Two Colorado Odysseys

Ute Chief Ouray was important in early Colorado history, working to moderate the inevitable conflicts between the Utes, original ‘owners” of much of Colorado, and the flood of incoming white miners, ranchers and settlers. The Colorado Historical Society appropriately has a museum honoring Ouray; the county, city and mountain in Colorado named for Ouray further demonstrate his importance. This book depicts the Chief as seen by the Indian agents, Territorial Governors, and others who actually knew and wrote about him. The activities of Porter Nelson in Colorado, particularly of a business nature, are spelled out here more fully than in Houston’s bare-bones chronology, The Battle Over Silver: Porter Nelson in Aspen, published by the Professional Press in 1997. Porter Nelson came to Colorado only after Ouray’s death, but Nelson’s activities were constrained by what had happened to Ouray and his Utes. Linking, as this book does, the story of a Colorado Indian leader with that of a not atypical white settler arguably results in a broader, double-barreled portrayal of Colorado in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.