A Pai Ute Family at Home.
Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp.
A Ute Mountain Home.
Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey.
The white man blamed all Amerinds for every crime and the Amerind blamed the white man similarly. Each visited retribution on the other without discrimination. The antagonism grew and grew. Tribes which at first received the whites most kindly and were continually cheated were apt to become bitterest enemies. On the Missouri in 1810 Wilson Price Hunt asked some Amerinds why they killed white men, to which they answered, "because they kill us—that man—" pointing to Carson—"killed one of our brothers last summer." This statement was true. Carson while with the Arikara had shot, probably for amusement, across the river at a war party of Sioux. The latter then retaliated by killing three whites. In this way the mutual antagonism multiplied as the years passed, just as a snowball increases when it rolls down hill. The native soon discovered that he must apply himself to his protection, and from being comparatively peaceful he became intensely warlike, emulating the example of the Iroquois and Apache. Had he possessed the power of organising, the story of white encroachment on his domain would have read differently. As it is, it may be considered a great loss to history that we have so little of the story from his point of view.
Village of the Puebloan Type. View in the Moki Town of Mishongnavi, Arizona.