by Sue Abbott Schneider

August 1st is Colorado Day; the day Colorado became a state. This year we are celebrating our 150th year of statehood or sesquicentennial. Because we became a state exactly 100 years after the US became a nation, we adopted the moniker “The Centennial State”. But the journey towards statehood was long and arduous.

Before we became Colorado we went through several iterations. Initially most of what we know of as Colorado was part of the Kansas Territory (K.T.), although northern Colorado was part of the Nebraska Territory. On August 25, 1855, the Kansas Territory created Arapahoe County, which ran from western Kansas to the Rocky Mountains. At that time, it was occupied almost exclusively by Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians, so the county never really took off. The Kansas Territory government was preoccupied with the events of Bleeding Kansas (a violent conflict over slavery’s expansion) and the US Congress was dealing with threats of secession by the slave states.

The Pikes Peak Gold Rush in 1858 brought over 100,000 new residents to the area. On an April evening in 1859 a rowdy bunch met in Uncle Dick Wooten’s saloon and gambling hall (the first business to open in Denver City in December 1858) to discuss the formation of the Jefferson Territory, which would include the Pikes Peak Gold Mining area. While the Kansas and Nebraska Territories still governed the area, the capitols were far away from Denver and the nation as a whole was involved in the slavery debate, so there was little time for the concerns of Denver and Auraria or the gold mining region. Feeling isolated and ignored the residents of the region wanted to strike out on their own.

First, they had to make the decision of being a territory or a state. If a state the people of Jefferson would have to fund themselves. If they organized a territorial government, they would receive federal funding. Not surprisingly they chose to organize as a territory. But Congress had to be convinced to officially recognize the Jefferson Territory. The territory as drawn up would have been 70 percent larger than the state we live in today and would have included parts of present-day Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah and Kansas. Without approval of Congress, the citizens forged ahead. The first Jefferson Territorial legislative session took place in Denver in November 1859. They appointed Robert Williamson Steele, a Nebraska lawyer, to the position of Governor. During that session twelve counties were incorporated into the territory.

For the next year and a half, the Territory of Jefferson operated as an independent (but unrecognized) government with functioning courts and all the trappings of a political entity. Territorial laws were created in 1859, but enforcing those laws was problematic. A poll tax of $1 was levied but there was resistance from local miners who signed a pledge to resist. They “promised the collector’s bullets instead of dollars.”

When the gold boom went bust in the early 1860s enthusiasm for Jefferson Territory lost its luster. South Carolina seceded from the Union in December 1860, and Congress found itself faced with funding a war and was concerned about controlling the western gold fields. For this reason, the US Congress passed a bill creating the Territory of Colorado on February 26, 1861. Because Congress wanted the state to be a rectangle, they proposed cutting off a notch of New Mexico Territory and did so despite the protests of the residents, who lived in Spanish-speaking communities of Hispano people with roots that went back to the early Spanish colonists. This decision, to cut off the notch, would have repercussions for statehood chances for years to come. The resulting territorial map may have looked like a rectangle, but the state actually has 697 sides.

The name Jefferson was rejected because of an unofficial rule against naming territories or states after individuals other than Washington. It was almost named Idaho, but in the end a representative proposed the name Colorado because “the Colorado river arose in the Territory, and there was a sort of fitness in it.” And so it was that President James Buchanan signed into law the establishment of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861. Seventeen counties were incorporated into the newly formed territory. Those seventeen would eventually evolve into 64 counties.  William Gilpin was appointed Governor of the Territory and arrived in Denver City on May 29, 1861. Most citizens welcomed the new government, and the Territory of Jefferson was disbanded.

Creating the State of Colorado would still take time. In 1864 Denver men (known as the “Denver Ring”) lobbied Congress for statehood and asked voters for their approval through a popular vote. But black men were disenfranchised and Hispano residents to the south were being ignored, which led to the sound defeat of the measure 4,762 to 1,520. Political, military and economic issues became intertwined, and the residents split into two major political camps, the champions of statehood and the “Antis’”.

