Milk Creek

[Diane Merkel]

Excerpt from an article:

Coming just a few years after Little Big Horn, claims of rebellious Indians were taken very seriously by the US military and a number of detachments were sent to investigate. The first to arrive near the reservation was Major Thornburgh, leading a group of 175 cavalry and infantrymen from Ft. Fred Steele in Wyoming. With Meeker playing messenger, a series of miscommunications ensued, and the Utes, fearing a military invasion of their lands, ambushed the troopers about twenty miles from the agency near Milk Creek. The seven day Milk Creek battle left Major Thornburgh dead along with 23 Ute warriors and 16 other US soldiers.

During the Milk Creek Battle, the Utes also attacked the compound where Meeker, his family, and the rest of the BIA agents lived. All of the BIA agents were killed along with Meeker, who had a stake driven through his throat "so he would tell no more lies." Meeker's family was taken hostage and released unharmed a few weeks later. Colorado politicians and newspapers immediately called for the removal of the Utes. Soon afterwards, with almost no investigation of the events leading up to the battles, the Utes were forced at gunpoint to leave Colorado for a reservation in Utah.

Full article: www.newwest.net/index.php/city/article/the_utes_return_to_the_white_river_valley/C291/L291/

[WY Man]

Hi everybody. I'm new here and this is my first post.

An elderly friend of mine who died several years ago knew Fred Patterson, a son of Eugene Patterson, who was one of the participants in the Milk River battle. This son had arrows that his father picked up off the battleground, which he gave to my friend Glenn Sweem, which some of you may have known, as Glenn was a real history buff, and he went to lots of historical events in Wyoming and Montana while he was alive. Anyway, Fred Patterson and Glenn Sweem visited the Milk River battlefield sometime back in the 1960s, and Glenn showed a real interest in Fred's stories of his father, and Fred gave Glenn the arrows. To make a long story short, when Glenn died, I inherited his collection, including the arrows. Glenn's son kept two, and I have the other four. (Glenn at the bottom with two of the arrows)

[harpskiddie]

Nice:

Gordie
MC

[BrokenSword]

Sweet little collection, wyman. Congratulations on it.

M

[WY Man]

The book "Hollow Victory," by Mark E. Miller is a must read for anybody who is studying the Battle of Milk Creek, and the White River Expedition of 1879. Miller is Wyoming's State Archaeologist, and he did a superb job on this book. The book is published by University Press of Colorado, 1997.