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Show BELIEVE NEBEKER READY TO ENGAGE IN BIG FIGHT Spcehil to Tho Tribune. PISNVER, Colo., Feb. ID. A dispatch was sent lo Denver by the Denver & Rio Grande operator at Dolores, Colo., nearest telegraph .station to the scene of action. lie talked over the telephone to tho operator at Cortez, who stated that nil efforts to gain touch with Marshal Nebeker or the Colorado party hud been futile. Marshal Nebeker'a attitude is taken at Cortez to mean that lie has determined to engage the Indians In battle and for this reason has not only closed up on information ns to his plans, hut is trying to keep the outside world from knowing" what Is going on. ' Cortex, it Is asserted, Is In a state of hi eh excitement, owing to the fact that many of the leading men of the section are in the posse which started out Wednesday, Wed-nesday, and it is thoroughly believed that these men w ill go into the fight with the idea of wiping out the Flutes. Covered With Snow. The country where the fighting" is expected ex-pected to take place n covered with snow and, with communication cut off, it will be difficult to obtain tecum tc information in-formation as to what is going on. It Is known, however, thai Marshal Xeb-cker Xeb-cker hay made complete preparations for the work and that he has plenty of ammunition am-munition for prolonged operations. In some quarters here there is a disposition dis-position to believe that the enpture of Tsc-Na-Gat (Hatch), the voung Indian who has brought about the present situation, sit-uation, will be accomplished without any bloodshed, but In the Ute country and among federal officials conversant with the sltual ton and acquainted wit h the Indians, a desperate encounter is t? c -ported. William H. Melrose, a special Investigator Investi-gator In the department of justice here, who was bom and reared at Pagosa Springs. Colo., and is thoroughly nc-quninted nc-quninted with the conditions down there, paid todav that he believed the campaign which Marshal Nebeker is directing right now will be the climax of thirty years of enmity between tho Piutes and the cattlemen of southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. -"He said: The present crisis is brought about as the result of a tend th.it has existed ex-isted b.-tw eeti the Indians and the whites in that section since lSS. Indians Entrenched. As the result of depredations and repeated thefts of cattle at that time, cattlemen and sheepmen of the country coun-try organised themselves into fighting fight-ing band and started after the Indians. In-dians. Then, as now, the Indians entrenched en-trenched t hemt--elves in the mountains and for two davs tlu-v withstood the fire Uf the white men. Tho whiles h"U t wo men killed nml so vera 1 wounded during the lighting, but j i there is no record of how the Indiana In-diana fared. That was the beginning- of the trouble between the two factions. These Indians, who are a part of the Utes, ever have been a thorn in the .side of the government They I have refused to stay on any reservation reser-vation and at one time, to placate them, the government gave them a reservation of their own, but they re- . t fused to stay on it. They have wandered wan-dered around from place to place, in small groups, and have been a constant con-stant menace to the white people. They steal cattle and food and constantly con-stantly annoy the settlers. The result has been that every year since the White Rabbit incident, which brought about the battle of 1S85, there lias been trouble between the whiles and the Piutes. with a death attending nearly every argument. argu-ment. Looking fof Trouble. The indians are always looking for trouble, and whenever it looms they gather in force, as they have done in this instance. Old Polk, the father of Hatch, is one of the veterans of the band and there probably are many more who took part In the old fight, so that when it became apparent that ttie authorities were planning lo ar- i rest Hatch it did not take very long for these renegades to mobilize and , prepare to resist the white men. ' This resistance is no joke. Those fellows hate the white men and they will fight. I do not blame Marshal Nebeker for trying to keep his plans secret. The piutes are a foxy- lot and, however improbable It may seem, they have spies in all those little towns, ready to warn them of any movement move-ment planned by the officers. Nebeker, Neb-eker, I think, realizes exactly what he is up against and I do not think he is deceiving himself into the belief be-lief that the Indians will surrender their man without a fight. It is possible pos-sible that there may be some cravens among the Piutes and that these will lay down their arms, but if Nebeker shows that he has made preparations for a battle, he will have a fight. Old Polk, the. father of Hatf-h, is one of the meanest Indians that ever lived. Ho hates the white man and I think he will flic before he will let j them take his son to jail. He has an Idea that the son will not get a fair trial and his altitude toward offi- cers In t lie past, convinces me that he I is not going to give tiie y-jung buck up to the authorities. Refuses to Give Up. j Many capable officers have been sent out to get Hatch, but tiie old man has always been on the job with his Winchester and has f:rrnly declined de-clined to acknowledge, the authority i of the United States. One Indian of the caliber of Old Polk thinks he can whip ten white men and tiie show of force by Mar- , shal NebHter will not have any effect ef-fect on him. Tiie marshal and his men will have to whip them In battle j before they can get their man. j The local federal authorities have not received any official word from Nebeker j or the members of the posse that left Cortex to join him. They know only : that Nebeker has made up his mind to arrest Hatch and the other Indians who ! are with him. They have tried to get j some information by long distance tele- j phone, but have been unsuccessful. j Early this morning a messn-so was re- 1 reived from Grayson, Cta.h, saying tha t ! Marshal Nebeker and his men were there. ' hourly c pelting the Colorado posse to ! arrive. No one seemed to know anvthinc I about the latter parly. It was supposed1 that they had been caught in the storm ; and marooned overnight, being forced to-j to-j halt at either Cottonwood or Montezuma. I However, the information from Monti -I cello came late this afternoon, and it Is 'now believed that when the party finally reached Grayson the men took only a i brief rest and continued their march to-1 to-1 ward 131 uff, twenty-five imicti farther west. In view of Nobeker's refusal to tall; over the telephone or give, out any in- fortr.ation, his purpose in establishing ; temporary headquarters 8 1 Grayson in- ; stead of Rlnff become? apparent, accord- 1 ing to local federal officers. They be- I Iteve bis plan all along has been to keep the Indians in icnorance of lite num- ; her of turn under his comma nd. hoping ' to move towa rd their posi t ion under rover of darkness and have them makeup make-up to f'nd a lame toree of armed m-m outside their tamps. Thi. is also believed be-lieved to he t he reason he started o::t at onee, in the. hope of reaching Bluff tonight. I |