Some of the Antis’ believed the Indians had been mistreated and forced into revolt and should receive fairer treatment, while the pro-statehood contingent wanted to exterminate these aboriginal “pests” that stood in the way of expansion. The statehood issue had been part of a special election in September, and key players in the Sand Creek Massacre, including Governor Evans, Colonel Chivington and other leaders in the Indian campaign had championed statehood while seeking election to state offices. The Antis’ claimed they were provoking war to make political capital. A minor “Sand Creek Vindication Party” was to participate, but in the early month’s of 1865 a military commission began to investigate the Sand Creek Massacre and both Chivington and Evans reputations were tarnished and their political aspirations dashed. In retaliation of the Sand Creek Massacre the Indians went on the warpath for two years and opponents of statehood made good use of the negative aspects of the Sand Creek Massacre and its aftermath in their defeat of statehood.

A revised State constitution was drafted at the end of the Civil War in April 1865. Black residents actively lobbied against it and Hispano residents to the south still felt unrepresented. The “Denver Ring” wisely left themselves off the state ballot and the Mountain Crowd saw fit to vote for statehood, but the measure still only passed by about 200 votes. It was all for naught, because President Andrew Johnson vetoed the statehood bill. The majority of residents were Republican, and he was a Democrat and according to him the population of 40,000 was too small to warrant statehood. None of the statehood bills made mention of Indigenous tribes, Hispanic residents in southern Colorado, black Coloradans, or women. By early May 1866 both the House and the Senate approved Colorado statehood and sent the bill to Johnson, but he again vetoed the measure citing the small population.

When the first train arrived in Denver on June 24, 1870, things definitely improved in the Colorado Territory. Costs for transportation and goods dropped and when silver was discovered in the San Juans in 1871 prosperity came to the territory. With so much growth and investment, sentiment for statehood was on the rise. Unlike the first attempt in 1859 that was centered around Denver, the 1876 delegates were elected from throughout Colorado. Over one-third of the delegates were lawyers, but they also included Spanish-speaking Hispanos from southern Colorado, bankers, judges, farmers, stockmen and miners. Congress wanted them to submit their constitution by July 1876 (to add to the Colorado Republican votes for the 1876 presidential election). Voting rights for women quickly became an issue, but delegates were concerned that men would be against the inclusion and would vote against the constitution. The convention did however give women the right to vote in school elections, and the delegates included a provision that the state could hold a popular vote on women’s suffrage in the future. In 1893 Colorado became the first state to grant women the right to vote via a popular referendum of men.

After about 86 days of deliberations and composing, the delegates approved the constitution on March 14, 1876. The delegates had listened to people throughout the state and as a result they had written one of the longest state constitutions ever produced. The constitution highlighted what was important to the people of the region. Delegates included the concept of schools open to all, and they realized the importance of Colorado’s natural resources. The Constitution became the first in the nation to provide for the protection of forests. On July 1, 1876, voters went to the polls. The Rocky Mountain News on July 2nd reported “Triumph! “Colorado the Centennial State!” A total of 15,443 voted for statehood, 4,039 against. President Ulysses S. Grant declared Colorado the thirty-eighth state on August 1, 1876. After 17 years of attempts persistence won out and a 38th star was added to the flag. And although this never became the state song, it was the song we sang in elementary school.

Hail Colorado, all hail to you!
Hail to your splendor of skies so blue.
Snow capped mountains, top state of all.
It’s our home, our Colorado home!

Group photo of Camp Weld Council. Soule kneeling in the front right (Denver Public Library).

We recently learned that Pingree Hill and Pingree Park were being renamed Soule Hill and Soule Park. The decision was made by the US Board on Geographic Names (Domestic Names Committee) which operates under the US Secretary of the Interior. A group of Fort Collins citizens formed the No Pingree Park Task Force a few years ago and requested the name change in 2023. Arapaho and Cheyenne tribal leaders and county and city officials supported the name change. The change was approved at a March 12 meeting.

