Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1880 — White River Massacre Investigation. [ARTICLE]

White River Massacre Investigation.

The Committee on Indian Affairs in the House of Representatives are engaged at Washington in investigating the! cause of the Ute outbreak at the’White River Agency in Colorado. Gen. Adams was the first witness examined. He simply told the story of his personal connectioft with the Indian troubles—a story whieh has already been often told in the newspapers. It comprised his appointment by Mr. Schurz as a Special Agent of the Indian Bureau last fall, while Mr. Schurz was in Colorado. At that time Adams was an employe in the Postoffice Department. He went to Los Pinos, and was conversant with the incidents of the Thornburgh fight and the Meeker massacre. He thinks Meeker was largely to blame for those calamities. He was a cranky old man, with set notions, and frequently embroiled himself in quarrels. On one occasion two young men went out into the prairie and set the grass on fire, with the intent to scare Meeker. The latter at once sent for soldiers. These came, and Thornburgh’s ill-fated expedition was the result. The Indians became very much alarmed. In one of the subsequent quarrels between them and Meeker he met his death. Adams told his story from beginning to close with few interruptions. He offered no opinions on the situation, nor was he asked to. He is known to be a firm friend of Mr. Schurz.