Provided by Don Morreale
This column tells the stories of the people whose faces appear on “A Colorado Panorama: A People’s History,” a two-block-long tile mural on the southeast side of the Colorado Convention Center. Inspired by Howard Zinn’s groundbreaking book, “A People’s History of the United States,” the mural was created by artist Barbara Jo Revelle in 1989 to celebrate those who rarely make it into the history books, but who have nonetheless had a profound impact on the history of our state. This week we’re featuring profiles of Chief Ouray and Anne Ellis.
Ouray – Ute Chief and Peace Advocate (1833-1880)
Ouray was born near Taos, N.M., and raised Catholic in an Hispanic household. At age 17, he moved to Colorado to re-join his father, Guera Murah, chief of the Uncompahgre Utes. When his father died 10 years later, Ouray took his place as chief. Noticing the growing number of Whites moving onto traditional Ute lands, and knowing that ousting them by violent means would not succeed, he opted instead for peaceful negotiation.
The U.S. Government, however, proved unreliable in honoring the treaties, thus depriving the Utes of more and more of their hereditary lands. Tensions finally boiled over with the Meeker Massacre of 1879 in which several white women were taken captive. Although Ouray negotiated their release, the attack resulted in the confiscation of all remaining Ute territories in Colorado. The entire tribe was relocated to a reservation in Utah.
Ouray died before the resettlement, and was secretly buried in Ignacio. Both the County and the town of Ouray in Southwest Colorado are named after him.
Anne Ellis – Chronicler of Life in Colorado’s Mining Camps (1875-1938)
Anne Ellis was a writer whose books offered a vivid picture of life in Colorado’s 19th-century mining towns. When she was 2 years old, her parents brought her to the State in an ox-driven covered wagon. They settled in the town of Bonanza where she grew up dirt poor in a ramshackle miner’s cabin.
Later, after her first husband died, Ellis was left to support their two children on her own ‒ sewing, running a boarding house, and cooking for local construction crews. She lost her youngest daughter while caring for her eldest, who was suffering from diphtheria at the time. In 1918 Ellis was elected Saguache County Treasurer, a position she would hold for the next six years.
In failing health, she retired and turned to writing full time. “The life of an Ordinary Woman,” published in 1929, was designated one of the year’s best books. In 1938, she received an Honorary Master of Letters from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Week One: Barney L. Ford and Agnes Smedley
Week Two:Benjamin Barr Lindsey and Anne Bassett
Week Three: William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and Clara Brown
Week Four: William “Big Bill” Haywood and Anne Evans
Week Five: Buckskin Charley and “Babe” Didrikson-Zaharias
Week Six: Antonia Brico and Chief Black Kettle
Week Seven: Casimiro Barela and Daisy Anderson
Week Eight: Chogyam Trungpa and Ellen Elliot Jack
Week Nine: Elizabeth Hickok Robbins Stone and Chin Lin Sou
Week Ten: Emily Griffith and Dalton Trumbo
Week Eleven: Chipeta and Wallace Werner
Week Twelve: Eve Drewelowe and Davis Waite
Week Thirteen: Dr. Carl J. Johnson and Florence Sabin
Week Fourteen: Damon Runyon and Emma Langdon
Week Fifteen: Ellison Onizuka and Golda Meir
Week Sixteen: John Lewis Dyer and Helen Hunt Jackson
Week Seventeen: Edward Berthoud and Frances Wisebart Jacobs
Week Eighteen: Hattie McDaniel and Enos Mills
Week Nineteen: Isabella Bird and Francis Schlatter
Week Twenty: Laura Gilpin and Henry O. Wagoner
Week Twenty-One: Justina Ford and George Norlin
Week Twenty-Two: George Bent and Julia Archibald Holmes
Week Twenty-Three: Herbert Bayer and Mabel Barbee Lee
Week Twenty-Four: Martha Maxwell and Chief Ignacio
Week Twenty-Five: Isom Dart and Marvel Crosson
Week Twenty-Six: Jack Dempsey and Mary Long
Week Twenty-Seven: Mary Lathrop and James Beckwourth
Week Twenty-Eight: John Otto and Mina Loy
Week Twenty-Nine: Mary Rippon and Joseph Henry Stuart
Week Thirty: Lauren Watson and Molly Brown
Week Thirty-One: Mary “Mother” Jones and Chief Little Bear
Week Thirty-Two: Chief Little Raven and Neva Romero
Week Thirty-Three: Olga Little and Louis Tikas
Week Thirty-Four: Lowell Thomas and Poker Alice Ivers
Week Thirty-Five: Mariano Medina and Dr. Portia Lubchenko McKnight
Week Thirty-Six: Tsianina Redfeather and Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez
Week Thirty-Seven: Minoru Yasui and Ruth Cave Flowers
Week Thirty-Eight: Sadie Likens and Neal Cassady
Week Thirty-Nine: Nikola Tesla and Rose Marie Tabor
Week Forty: Oliver Toussaint Jackson and Sarah Platt-Decker
Week Forty-One: Portia Mansfield and Luis Junior Martinez