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Nathanial C. Meeker (July 12, 1817 – September 30, 1879) was a 19th-century United States (US) journalist, homesteading entrepreneur, and Indian agent for the federal government. He is noted for his founding in 1870 of the Union Colony, a cooperative agricultural colony in present-day Greeley, Colorado. In 1878 he was appointed US Agent at the White River Indian Agency in western Colorado. The next year, he was killed by Ute warriors in what became known as the Meeker Massacre, part of the Ute War. His wife and adult daughter were taken captive for about three weeks. In 1880 the US Congress passed punitive legislation to remove the Ute from Colorado to reservations in present-day Utah, and take away some land formerly guaranteed them. ==Biography== Nathan Cook Meeker was born in Euclid, Ohio in 1817, to Enoch and Lerena Meeker. He was Christened at the First Presbyterian Church, Cuyahoga on 18 May 1818. As a young man, he married Arvilla Delight Smith on 8 April 1844 in Geauga, Ohio, and they had several children together. Meeker later became a newspaper reporter for the ''New York Tribune.'' In the 1860s, when he was in his 50s, he served as its agricultural editor. Very interested in the West, in 1866 Meeker wrote ''Life in the West''. He went to the Rocky Mountain region for the ''Tribune'' in 1869, and was inspired to plan a utopian agricultural community there. With the backing of his editor Horace Greeley, Meeker organized the Union Colony to be settled in the Colorado Territory. He advertised for applicants to move to the South Platte River basin, in what was intended as a cooperative venture for people of "high moral standards." Meeker received approximately 3000 replies that winter, and accepted about 200 of them to purchase shares.〔("Meeker (Nathan C.) Home" ), ''Survey of Historic Sites and Homes: Colorado'', National Park Service, 2005, accessed 20 Dec 2010〕 With the capital from the shares, in 1870 Meeker purchased 2000 acres (8 km²) near present-day Greeley at the confluence of the South Platte and the ''Cache la Poudre'' (Powder Bag) rivers. The venture, which relied on funding from Horace Greeley, was initially successful. The settlers brought irrigation techniques to northwestern Colorado, and helped attract additional agricultural settlement in the region. The town of Greeley was incorporated in 1886. The predominant American Indian tribes in the area were bands of Ute, who were struggling with the results of European-American encroachment on their lands. In 1878, eight years after the founding of the colony, Meeker was appointed United States (US) Indian agent at the White River Ute Indian Reservation, on the western side of the continental divide. He received this appointment although he lacked experience with Native Americans. While living among the Ute, Meeker tried to extend his policy of religious and farming reforms. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nathan Meeker」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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