Campfire Story
with
Paul (Snake) Tabbee
How The Uintah Mountains Were Named, and The Christian
Bear...
With The Thanksgiving holiday upon us, most reflect back to the
pilgrims
and their plight in this new world. It is remembered the
celebration
they had after being helped out by some friendly Indians, and
hence our
Thanksgiving holiday. Before these Pilgrims had made it to the
New
World, the Indian man had it made. All he had to do was hunt,
fish,
breed, and maybe, fight an occasional battle or two... Life was
simple
then. And then, the white man came... and, the white man said he
was
gonna improve that; Yeah, Right... Things haven't been the same
since.
When the Pilgrims were back in their nice little settlement back
east
somewheres, eatin' their turkey & other goodies with their
friendly
Indian buddies, The Spanish were in Ute country lookin for the
fabled
Seven Cities of Cibolla. After some time, the Utes had enough and
run
the greedy, gold huntin' bastards out of this country. The rest is
well
known to present-day treasure seekers.
But what is not so well known,
is the origin of the name 'Uintah". Most
argue that it stems from some
abomination of a Ute word that supposedly
means 'land where the waters meet
in the pines' or some other such thing
like that. Well from what I was told
by my Grandpa, this is the low-down
on the origin of that name...
Back in
the early 1800's, the Ute country was being over-ran again with
another sort
of white man. These guys were explorers, trappers, mountain
men and the like.
As the story goes, a group of these new-comers got
themselves lost up near
Dry Fork somewheres. Freak blizzard early in the
winter is what did it to
them. Anyway, after the snow had cleared, they
had met up with a small
hunting party of Utes. Not having a clue as to
his location, the head white
guy went up to the leader of this small Ute
hunting party and asked him,
"Where the heck are we??" The Ute leader
replied to the white man, "you in da
mountains..." And the name stuck;
'Uintah Mountains'...
Nowadays, we have
a new type of explorer in Ute country, these guys who
are lookin' for the
famous Lost Rhoades Gold Mine. Here is another story
about a couple of those
hardy treasure seekers..
A few years ago, a couple of white guys were
prospecting up in
Whiterocks Canyon somewhere. As they were walkin along, one
of the
prospectors noticed his buddy wearin' tenny-shoes. He asked him,
"why
you wearin' them tenny-shoes? Don't ya think boots would be better
on
your feet??" His buddy says."I'm wearin these in case we get chased by
a
bear."
"Oh, you'll ever be able to outrun a bear" the white guy says.
And his
buddy tells him, "don't have to, just gotta outrun you..." Sure
enough,
later that day, a bear got to chasin' the two white guys. The one
with
tenny-shoes took off like a flash, leaving his buddy way behind.
The
bear was quickly gaining on the white man with the big hikin'
boots.
With the bear now on his heels, the white man recalled his days as a
boy
scout...;let's see, Boy Scout Manual, chapter something,
paragraph
such-and-such-bear on your tail, play dead... So the white guy
throws
himself down on the ground feigning death. The bear got to sniffin'
this
guy now, who had happened to be one of them 'born-again' Christians.
And
so, the white guy started prayin to his Lord and Savior, "oh,
please
God, let this be a Christian bear!!" The white guy opened one eye
to
take a peek and saw that his prayer had been answered. There was
the
bear down on his knees, paws folded, head bowed and mumblin' a
prayer
himself, "We thank thee, Lord, for this meal we are about to
receive..."
Paul (SNAKE) Tabbee