The Last War Trail: The Utes and the Settlement of Colorado

by Robert Emmitt, Charles Wilkinson (Afterword), Andrew Gulliford (Introduction)

Robert Emmitt's The Last War The Utes and the Settlement of Colorado is one of the most important and innovative books written on Ute Indians from Colorado. Saponise Cuch, Chief of the White River Utes, said to Robert Emmitt in 1948, "I am an old man now, and I am the only one left who remembers this. I have known that someone would come to tell this story; now you will write it out, as I have told it to you." Drawing upon historical documents, transcripts, and letters as well as interviews with Northern Ute elders, Emmitt describes the tragedy of United States Indian Agent Nathan Meeker's plan to "civilize" the Utes, and the resulting military intervention in which fifty Ute warriors held off the U.S. cavalry and killed Meeker, Major Thomas Thornburgh, and others. Ute warriors sought only to defend their families and their way of life, but the price for that defense was forced removal from Colorado and the loss of over twelve million acres. "The Utes Must Go" became a rallying cry for white settlers who coveted the lands of peaceful Utes. Written with the care and precision of a finely crafted novel, The Last War Trail was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published in 1954. Long out of print and now brought back with new rare photographs and illustrations, The Last War Trail will be eagerly read by anyone trying to understand conflicts of the nineteenth century between Native American and encroaching settlers.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

412 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1972

About the author

Emmitt, a journalist and one-time managing editor of Vanderbilt University Press, passed away in 1984.

Reviews

[Kylie Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a unique book. I particularly enjoyed the mix of direct primary sources and more narrative fiction-like prose to tell a story. Somewhat of a shame that I read the first half a couple of years ago and then finally finished it, because sometimes I felt like I wasn't keeping some of the people straight, but overall loved reading this and its unusual style.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm left with a sense of outrage of how the Ute people were treated. White settlers wanted their land, and in the end they got their way.

What's good about this story is that it seems to strive to tell a complete (all sides) of how the Ute Indians came to be removed from their lands.

[Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a description of the "Meeker Massacre" in Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee", but Emmitt here provides the full context and inevitable aftermath. This edition includes a useful foreward and afterword which help further explain one of the most egregious land-grabs in the history of the American West, which let's face it, was one giant protracted land-grab.