The result of Meeker’s first panicked letter to Washington, D.C., was an order to Major Thornburg at Ft. Steel to take troops to the White River Agency. They left Rawlins in the evening of Sept. 23. In route, Thornburg sent a courier, scout Charlie Lowry, ahead to Agent Meeker inquiring details on the situation. On the 27th, two messengers delivered Meeker’s reply from the Agency. The couriers were Wilmer E. Eskridge and an agency interpreter, Henry James. Nathan Meeker advised Thornburg to leave his main force outside the reservation and proceed with five soldiers to negotiate with the Utes at the Agency. This plan had been suggested by the Ute leadership and Nathan agreed that it would be a good way to deescalate tensions. The Utes also presented the plan to Thornburg directly before he entered the reservation with his entire force. Eskridge carried the reply to the Agency on Sept 28.
When Thornburg changed his mind and advanced the next day with his entire column crossing the reservation boundary, the Utes considered this an act of war. An ambush was set at Milk Creek. Within a few hours of the first shot at Milk Creek, Meeker, Eskridge and all the other white male employees remaining at the Agency were attacked and killed on Sept. 29. The Milk Creek battle, the tragedy at the Agency, the captivity of the women, and treaty negotiations have been well documented. I am concentrating on the survivors.
In the National Archives there is a document named U.S. Register of Civil Military, and Naval Service, 1863-1859. One page lists all the appointed employees of the White River Agency during 1879 and their annual salaries. This gave me a starting point. The official list had Nathan C. Meeker, Agent $1200 [killed]; Josephine Meeker, Teacher $750, [held captive]; William H. Post, Carpenter $720 [killed]; Harry S. Dresser, Blacksmith $720 [killed]; Harry’s brother, Frank G. Dresser, Laborer, $720 [killed]; Edwin L. Mansfield, Herder $720 [survivor]; Shadrach Price, Farmer $720 [killed]; Arthur L. Thompson, Laborer $720 [killed]; Fred K. Sheperd, Laborer $720 [killed]; Wilmer E. Eskridge, Laborer $720 [killed]; Henry James, Interpreter $300. There were two employees not on the official list, George W. Eaton [killed] and J.S. Fullerton who resigned on May 7 and had left the area.
So, what happened to Henry James, the Agency interpreter? The testimony of Sophronia “Flora” Ellen Price, widow of Shadrach Fay Price, who was held captive by the Utes, gives us our first clue. Flora told her story of her and her two children’s 23-day captivity. Once during that time she was taken to the Ute tent of Henry James, who had been the interpreter for the Agency. White River Ute, Henry, treated her kindly and asked her a few questions and told Mrs. Price, “He felt very sorry for me. He said he told the Utes not to murder the people at the agency…He said the Utes hold him he was nothing but a little boy for refusing to kill the white men at the agency, but when they called him little boy he said it was too much for him. He no more to say after that.” Henry James, better known as Henry Jim, gave testimony to the Ute Commission at Los Pinos who were tasked with investigating and reporting to the Department of Interior and Congress in 1879 and 1880. Henry Jim appears in an 1880 photograph along Ute chiefs who were escorted to Washington, D.C., in 1880.
The Federal government made it a point to take any important Indians on trips to the Capitol. Chiefs were often presented with Peace Medals. The point was to impress natives by the sheer numbers of white men and their power to build stone edifices. Kind of like us Westerners gawking up at New York skyscrapers today. Henry Jim was not a chief but obviously assisted in later treaty negotiations. Henry Jim and his wife, Milly Jim, were relocated to Utah along with the rest of the White River band of Utes and died there about 1907 at the age of 55. He owned a 300 acre farm near Ouray. Today the farm belongs to the Ute Tribe. His only monument seems to be an irrigation ditch bearing his name, Henry Jim.
By ED PECK
Sources: National Achieves; Rio Blanco Historical Society; This Is What I Remember Series; Coloradohistoricalnewspapers.org ; MEEKER by Fred H. Werner 1985.
Love your stuff