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Show 116 Years of Loss, Years of Adjustment, 1882-1933 angered the surrounding settlers. When Daniel C. Oakes made his survey of the boundaries of the Uncompahgre Reservation in 1884, he found People occupying land at least fifteen miles east of the reservation. And they refused to move out of Colorado.3 There were several altercations between the People and the agency personnel who controlled their lives. Despite strenuous efforts by the personnel to turn the People into farmers, most did not. Efforts to turn them into cattle ranchers failed for the most part also. The three groups all owned huge herds of horses. These were the animals which were treasured, fed and cared for, not the cattle. By 1878 the Uintah had begun to farm on the reservation and keep cattle. However, when the White Rivers were moved to the area, most of those activities ceased. Tabby and one hundred fifty of his followers actually moved from the Whiterocks area to camp sixty-five miles to the west. Forts Thornburgh and Duchesne The situation on the Uncompahgre Reservation was particularly difficult. To control the Uncompahgre, a military post, Fort Thornburgh, was built in 1881. (It was abandoned in 1884.) The military reserve was "much of the bottom and hay land in the immediate vicinity of the [Ouray] agency."4 That the military had taken so much land is a clue that there was very little good land to be had. The reservation was not only remote but also bleak and dry. Only the valleys of the White, Green, and Duchesne Rivers provided small relief in a huge wasteland. One agent described the land as: . . . extremely rugged and fearfully riven, being pinnacled with mountains, crags, and cliffs, and torn with canons, arroyos, and ravines ... a wild and ragged desolation, valuable for nothing unless it shall be found to contain mineral deposits.5 The reservation was established in an offhanded way as the result of intense pressure from the people of Colorado. After the Uncompahgre were removed there, they suffered from neglect. The turnover of agents was rapid, and their complaints were frequent. |