the Meeker massacre see Chicago
Tribune, Oct. 2-15, 1879; Denver papers