In the summer of 1858, a party of prospectors discovered gold in a stream flowing out of the Rocky Mountains on the site of what would become Denver, Colorado. This occurred during a painful national depression, and when word of the discovery about a hundred thousand persons rushed to the Rockies in hopes of finding quick wealth. Within a few months, they had founded several settlements, including Denver. This surge of population drastically disrupted the lives of native peoples who relied on hunting game on the plains and living in areas now occupied by white newcomers. The agent to the Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples was William Bent. He had long been a trader to Plains Indians and had married a member of a prominent Cheyenne family, Owl Woman. Feeling responsibilities to both the Indians and his government, Bent sent these two reports about the troubling consequences of the rush for Colorado gold.
Report Sent to Superintendent of Indian Affairs, December 17, 1858
[Cheyennes and Arapahoes] are very uneasy and restless about their country, the whites coming into it, making large and extensive settlements and laying off and building Towns all over the best part of their country, on this river and also on the South Fork of the Platte & Cherry Creek. This is their principle Hunting Grounds. This movement they do not understand, as they have never been treated with for it [that is, have never signed a treaty allowing it]. Nothing has ever been said about it. They have been talking very hard against the whites, and I [have] been doing all in my power to keep them reconciled and will still continue. . . . The emigration to the Gold Diggings this fall has been very large and they still continue to come. They have all passed unmolested by the Indians, although they have stolen several horses from them allready, this they do not think much of, but losing the favorite Hunting Grounds & their only place to get their summer and fall provisions, that goes rather hard with them.
Annual Report, 1859
The prominent feature of this region is the recent discovery and development of gold upon the flanks of the Great Cordillera and its spurs protruding out over the great plains. I estimate the number of whites traversing the plains across the center belt to have exceeded 60,000 during the present season. The trains of vehicles and cattle are frequent and valuable in proportion; postlines and private expresses are in constant motion. The explorations of this season have established the existence of the precious metals in absolutely infinite abundance and convenience of position.
The concourse of whites is therefore constantly swelling, and incapable of control or restraint by the government. This suggests the policy of promptly rescuing the Indians, and withdrawing them from contact with the whites. . . . These numerous and warlike Indians, pressed upon all around by the Texans, by the settlers of the gold region, by the advancing people of Kansas and from the Platte, are already compressed into a small circle of territory, destitute of food, and itself bisected athwart by the constantly marching lines of emigrants. A desperate war of starvation and extinction is therefore imminent and inevitable, unless prompt measures shall prevent it.
Source: LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, eds., Relations with Indians of the Plains, 1857–1861 (Glendale: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1959).
Evaluating the Evidence