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Show Unfulfilled Promises: Negotiations with the Intruders, 1849-1882 59 However, the attempts to locate all the Utes on the Confederated Ute Reservation failed. In July 1869 Ute People gathered at Denver to protest their removal to a reservation.26 Those in New Mexico refused to leave their land. Other Utes traveled in and out of the reservation as they followed the game and as they needed provisions. In 1870 the Little Giant Lode was discovered on the Los Animas River. Miners began pouring into the San Juan area which was still Ute land. The Ute People grew alarmed and protested this trespass. The People also protested the boundaries of the reservation. The eastern boundary had actually been located twelve miles west of the line agreed to in the 1868 Treaty. Likewise the southern boundary was located further north than the line agreed to.27 These protests were met with efforts to negotiate with the Utes for additional cessions of land. Agreements In 1871 Congress enacted a bill which ended treaty-making. It was an act against the sovereignty of Indian tribes. It also confused the processes of establishing reservations and leasing Indian land. Thereafter, negotiations with Indians concluded in "agreements," and reservations were established by special legislation and/or executive orders. This change in policy confused the question of Indian ownership of lands set aside to them by means other than treaty. 1872 Negotiations In 1872 an appointed commission began negotiations to convince the Ute People to give up the San Juan area. Some Utes angry with Ouray for signing the Treaty of 1868 tried to kill him.28 They failed and he continued as the Ute leader with whom government officials most often dealt. Besides the commission, several other whites attended the councils to look after their special interests. Otto Mears, for example, was there as a supplier of goods for the People. Felix Brunot, Chairman of the Board of Indian Commissioners, was also in attendance to inform the People that they had too much land. |
