Chief Ouray

Ouray (Arrow) (c. 1833–August 24, 1880; August 20, 1880 according to whites based out of Colorado) was a Native American chief of the Uncompahgre band of the Ute tribe, then located in western Colorado. Because of his leadership ability, Ouray was also acknowledged by the United States government as a chief of the Ute.

In 1880 he left Colorado to travel to Washington, D.C., where he testified before Congress about the Ute uprising of 1879. He tried to secure a treaty for the Uncompahgre Ute, who wanted to stay in Colorado; but, the following year, the United States forced the Uncompahgre and the White River Ute to the west to reservations in present-day Utah. The reason he was called the man of peace was because he made a treaty with the settlers.

Ouray was born in what is now New Mexico. According to oral history, he was born on a clear night of November 13, 1833, during the Leonid meteor showers, which was taken as an omen. In Ute, ouray means “the arrow,” drawn from the meteor shower that occurred at the time of his birth. His father, Guera Murah, was a Jicarilla Apache adopted into the Ute, and his mother was an Uncompahgre Ute. He learned Spanish, English, and later both the Ute and Apache languages, which he found helpful in negotiating treaties.

Ouray's first wife, Black Water, died soon after the birth of their only child, a boy named Queashegut, called Parso (apple) by his father because of his round, dimpled face. After the death of his wife, Ouray married Chipeta, "White Singing Bird" in the Ute language, then sixteen. When Queashegut was five years old, Ouray took him along on a buffalo hunt. Their hunting camp, near present-day Fort Lupton, was attacked by Sioux warriors and Queashegut was abducted. Ouray never saw his son again and remained in deep grief, trying to find him for the rest of his life. According to a 1924 article in the Denver Post, "The parents never saw or heard from their only child again. They said he was dead rather than believe the probable truth, he lived with their enemies and was raised to fight against his own."

...
Wikipedia