Red Twilight: the Last Free Days of the Ute Indians by Val FitzPatrick
"Red Twilight: The Last Free Days Of The Ute Indians" is a remarkable eye-witness testament to the plight of the Ute Indians. Val FitzPatrick was born January 4, 1886 and lived to the age of 102. All his life was spent in northwestern Colorado and gave him an intimate knowledge of the Northern Utes (especially the Whiteriver band) after their encounter with the white man's culture. FitzPatrick provides the modern reader with a window into a yesteryear of the western frontier during the time of white settlers displacing the Utes from the homelands. This is an account more accurate and compelling than those of the newspaper journalists of the day were able to print. Very highly recommended for personal and academic Native American studies collections, Red Twilight is enhanced with a rare oral history by one of the Ute warriors who fought in the Battle of Milk Creek; excerpts from the diary of early cowboy Wils Rankin (nephew of Joe Rankin, scout of the ill-fated Major Thornburg); and a special section describing life on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in the 1950s and 60s.