In 1858, the U.S. Army ordered Second Lieutenant Joseph Christmas Ives to provide the government with a better understanding of the Colorado River by exploring the length of the waterway in a steamboat.

The New Yorker’s narrative of the trip is rife with accounts of the watercraft running aground in the rocky, twisting river that ran from Colorado to the Pacific Ocean through mountains and canyons. Over the course of his trip, Ives came to rely on directions toward deeper water from native Chemehuevi, who easily navigated the river on light, bundled reed rafts.

“This was supposed to be a demonstration of American power to the Native people,” University of Colorado historian Patty Limerick told attendees of the 45th Colorado Law Conference on Natural Resources on Thursday, where this year

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