OCR Text |
Show The Uintah Ute People 91 Critchlow immediately organized efforts to expand the agricultural production on the reservation. However, efforts to get the People to remain throughout the year to plant and harvest a crop failed. In March 1872 the White River leader Douglas came from Colorado and persuaded the People at Uintah to give it up and let the white men farm for them. In May nine hundred People â€" Uintah, White River, Kapota, Sheberetch â€" gathered in the San Pete area. The gathering in San Pete was probably not just to hunt but was also for a Ghost Dance. During the spring of 1870 Bannock and Northern Shoshone had convinced Uintah People to join them in a Ghost Dance held in the Bridger Basin. The following spring Utes, Shoshones, and Bannocks again met for a Ghost Dance, this time held in the Bear Lake Valley.30 The Ghost Dance had been created among the Northern Paiutes of Nevada. This new religion promised a solution to problems faced by Indians through supernatural means, rather than through war or retreat. It promised that the spirits of the dead Indians would again reside upon this earth and change it into a paradise. The Ghost Dance did not have its intended effect. The People were not joined by their dead friends and relatives, and they did not become free of the white intruders. The People stopped sponsoring the Ghost Dance after 1872. During his administration Critchlow was urged by federal and local officials to gather all of the Utah People to the reservation and to encourage them to remain there. He was not alwrays successful. Many groups left the reservation annually to go on hunts. These hunts often aroused the whites to exaggerated reports of Ute uprisings which Critchlow was constantly countering. Kanosh and the Pah Vant who had been converted to the Mormon faith insisted on remaining at Corn Creek. Similarly the San Pitch People under Red Ant and Joe were determined to remain in Grass Valley. In 1877 Critchlow asked for and received permission to investigate the Mormon influence among the Indians. After touring Indian settlements in Thistle Valley, he reported that the People would be allowed to remain there since with help from Mormon settlers they were doing well. Not until 1879 |