| OCR Text |
Show The Uncompahgre Ute People 111 Agreement of 1880. They had to give up their lands in the Uncompahgre Valley for lands along the Grand (Colorado) River near the Gunnison, if enough agricultural land was available there. If enough land was not available, then they had to remove to and settle upon lands in that vicinity and in Utah Territory. After Congress ratified the agreement, President Hayes appointed a Ute Commission (G. W. Manypenny, A. B. Meacham, J. B. Bowman, J. J. Russell, and O. Mears) to convince a majority of the Ute People to ratify the agreement. The commission met in council with the People at the Los Pinos Agency. Colonel R. S. MacKenzie at Fort Garland was ordered to march part of his command to the area. On 25 May 1880 a post was established north of the Los Pinos Agency. In 1884 it became officially named as Fort Crawford. The post was finally abandoned in 1890, nine years after the Uncompahgre People were removed from Colorado.21 Most of the Uncompahgre and the few White River People who were at Los Pinos were opposed to giving up their lands. However, bribery and intimidation convinced them to sign. By the end of the summer a majority of adult male Uncompahgre (316 of a total population of 1,360) had signed. Only sixty-one White River males (out of a total population of 665) signed. The commission declared this to be the required majority.22 In June 1881 part of the Ute Commission (Otto Mears, Judge McMorris, Mr. Russell) was assigned to search for a site suitable to serve as the new reservation for the Uncompahgre. They and an escort of one hundred cavalrymen proceeded on horseback to inspect land along the Gunnison and Grand (Colorado) Rivers in Colorado. They claimed that suitable agricultural and grazing lands could not be found near these streams. Actually, the commissioners decided that this area around present-clay Grand Junction, Colorado, should be left for white settlement. The commissioners, therefore, went north and west into Utah. A site in the valleys of the White, Green, and Duchesne Rivers was selected as the future reservation of the Uncompahgre. Otto Mears claimed that this location conformed to the provisions of the agreement to locate the Uncompahgre at Grand Junction or adjacent territory. The Secretary of the Interior approved Mears' in- |
