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Show Government 53 cio. Forty-five years later, most of his bones were recovered and rein-terred in the cemetery southeast of the agency and the grave appropriately marked. Four old Utes who had helped in the original burial supervised the removal and acted as pall bearers at the second ceremony. These were Buckskin Charlie, Joseph Price, John McCook, and Naneese. The ceremony lasted for four days while the Indians performed many of their sacred ceremonies. It was concluded by a Christian service. This reburial of the Utes' most celebrated chieftain was attended by the largest group of whites and Indians ever assembled on the Southern Ute Reservation. The authenticity of Ouray's remains was established in affidavits by Buckskin Charlie, Joseph Price, John McCook, and Naneese. They were among the six men and one woman who had buried Ouray forty-five years before. During Ouray's leadership, the Utes underwent many important changes. Under the treaty of 1868 the first agency for the Northern Utes was set up at White River. Because Utes were restricted to the boundaries set up by the treaty and could not range as far for hunting as they had before, the government supplied rations to be issued to the people. After so many years of freedom, the Utes found it hard to have to ask for food and clothing. During the first years after trouble had ceased, the medicine men were again very influential, partly because many people were afraid of them. The Utes continued to believe in the idea of good and bad medicine; they considered medicine men witches or crazy people and believed that they caused sickness. The chieftainship had tended to become hereditary. Sons of men who had led horse bands took over their father's position at his death. However, the authority of the chief had deteriorated to the point that he was simply the spokesman for his tribe at the call of the agents. Agents of the Bureau of Indian Affairs came and went. Most of them knew nothing about Indians or Indian life, and therefore could not reach an understanding with the Utes. Sometimes an agent was able and sympathetic, but more often the agents were dishonest or incompetent. Sometimes, though honest, they knew nothing about Indian character and tried to make him abandon the nomadic life he had known and turn himself into something else. |