Ouray (Ute leader)  Ouray (1833 – August 24, 1880) was a Native American chief of the Tabeguache (Uncompahgre) band of the Ute tribe, then located in western Colorado. Because of his leadership ability, Ouray was acknowledged by the United States government as a chief of the Ute and he traveled to Washington, D.C. to negotiate for the welfare of the Utes. Raised in the culturally diverse town of Taos, Ouray learned to speak many languages that helped him in the negotiations, which were complicated by the manipulation of his grief over his five-year-old son lost during an attack by the Sioux. Ouray met with Presidents Lincoln, Grant, and Hayes and was called the man of peace because he sought to make treaties with settlers and the government. Following the Meeker Massacre (White River War) of 1879, he traveled in 1880 to Washington, D.C.. He tried to secure a treaty for the Uncompahgre Ute, who wanted to stay in Colorado; but, the following year, the United States forced the Uncompahgre and the White River Ute to the west to reservations in present-day Utah. Ouray was born in 1833 near the Taos Pueblo in Nuevo México, now in the state of New Mexico. His father, Guera Murah, also called Salvador, was a Jicarilla Apache adopted into the Ute, and his mother was Uncompahgre Ute. His parents had another son named Quench, and then his mother died soon after. His father remarried and his stepmother left Ouray and his brother to live on a ranch with a Spanish-speaking couple around 1843 or 1845. His father returned to Colorado and became a leader of the "Tabeguache" Ute band and the boys remained in Taos. Ouray received a Catholic education and was raised in the Catholic faith. Living in a culturally diverse location, he learned Ute and Apache languages, sign language, Spanish, and English, which he found helpful later in life in negotiating with whites and Native Americans. He spent much of his youth working for Mexican sheepherders. He also hauled wood and packed mules that were bound for the Santa Fe Trail. In 1850, Ouray and his brother left Taos to join their father, who died soon after. Ouray was the band's best rider, hunter, and fighter, and he became an enforcer (like a chief of police) and then sub-chief of the band.