Chief Niwot and the Curse of Boulder Valley
Chief Niwot (which means “Left Hand” in English) was a leader of the Southern Arapaho tribe born around 1825. He spent a great many winters in Boulder Valley, particularly at Valmont Butte, which is considered a sacred site for the Southern Arapaho.
Chief Niwot
In 1851, the United States signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie with the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow, Sioux, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara nations. In it, US government acknowledged that much of the land between Oregon and the Rocky Mountains belonged to these tribes and in return, the Native Americans would allow wagon trains of settlers and gold prospectors headed for California to pass through the area without being harmed. Road and forts could also be build on this land in exchange for $50,000 a year to be paid to the aforementioned nations for the next fifty years.
But during the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush in 1858, a group of white prospectors rode from Fort St. Vrain into Sunshine Canyon, where they were met by Niwot and several other members of the Southern Arapaho tribe. The chief’s encounter with these prospectors was not his first meeting with white men; his sister had married a trapper named John Poisal, and Niwot …read more
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