But who was Silas Soule? Turns out he was a fascinating man who packed a lot into his short life. Silas Stillman Soule was born July 26, 1838, in Bath, Maine and raised in Massachusetts. His family were staunch abolitionists whose ancestors arrived on the Mayflower. The family headed west when the Kansas Territory was opened up for white settlement May 30, 1854, as part of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Act stipulated that the territory’s settlers could determine by vote whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state. This led to pro-slavery and anti-slavery activists descending on the territory and a violent era known as “Bleeding Kansas”. Silas’s father Amasa Soule was one of the founders of the Emigrant Aid Society whose goal was to settle the Territory as a free state. Amasa and one son arrived in the territory in November 1854 and Silas, his mother and two sisters came the next summer. The family settled at Coal Creek, a few miles south of Lawrence. The Soules were one of the founding families of Lawrence and their home was one of the stops on the Underground Railroad. When Silas was 17, he was escorting escaped slaves from Missouri north towards freedom in Canada. As tensions within the Territory grew, Silas became an expert at hit-and-run tactics, and his name became well known around Kansas.

One of Silas’s better-known escapades took part on the Missouri border. Twenty pro-slavery soldiers crossed into Kansas to look for escaped slaves. They encountered Dr. John Doy, a Lawrence physician who was escorting twelve slaves and proceeded to arrest Dr. Doy and once back in Missouri they sold the twelve slaves. Dr. Doy was tried and convicted of assisting escaped slaves and he was jailed. Silas and a group of older men from Lawrence decided to free Dr. Doy and Silas volunteered to visit the jail where he was being held. Silas convinced the jail-keeper that he had a message from Dr. Doy’s wife. The message was actually a note that read “Tonight, at twelve o’clock.” The group arrived at the jail at midnight, overpowered the guard, freed Doy and escaped back to Kansas. To commemorate the event, they had their photo taken as “The Immortal Ten”.

This was not the only time Silas entered a jail under false pretenses. When John Brown (a close friend of the Soule family) was captured and hung after his raid on Harper’s Ferry, Silas traveled to Charles Town, Virginia and posed as a drunkard and got himself jailed where several of Brown’s followers (Albert Hazlett and Aaron Dwight Stevens) were incarcerated. He managed to charm the jailer into releasing him from his jail cell so he could contact the two and hatch an escape. But they refused his help, choosing instead to die as martyrs to the cause and they were hung on March 18, 1860. After his release from jail, he traveled to Boston and met with other abolitionists and befriended poet Walt Whitman.

Silas then decided to head west. He arrived in Colorado in 1860 with his brother William and a cousin. They searched for gold with little luck and eventually Silas found himself working in a blacksmith shop. In 1861, after the Civil War had started, Silas enlisted in Company K, 1st Regiment, Colorado Infantry. He was involved in the Battle of Glorieta Pass during the New Mexico campaign in 1862. That battle was pivotal in stopping the Confederates from overtaking the gold fields in Colorado to finance the war. By November 1864 he had moved up the ranks to commander of a Calvary Company, Company D, 1st Colorado Calvary. Commanding Officer Colonel John Chivington had promoted Soule and assigned him to Fort Lyon along the Santa Fe Trail.

Silas was described as “handsome and headstrong” and “a great favorite with the men of his own military company”. He had a devilish sense of humor” and “a sharp tongue, cynical nature and charming wit; wise beyond his years and able to differentiate the wheat from the chaff on matters of politics.”

In September 1864 Silas and his commanding officer, Major Edward Wynkoop, participated in the Smoky Hill peace talks with Cheyenne and Arapahoe Peace Chiefs, including Black Kettle. He, Wynkoop and the Chiefs traveled to Denver to meet at Camp Weld with Governor John Evans and Chivington. No doubt his involvement in these meetings impacted Silas’s actions at Sand Creek.

