Letter from Virginia M. Simmons
Otto Mears – October 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine –
Editors:
In your September issue, Jeanne W. Englert, referring to my article in your May issue, raised a question about the validity of a story concerning Otto Mears and his bribery of Ute Indians in 1880. Here is my response, although Englert still may not be entirely satisfied.
The original source of this oft-told tale about Mears is Sidney Jocknick’s Early Days on the Western Slope of Colorado, first published in 1913 and reprinted in 1968 and 1998, pages 215-17. Although authors, myself included, often have retold Jocknick’s account without citing this original source, I do believe that he was a good first-hand observer and reporter of events for the period 1870-1883 and, for the most part, should be considered reliable. Even the late, highly regarded historian, LeRoy R. Hafen, relied on Jocknick’s accounts. Jocknick had first-hand experience and knowledge concerning the early Ute reservations, knew Mears personally, wrote in a responsible manner, and deserved to be taken seriously.
Although Marshall Sprague was unable to verify the bribery story when he was researching material for Massacre, I do not believe we need to relegate the incident to folklore. Sprague did request Interior Section, National Archives, to research the question, and Archives came up empty-handed. Considering that the issue was a political one, it does not seem surprising to me that official records are missing or never existed. (Remember the blank spots in the Nixon tapes?)
In the wake of the Meeker Massacre and negotiations to remove Ute Indians from Colorado, the Mears case definitely would have had political repercussions. Assuming we can believe Jocknick, the accusation of bribery to get Utes to sign an agreement for removal was made by the reformist Indian commissioner, George W. Manypenny, to President Rutherford B. Hayes’s reformist Secretary of the Interior, Carl Schurtz. Reformers were far down on popularity polls with unsympathetic mining interests, led by Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado, who wanted the Indians out of Colorado, and the sooner the better.
In the fall of 1880 Garfield was elected President, and in March 1881 his Secretary of the Interior, Samuel Kirkwood, looked into the charges against Mears. When he questioned Mears, Senators Teller and Hill from Colorado were present, according to Jocknick. Freely admitting that he gave Ute Indians money, Mears said that it was his own, that none of it came from the government. Pleased with this generous service, Secretary Kirkwood praised Mears and dispensed with further action.
Certainly, this incident would have been hot gossip at the time among Jocknick’s neighbors. (He remained in Ouray County until he died there in 1930.) It also is quite possible that he could have heard first-hand Mears’s own spin on the tale. At any rate, in light of the political climate at the time, I do not find it hard to accept the sequence of events as told by Jocknick without other documentation.
In her letter to the editor, Englert also wondered about the kind of currency that might have been transmitted in the alleged bribery.
My guess (and it is only a guess) would be metallic coin, most likely gold. Ute Indians normally accepted coins and goods for various legitimate payments, and it is impossible for me to picture them accepting paper notes or greenbacks from Mears, no matter how he might have sweet-talked them.
An interesting point to consider, though, pertains to how much cash Mears had in 1880. Perhaps he had enough in his own pockets, or perhaps he had silent partners among mining and railroad men or politicians whose interests also were being served. That is a question which I would like to ask, while having no hopes of getting an answer, since Mears, wisely no doubt, destroyed all his business records.
Virginia McConnell Simmons Del Norte
