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Show Mountain Men and Fur Trappers 17 1853, largely to serve the Capote band of Utes, and Kit Carson, the famous trapper, mountain man and trader, who was a friend to the Utes, was named agent.10 He served in that capacity until 1859. The Mouache band of Utes was also served at the Taos agency during the time, but members of the Weeminuche band came there infrequently. The Tabeguache band of Utes heard of rations being allotted to their relatives and went to Taos in 1856. Kit Carson recommended that an agency for the Tabeguache be set up closer to their country but his request was not acted on by the United States for several years. Kit Carson (1809-1868) was the best known of the fur trappers and traders who had entered Ute territory. While a young man, he had trapped for eight years in South Park and had become familiar with practically every Ute trail and every pass in the mountains. He was modest and amiable and the Indians generally considered him a worthwhile friend, especially since he had married Singing Grass, an Arapaho, while very young, and at Taos, in 1843, had married Josef a Jaramillo. During the time that southern Colorado was claimed by Spain (1598-1821) and by Mexico (1821-48), several land grants had been awarded to Spanish or Mexican citizens in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado in the traditional lands of the Utes. The United States agreed to respect these land grants by terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848) which ended the war with Mexico. They had been granted by the Spanish and Mexican governments to petitioners who agreed to develop the land and to protect the frontier. Many of the land grants adversely affected different bands of Utes. For example, the very large and famous Maxwell Land Grant of over one and one-half million acres in the northeastern portion of New Mexico and southeastern Colorado included some former Ute holdings ; the San Joaquin del Canon del Rio de Chama Grant had given land to settlers near Abiquiu, as did the Canon de San Miguel (Peder-nales) Grant; in the area of present day Colorado, the Las Animas Grant embraced the land south of the Arkansas River to the Sangre de Cristos between the Huerfano and Purgatory Rivers (Ceran St. Vrain and Cornelio Vigil) ; the Sangre de Cristo Grant covered a large area in the lower San Luis Valley; the Conejos Grant took away from the Utes the western portion of the San Luis Valley; and the Tierra 10 Covington, "The Ute Indians and the United States," pp. 29-33. |