[2] Prior to the conflict, he had traveled to meet up with Major Thomas Tipton Thornburgh to learn of his intentions and warn him that crossing the Milk Creek onto the White River Ute reservation would be seen as an invasion and an act of war.

He traveled to Colorado and joined with the White River Utes when he married a young woman from the tribe.

The Utes were nomadic people who ranged across their extensive hunting grounds for large and small game in family groups.

Bands of family groups met with other Utes during the year for religious and traditional ceremonies, like the Bear Dance.

[5] Informal and formal measures were used to negotiate with whites, which ultimately resulted in the loss of Ute land and establishment of the Ouray and Uintah reservations.

[5][6] In Colorado in the 1870s, Ute tribal land had covered 12 million acres west of the Continental Divide and included land in the south around Ignacio and Durango, centered around Milk Creek and Meeker, and in the north including Aspen.

Nicaagat ran to a saddled horse and escaped into the mountains, meeting up with other Native Americans who gave him food and shelter on his journey.

Nicaagat met with Colorado governor Frederick W. Pitkin, telling him that Meeker's statements were lies.

[11] Nicaagat and other warriors met Thornburg at Fortification Creek, and again at Peck's Trading Post near present-day Craig, Colorado to assess Thornburgh's motives.

Thornburgh did not believe that the Utes were dangerous, based upon history with them, but he decided to follow his original order, which was to send his full force onto the reservation.

[11] Nicaagat left the army encampment[16] and went to Peck's trading post where had purchased 10,000 rounds of ammunitions, superior to those of the military.

[11] They remembered the Sand Creek Massacre when Black Kettle's village of sleeping women and children was attacked by 700 soldiers while the Cheyenne men were off hunting.

[12] Nicaagat led the Meeker Uprising and Battle of Milk Creek of September 29, 1879 and claimed that he was the one who killed Major Thomas Tipton Thornburgh.

[14] General Hatch held a commission to study the Meeker Massacre and Battle of Milk Creek.

He determined that no Utes would be tried for the battle against the United States military, but those involved in the killing or kidnapping of people from the Indian Agency would need to be brought in.