Disclaimer: This Impacts Of The American Gold Rush On Colorado’s Native Ute Population Of 1848 – 1896 Essay is a sample of work our writers do. If your inquiry is write my college essay for me, you’re definitely in the right place to get help.
For millennia, diverse Native American Tribes lived and thrived in the lands of Colorado. Before the arrival of European settlers, the Ute tribe members occupied the vast parts of present-day Utah, Colorado, and northern New Mexico. Close to 300,000 individuals of the native tribe lived in small villages throughout the region. Even so, contact with white settlers severely disrupted the local population’s way of life. Specifically, the 1858 discovery of Gold in the Rocky Mountain region ensured that the violence between Settlers and the Native Tribes was exacerbated. Because of the United States’ mining objectives, the Ute native tribe members of Colorado endured severe violence and extermination from their native lands, which they worked to preserve for future generations.
The Ute Native tribe of Colorado worked to preserve the abundance of their lands for future populations. They lived by a culture of hunting and gathering, which worked to keep the then-abundant resources of the land. Their heritage and religion placed the individuals as stewards rather than the owners of the grounds on which they settled. The hundreds of thousands of White Settlers who arrived in the region after the discovery of Gold displayed a different view of how the vast lands should be exploited.[1] As such, the Gold Rush culminated in significant and devastating violence and disruption of everyday life for the native people. In addition to some being forced to work as laborers for the white gold seekers, another significant sum of the individuals were brutally massacred and starved before being disposed of from their homelands to the reservation areas.
The Gold Rush caused a significant reduction in the sum of native populations because of associated epidemics. As part of the misery brought by the miners and settlers, the region experienced a prevalence of life-threatening diseases and epidemics due to cultural and economic shifts. The previously productive area was consequently overpopulated and overused, causing starvation among the natives and part of the settler groups.[2] While disease and starvation were regarded as consequential phenomena of population growth, they were founded on intentional deeds. The settlers acted deliberately, aiming to sweep the natives of the Rocky Mountain region, a premise explained by the violent acts against the tribes-people who chose to stay despite the hardships faced.
Intentional violence ensured that the members of the native tribe were erased from Colorado. As agriculture was expanded to meet the needs of the thousands of settlers, the white settlers became even more violent against the Native Americans. Five years before gold was discovered in Colorado, John Gunnison attempted to create a suitable route for a transcontinental rail line connecting the eastern and western states after discovering gold in California. But as retribution for the murder of indigenous people by California settlers, Gunnison’s expedition was killed in Colorado, leading to a stricter government response. It was common for California to pay bounties to some white settlers in exchange for the native people or Indian scalps.[3] Consequently, miners, loggers, and settlers formed a vigilante set of groups aiming to track down and exterminate the native population members. In just four decades following the settlement, the native population had been almost entirely decimated.
The native tribes were eventually terminated from their homelands because of the Gold rush. Events of violence and exploitation became more prevalent in the consequent years of white settlement. As the Gold search surged, competition over goldfields increased, leading to xenophobia and racial prejudice. While the Chinese and Latin American immigrants were often targeted, the more intense acts of violence were subjected to the natives at the hands of the settlers and minors, whose view of what it meant to be ‘American’ was extremely narrow.[4] The increase in the number of individuals migrating to the Ute lands ensured that the original inhabitants were driven out as they sought isolation and the game that was pushed out of the natural habitats.
Increased poverty ensured that the region became inhabitable for hunting and gathering tribes. Colorado was a rich, vast land whose populations enjoyed easy and natural access to food and medicine. The traditional lifestyle was exterminated after many individuals who moved to the region discovered that the Gold Rush was not as profitable to lay persons. The extraction techniques required became more complex, leaving the mining venture to the large enterprises and wealthy individuals who could afford the necessary resources. As such, many persons who did not find work in the established industries sought other means to make a livelihood, including illegal logging.[5] As of 1860, the Ute had adopted an isolation policy and privacy from settlers by retreating into the Rocky Mountains to avoid the dangerous civilization.
The mining phenomenon and consequent settlement increased child trafficking cases across the region. After establishing the Colorado territory in 1961, a path to statehood was created, allowing for the termination of the long-standing inhabitants deemed to be under the state authority. Under the campaign voice, ‘Utes must go,’ the government implemented genocidal measures to force the relocation of Indians. Alongside the bounty hunts, the local government also profited from child trafficking, especially for the native kids left behind after their parents were killed or forcefully exterminated from their lands. The kids and young working adults were sold as slaves to the emerging aristocrats who desired cheap labor. They worked within the domestic sphere and in other industrial occupations, especially in the emergent large farming fields meant to meet the needs of the rising population.[6] Girls attracted more outstanding prices since they could be used for various purposes, including sexual exploits by their owners. As such, the average price for the over 4,000 Indigenous children sold ranged from $60 for a boy to $200 for a girl.
The Gold Rush phenomenon and settler influence led to a significant cultural loss for the native tribes. First, the children sold were introduced to new ways of life since the parents who could teach them their traditions were either killed or placed on the reservations. The Ute natives were also forced to attend formal learning sessions in Indian Boarding schools where they had to learn the English language, which was deemed more beneficial for their integration into the new American society. The loss of land, subsistence means, linguistic patterns, identity, and general political control ensured that lasting effects were brought to the native tribe’s culture. It also should be acknowledged that the Native’s heritage prioritized environmental protection to secure future generations’ progress. But the Gold Rush led to the excavation of more than 12 billion tons of earth across a large span of land to facilitate the activity.[7] The activity was conducted without considering the environmental consequences since the unregulated mining practices allowed harmful chemicals such as mercury and toxic formulas that impacted water sources, farms, and the general productivity of remaining lands.
The 1858 gold discovery of Gold in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain region caused a frenzied rush as hopeful prospectors migrated an` 11d settled in the state. The migration’s severity ensured that the general landscape of the area, including the culture of native populations, was transformed. In addition to violent clashes, the white settlers provided native tribes terminated from the initially abundant lands. The events associated with the Gold Rush had lasting cultural and environmental effects that the native tribes worked tirelessly to avoid. It is critical to acknowledge the price paid by the native populations to allow for America’s development as a free and independent nation. Even though the actions were coerced, their recognition and understanding helped to create an environment of cultural diversity, equal growth, and consideration of the historically oppressed in resource allocation. The voices of native tribes should be heard regardless of the centuries of life in the social and systemic shadows.
[1] Sean Summers. “Gold Accelerates Settlement of Ute Lands.” The Herald Democrat, August 16, 2020. https://www.leadvilleherald.com/free_content/article_33fe61ec-e7ab-11ea-a6bc-3b30d422137c.html.
[2] Summers. “Gold Accelerates Settlement of Ute Lands.” https://www.leadvilleherald.com/free_content/article_33fe61ec-e7ab-11ea-a6bc-3b30d422137c.html.
[3] IITC. “Gold, Greed & Genocide.” International Indian Treaty Council, n.d. https://www.iitc.org/gold-greed-genocide/.
[4] Getchell, Michelle. “The Gold Rush.” Khan Academy, 2018. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/the-gilded-age/american-west/a/the-gold-rush.
[5] Sainio, Erick . “The Gold Rush and the Plains of Colorado – Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service).” www.nps.gov, 2014. https://www.nps.gov/sand/learn/news/the-gold-rush-and-the-plains-of-colorado.htm#:~:text=With%20thousands%20of%20new%20faces.
[6] James M. Potter, “Ute History and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe,” Colorado Encyclopedia, last modified January 25, 2023, https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ute-history-and-ute-mountain-ute-tribe.