It was on November 29, 1864, that Silas Soule and his company found themselves at Sand Creek, Colorado under Colonel John Chivington. The night before Silas had tried to talk Chivington out of attacking the peaceful camp, to no avail. Silas saw the Union flag flying over the camp as a sign of peace and ordered his men to hold their fire and stay put when ordered to attack. Silas had told his men before the attack that “any man who would take part in [such] murders, knowing the circumstances as we did, was a low lived cowardly son of a bitch.”  Chivington ordered the cavalry to attack the peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment. As the attack began Silas reminded his troops that the “enemy” was actually a peace chiefs’ band and they jointly refused to fire a shot. They remained on the banks above the settlement and watched the slaughter unfold. They were able to rescue a few individuals, including Charlie Bent the half-Cheyenne son of William Bent.

The Sand Creek Massacre was one of the largest massacres in US history. Elders, women and children were killed indiscriminately. Peace Chiefs Black Kettle and Left Hand were among the dead. Chivington lauded the massacre as a great victory and lambasted Silas for “saying that he thanked God he killed no Indians, and like expressions, proving himself more in sympathy with the Indians than the whites.” Silas became an early day “whistleblower” writing letters to Wynkoop, members of Congress and his friend Walt Whitman describing the massacre in chilling and explicit detail. His letter to Wynkoop is difficult to read but gives you an idea of what actually transpired. When the truth about the “battle” was reported the nation was outraged. Congress created a congressional committee to investigate the massacre and testimonies by Silas and others led to the dismissal of John Evans, Colorado’s second territorial governor. Chivington resigned from the military to avoid being tried in military court, and his political aspirations were dashed. He was known as the “Butcher of Sand Creek” and never forgave Silas for his betrayal. George Pingree engaged in the attack and bragged about scalping 13 people. He felt no remorse for his involvement and stood by his actions until his dying day.

On April 1, 1865, Silas married Hersa Coberly. Sadly, the marriage only lasted twenty-two days before his death. On April 23, 1865, two months after testifying before a U.S. military commission about the Sand Creek Massacre, Silas was on duty as provost marshal in Denver City. He heard shots fired and went to investigate. He encountered Charles Squier, who had served under Chivington. It was an ambush and Silas managed to get off a shot and injured Squier in the arm before Squier shot him through his cheek and Silas fell to the ground and died. Silas was only 27 years old. The murder occurred on what is now 15th Street between Lawrence and Arapahoe Streets. Squier and an accomplice (who had also served under Chivington) escaped. Squier was eventually caught and brought back to Denver City for a court-martial. However, the officer who captured Squier was found dead in a hotel of a presumed staged drug overdose. Squier high tailed it back to New York where his influential family lived. He tried rejoining the Army but was rejected and then fled to Central America to avoid recapture. His legs were crushed in a railroad accident, and he died of gangrene in 1869. Many believed that Chivington was behind Silas’s murder, but it was never proven.

Silas’s funeral was held on April 26, 1865, and was attended by a large crowd. A journalist described the funeral as “the finest ever seen in this country.” Silas was posthumously assigned the rank of major in recognition of his service. He was first buried at Denver City Cemetery (now Cheesman Park) and later moved to Riverside Cemetery in Denver.

The two-hundred-mile Spiritual Healing Run/Walk is held in November to honor those killed at Sand Creek. Tribal members from Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado and beyond run and walk to honor their ancestors. It begins at the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in southeast Colorado and concludes on the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol. Starting in 2003 a memorial ceremony has also been held at Silas’s grave site, and a memorial plaque honoring Silas has been installed near the location of his murder. Although he was only on this earth for a brief time, Silas Soule was a man of principal who put his own life on the line to protect the innocent.

Crazy Bull and Friday, 1873. Photo taken by Alexander Gardner.

