Great Basin Indians: An Encyclopedic History

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150 I Ignacio (Ute, 1844–1913). Ignacio, a.k.a. John Lyon, was among a handful of Ute “chiefs” who rose to prominence when Spain’s hegemony over Great Basin Indians shifted to (independent) Mexico in 1821, and then the United States in 1848 (see Charlie, Buckskin). His very name reveals the Spanish heritage in the southern part of this culture area in postcontact Native American history: “Ignacio,” which derives from Saint Ignace, formerly a medieval European Roman Catholic priest. Physically imposing at six foot two and 225 pounds, Ignacio belonged to the Weenimuche band (see Ute). Though perhaps an exaggeration, he reportedly killed one dozen members of a single family while avenging his father’s death. Ignacio’s rise to power followed the death of an earlier Ute chief (see Ouray). As the reported leader of fifty-six Ute warriors from the Animas River area of Colorado, Ignacio in 1870 informed special Indian agent William F. M. Arny that he was willing to sell off Southern Ute land in the San Juan Mountains following the discovery of gold, provided an Indian agency would be established on the Los Pinos River in accord with a government promise made two years prior. Another detail from his long, if not controversial, life is that after having killed a fellow Ute named Savillo— stemming from a dispute in which he charged the theft of his horses—Ignacio made a private agreement with a Coloradan named John Moss that allowed a mining company to begin work on Ute land in exchange for his own right to mine on the upper La Plata River; one hundred horses and blankets were supposed to be part of these private negotiations. “Ignacio’s people wanted sheep and goats in exchange for the mining lands,” writes Virginia Simmons (2000, 146) about this transaction that illustrated not only the Ute’s diplomatic skills but also his willingness to acculturate. Summoned (with other Ute leaders) to the nation’s capital in 1880, Ignacio also controversially endorsed the infamous “Ute Removal Bill,” congressional action designed to punish the White River Ute for their participation in a nationally publicized incident two years prior (see Meeker Massacre). Along with banishing this Ute band to the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in Utah, this legislation officially closed down their already much-reduced reservation in Colorado (see Removal; Termination ; 1880 Treaty/Agreement with the Confederated Bands of Ute). “I own sheep and sell the wool.” Ignacio’s oft-quoted statement made before Senate subcommittee hearings provides additional evidence regarding his willingness to adapt to changed economic circumstances in those years (R. Young 1997, 32–33). Even so, Ignacio was initially opposed to the federal policy calling for the privatization of tribal lands in the 1880s (see Allotments). In time, however, he would reverse his position and lead followers as well as related Capote and Moache Ute band members to the eastern end of what today is called the Southern Ute Reservation in Colorado , where they settled on individual allotments (Quintana 2004, 28–29). There, Ignacio after 1881 would receive between $125 and $150 annually for leasing his i g n a c i o 151 allotment—far more money than any other Ute leader (Simmons 2000, 210). At the same time, the complex politics of Ignacio were such that he publicly embraced the opposite policy of lands being held tribally rather than in severalty. In addition to running sheep on the fifteen-mile north-by-south and fifty-mile east-by-west portion of this reservation in southwestern Colorado that extends south into six adjacent townships in the neighboring state of New Mexico, Ignacio provided for his large family by heading up the Southern Ute Reservation police force while additionally deriving income as a traditional healer (see Booha). Opposed to the establishment of schools on the reservation, Ignacio nonetheless contradictorily allowed three of his children to attend the federal boarding school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Tragically, however, when they died there in 1885 during an epidemic, Ignacio cut his hair according to the widespread Great Basin Indian mourning practice and demanded to move to join related kinsmen on the (Northern Ute) UintahOuray Reservation in Utah. Ignacio referred to the nation’s capital as “Washinton-Washinton-Washintontalk -talk-talk”; his seeming ambivalence about the torrent of changes in his and his people’s lives is probably revealed by this oft-quoted statement attributed to Ignacio. “No bueno . . . Washinton—all time Washinton—no bueno. Papers—more papers— manyana—manyana” (R...