American Indian Tribes of Colorado
*Apache
A number of the Apache bands extended their raids from time to time over the territory of what is now Colorado, but only one of them, the Jicarilla, may be said to have been permanent occupants of any part of the State within the historic period.
*Arapaho
The Arapaho hunted and warred over parts of eastern Colorado.
*Bannock
This tribe and the Shoshoni roamed over the extreme northwestern corner of the State.
*Cheyenne
The same may be said of the Cheyenne as of the Arapaho.
*Comanche
Like the Arapaho and Cheyenne, this tribe hunted and warred in the eastern parts of the State.
*Kiowa
Like the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Comanche, the Kiowa formerly hunted and warred across parts of eastern Colorado.
*Kiowa Apache
This tribe always accompanied the Kiowa.
*Navaho
The Navaho lived just south of the Colorado boundary, entering that State only occasionally.
*Pueblos
Most of the Pueblo tribes trace their origin to some place in the north and there is no doubt that the ancestors of many of them lived in what are now the pueblo and cliff ruins of Colorado. In historic times the principal dealings of Colorado Indians with the Pueblos have been with the Pueblo of Taos, which was once a trading point of importance. Many of its people intermarried with the Ute.
*Shoshoni
Together with the Bannock, the Shoshoni roamed over the extreme northwestern part of Colorado.
*Ute
The Ute formerly occupied the entire central and western portions of Colorado.
"Native American" or American Indian?
Precursor to Colorado Dreams in Colorado
The Colorado Silver Boom was a dramatic expansionist period of silver mining activity in the U.S. state of Colorado in the late 19th century. The boom started in 1879 with the discovery of silver at Leadville. Over 82 million dollars worth of silver was mined during the period, making it the second great mineral boom in the state, and coming twenty years after the earlier and shorter Colorado Gold Rush of 1859. The boom was largely the consequence of large-scale purchases of silver by the United States Government authorized by Congress in 1878. The boom endured throughout the 1880s, resulting in an intense increase in both the population and wealth of Colorado, especially in the mountains. It came to an end in 1893 in the wake of the collapse of silver prices caused by the repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act.
Silver had been discovered in Colorado in the 1860s, with early mining in Clear Creek Canyon at Georgetown in 1864. In the early days, the mineral was overshadowed by gold, however, and the low price of mineral meant that most mines were not profitable enough to operate. In 1878, responding to pressure from western interests, the United States Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act authorizing the free coinage of silver. The government demand raised the price of the metal to the point where many additional mines were profitable. The discovery of the Leadville district the following year resulted in a flood of new emigrant prospectors to many of the same mountain gullies that had been the site of the gold rush. The resulting opulence was most lavish in Leadville itself. The repeal of the Sherman Act in 1893 conversely led to a collapse of silver prices, bringing out an end to the boom as well.
The boom continued unabated throughout the 1880s, a decade that gave the state many of the historic structures in its cities and towns. The boom also drove many extensions of the railway network in the mountains, including such lines as the Denver, South Park and Pacific, which built an early narrow gauge line to Leadville. Likewise the extension of the railroad network up the Roaring Fork Valley to the previously failed mining town of Aspen in the late 1880s made the extraction of silver ore there economically feasible, and saved the town from near extinction.
The government purchases of silver were subsequently nearly doubled by the 1890 Sherman Silver Purchase Act, further extending the boom into the early 1890s. The repeal of the act in 1893 resulted in a collapse of silver prices, bringing about an end to boom. After 1893, many mining camps became ghost towns. The accompanying collapse in state-wide economic activity was ameliorated somewhat by the simultaneous emergence of agriculture, previously derided as not feasible, as a large component of the state economy.
United States Events in 1883
- January 10 – A fire at the Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee kills 73 people.
- January 16 – The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, reforming the United States civil service with the aim to end the spoils system, becomes law.
- January 19 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service in Roselle, New Jersey (it was built by Thomas Edison).
- February 23 – Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
- February 28 – The first vaudeville theater is opened, in Boston, Massachusetts.
- May 24 – Brooklyn Bridge is opened to traffic after 13 years of construction.
- May 30 – In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede which crushes 12 people.
- July 4 – The world's first rodeo is held in Pecos, Texas.
- September 15 – The University of Texas at Austin opens to students.
- September 29 – A consortium of flour mill operators in Minneapolis, Minnesota forms the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic Railway as a means to get their product to the Great Lakes ports but avoid the high tariffs of Chicago.
- October 15 – The Supreme Court of the United States declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional, since the Court allows private individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.
- November 3 – American Old West: Self-described "Black Bart the Po-et" gets away with his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves an incriminating clue that eventually leads to his capture.
- November 18 – U.S. and Canadian railroads institute 5 standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
- November 28 – Whitman College is chartered as a 4-year college in Walla Walla, Washington.
United States Events in 1884
- May 1 – The eight-hour workday is first proclaimed by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the United States. May 1, called May Day or Labour Day, is now a holiday recognized in almost every industrialized country.
- August 5 – The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.
- August 10 – A severe earthquake, magnitude 5.5, (intensity VII) occurs off the northeast Atlantic coast. The area affected extends from central Virginia to southern Maine, and west as far as Cleveland.
- September 5 – Staten Island Academy is founded.
- October – International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. fixes the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian.
- October 6 – The United States Naval War College is established in Newport, Rhode Island.
- November 4 – United States presidential election, 1884: Democrat Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine in a very close contest to win the first of his non-consecutive terms.
- December 1 – American Old West: Near Frisco, New Mexico, deputy sheriff Elfego Baca holds off a gang of 80 Texan cowboys who want to kill him for arresting cowboy Charles McCarthy (the cowboys were terrorizing the area's Hispanos and Baca was working against them).
- December 6 – The Washington Monument is completed.
- December 16 – The World Cotton Centennial World's Fair opens in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Other Resources for the Time
| Fashion of the Times | Weapons of the Times | IC Foods of the Times |
| IC Items of the Times | Medicines of the Times | Relationships of the Times |
| Women Suffrage in Colorado |