By Sue Abbott Schneider

A Northern Arapaho child, born around 1822, was named either ‘Warshinun’ which meant “black spot” or “black coal ashes” or ‘Teenokuhuh’ which meant “sits meekly”. There were multiple sources that reported one name and others that reported the other as his original birth name. For some First Nations tribes it was common for a person to have different names at different stages of their lives which no doubt is the cause of the confusion. We will refer to him during these early years as ‘Warshinun’. His tribe often camped in northern Colorado in the Cache la Poudre River valley (near current day Ft. Collins) but as a nomadic tribe they also traveled throughout Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska. In 1831 ‘Warshinun’ and his band were camped next to a band of Gros Vintre (Atsina) near the Cimarron River (somewhere between current day Dodge City, KS and Lamar, CO). A fight broke out, the Arapaho chief was stabbed, and the Atsina chief was killed. All hell broke loose and the young boy and two others were separated from their band and ended up wandering into the Colorado Territory along the Arkansas River. (Interestingly the oral history passed down in his family is completely different. They say he went hunting, got lost and hid out in a canyon where a wolf brought him rabbits and other small game to keep him alive.)

The boys were discovered by Thomas Fitzpatrick, an Irish fur trapper. Fitzpatrick worked for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and was in the area for an annual rendezvous. Fitzpatrick took a liking to ‘Warshinun’ and named him “Friday” after the day of the week he was found. Fitzpatrick took Friday back to St. Louis and enrolled him in school. Friday became fluent in English and the ways of the newcomers who were slowly moving into his peoples’ land. When not in school Friday accompanied Fitzpatrick on his trapping journeys. He was known to other trappers for having an “astonishing memory”, and a keen sense of “observation and amusing inquiries”.

In 1838 Fitzpatrick and Friday came across a band of Arapaho when a woman recognized Friday as her son and with Fitzpatrick’s blessing he returned to his tribe. During this time, he was known as a skilled hunter and warrior and fought against the Ute, Shoshone and Pawnee people. Tribal members called Friday the “Arapaho American”. He acted as an interpreter and translator and was known as a peacemaker. He and Fitzpatrick remained close until Fitzpatrick’s death in 1854.

Friday traveled with and translated for explorers John C Fremont in 1843 (Northern Colorado) and Rufus Sage in the spring of 1844 (Arkansas Valley). He assisted Ferdinand V. Hayden during his surveying expedition in the winter of 1859-1860 (Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers) and taught Hayden Arapaho vocabulary. During this time Friday became leader of a band that centered in the Cache la Poudre River valley.

As the “white men” began to encroach on Arapaho territory and their way of life Friday became more involved in negotiations between the two. He attended the largest treaty council to ever take place near Ft. Laramie at Horse Creek in 1851. Between 10,000 and 15,000 Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains attended. The treaty stipulated that the land from the area of Casper, Wyoming down to Trinidad, Colorado and from the edge of the Rocky Mountains to sections of Kansas and Nebraska were reserved for the Northern Arapaho and Cheyenne. The treaty included an annuity of $50,000 to be paid to the tribes for the next 50 years as well as the protection of the U.S. military against any attacks or crimes by American citizens against the native peoples. (Unfortunately, in 1852 Congress changed the terms of the payout to 10 years, without consulting any of those involved.) As part of the agreement the tribes agreed to stop attacking non-native travelers and allowed the military to build forts and roads on the land. Friday traveled to Washington, D.C. with other Arapaho and Cheyenne delegates to resolve some of their concerns.

Antoine Janis, a French trapper who had passed through the Poudre River valley in the 1830s, returned in 1858 with his wife, First Elk Woman of the Oglala Sioux tribe. They settled just north of the river (near where Vern’s is today). When Janis had visited the valley in the 1830s, he reported it was “black with buffalo” and the creeks ran high. Although the bison had been significantly diminished by the late 1850s, Janis chose to settle in the valley next to 150 Arapaho lodges, including Friday and his ten wives and children.

