Chipeta

Women in Public Service, Common Roles/Uncommon Lives

Wife of Chief Ouray and primary representative for the Uncompahgre Utes in helping to negotiate a treaty with the United States government in 1880. The treaty was precipitated by an event a year earlier in which a group of White River Utes killed eleven men and took several women and children hostage in northwestern Colorado. Legend has it that Chipeta played a pivotal role in rescuing and housing the hostages. Following the treaty, however, Chipeta and her husband accepted relocation from their native Colorado to Utah in order to avoid bloodshed. Chipeta remained in Utah, a “Queen of the Utes,” until her death in 1924.