This school was erected in 2008 at the cost of $9.2 million [US]. The school features 15.8% recycled material used in construction, 30% water use reduction, 35% of electricity provided by wind power, 50% reduction in landfill waste, low VOC, skylights in the gym. (Excerpted from (
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This school was named in honor of Chipeta, a Kiowa Apache who was raised by the Ute People and became the second wife of Chief Ouray. "Chipeta sought to live peacefully with the white settlers in Colorado. Tensions were rising as the settlers drove off game the Utes needed to survive. In addition, the government, through the White River Indian Agency, was pressing the Utes to take up farming, give up racing their horses, and convert to Christianity. The Ute resentment boiled up in an uprising in September 1879, marked by the Meeker Massacre at the Agency, where the Utes killed 11 white men and took three women and two children captive. In a related battle at Mill Creek, the Utes pinned down forces from Fort Steele for several days before reinforcements arrived.
The Uncompahgre did not take part in the uprising. Chipeta helped negotiate the release of the captives, aiding General Charles Adams of the Colorado Militia, a former US Indian agent. One of the captives was Josephine Meeker, adult daughter of the late Indian agent Nathan Meeker. Adams held an inquiry into the events in Colorado.
On January 7, 1880, Chipeta and Chief Ouray husband led a delegation of Utes to Washington DC to negotiate a treaty regarding reservation resettlement. They also had been asked to testify before a congressional inquiry into the Ute uprising. As Chipeta and the other Utes attempted to board a train at Alamosa, they were almost lynched by an angry mob of white people, who believed them associated with the Meeker Massacre.
On March 7, 1880 Chipeta was welcomed as a delegate by Secretary of Interior Carl Schurz at the US Capitol. She testified before a Congressional inquiry into the Meeker Massacre. At the hearing, she took the witness stand and answered, through an interpreter, the 10 questions put to her.[4]
The Utes ratified a treaty with the US government; however, they were forced to leave Colorado and resettle on a reservation in Utah. Both the White River and Uncompahgre Utes were forced out. Following passage of the Ute Removal Act of 1880, Chipeta and other Utes were removed to the Uintah Indian Reservation in Utah, where Chief Ouray died that same year. After his death, the reservation was renamed to honor him. Chipeta continued as a leader of the Utes and was highly respected as a wise woman. She was often mentioned in the press." (from (
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