Friday had good relationships with many of the other local EuroAmerican settlers, including John Provost, John Coy and E.W. Sherwood who allowed the band to camp on their properties on or near the Poudre River. These relationships allowed him to secure jobs for his tribal members on farms and ranches after they had lost access to their tribal hunting grounds. No doubt these positive relationships and his affiliation with Fitzpatrick and others gave Friday optimism that things could work out between the settlers and the tribe. Unfortunately, for him and his tribe, he was wrong.

At some point residents of the Poudre River valley started calling Friday “Chief Friday”, even though he was never appointed a chief by the tribe. To the Arapaho “Chief” is a title reserved for someone who leads in battle. The Arapaho saw Friday as a different kind of leader and referred to him as “peace chief” which is more in line with Arapaho perspective.

When gold was discovered near Englewood in 1859 the Pikes Peak Gold Rush ensued. The land that had been promised to the Arapaho and Cheyenne in the Treaty of Horse Creek was suddenly prime real estate. The US government decided another treaty with the First Nations was needed. In 1861, the US offered the Treaty of Fort Wise. Friday and others refused to sign the document, which would significantly shrink his people’s land as well as move them to an area, between current day Limon and Rocky Ford, that his tribe rarely, if ever, visited. He remained in the Poudre River valley.

Friday petitioned the government to allow for a reservation that extended north of the Poudre River from Boxelder Creek to Crow Creek (around Timnath) and north into Wyoming. Indian Agent Whitley ignored these requests saying it would be unfeasible due to its proximity with the Overland stage route and the sixteen EuroAmerican families who were living (actually squatting illegally) within the proposed reservation. The US government, despite having apportioned the land to the Northern Arapaho and Cheyenne in 1851, was acting as though it had been ceded in the 1861 Treaty of Fort Wise, despite not having been ratified by all parties. The Arapaho to this day say the land was never ceded and is still their homeland.

The Arapaho frequently met to socialize and trade at an old Cottonwood tree which the white settlers called the Council Tree. The tree was on the bank where Boxelder Creek joins the Poudre River. The site was used for various ceremonies, including sky burials. The site of the tree (long since gone) is in the Arapaho Bend Natural Area. Having to abandon this sacred site was extremely difficult, and it is said the sky burials were removed by the tribe in fear that the new settlers would desecrate the bodies.

By the 1860s the Arapaho were being forced out of Colorado. The Sand Creek Massacre occurred in 1864 where over 150-250 Arapahoe and Cheyenne (mostly elders, women and children) were killed indiscriminately by 700 soldiers of the 1st Colorado Cavalry Regiment. Friday and his band were not involved in the massacre, but by this time Friday’s band had been reduced in size to about 175 due to army attacks, disease and hunger.

In 1868 Friday was hired by government peace commissioners to communicate an ultimatum to the Northern Arapaho band. In order to get provisions, they would have to sign a treaty. The Northern Arapaho and Northern Cheyenne met at Fort Laramie and signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie on May 10, 1868. The Northern Arapaho were to move to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) but they wanted to stay in Wyoming. Although the Shoshone were their traditional enemies, the Arapaho preferred to stay on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming and a temporary agreement was reached.

In 1869 Colorado Governor Alexander Hunt permanently pushed the band out of Colorado into Wyoming and in 1870 the Arapaho were given permission by the Shoshone to join them on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Friday continued to negotiate for the Northern Arapaho to protect their traditional lands in Wyoming into the 1870s. Friday traveled one last time to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Rutherford B. Hayes in September 1877. He lobbied for a reservation for the Northern Arapaho in Wyoming but returned unsuccessful to the Wind River Indian Reservation. Friday died in May 1881 on the reservation. A sculpture recognizing Friday is in a strip mall on the SE corner of Horsetooth and Shields in Fort Collins. Otherwise, there is no visible recognition of his presence in the Poudre River valley. To this day Friday’s descendants retain the last name Friday and many still reside on the reservation, but they still consider the Poudre River valley home.