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Show 78 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIlN AFFAIRS. describe the lands correctly. The errors are material, and many dis-appointments will occur, but fortunately local conditions are such that settlers have not taken the lands very rapidly, and hence it is probable that there will not be so many conflicts and contests as there would have been if the surplus lands had been taken at once on the opening of the reservation. The work of correcting the patents will be pushed as rapidly as . possible. A number have been canceled and reissued and, as far as now known, nearly 300 more will have to be put thru the same process. It is certain that some persons--both Indian allottees and white home-steaders- will lose a pardof the lands they have selected and a great deal of additional labor and expense will be thrown upon the Govern-ment, all due to the unwise hastewith which a work was pushed thru that properly demands deliberation and care. Perhaps this would he as good a place as any to mention a sequel to the Uintah allotment which has attracted some public attention thru exaggerated tales printed in various parts of the country. The Indian population of the Uintah Reservation was divided be-tween the White River, the Uintah, and the Uncompahgre Utes. A large majority of the White Rivers were never reconciled to tho idea of opening their country to settlement. They are the group least advanced in civilisation. In the spring of 1905, before the allotment began, a delegation chosen by and. from all three bands visited Washington with the purpose of learning from the lips of the authorities here just what events were pendhw and having the significence thereof explained to them. The representatives of the Uneompahgres and Uintahs, tho not disguising their continued preference for the old over t,he new order of things, nevertheless indicated their readiness to trust to the Government; but the White Rivers held out to the last, insisting upon hearing the same facts repeated by the President, the Secretary of the-Interior and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and then only half recognizing the inevitable. At the official conferences here they made an urgent plea for permission for their band to remove from the Uintah Reservation to some reservation where no white people would disturb them, or to find homes in the forest reserve. When repeatedly assured that " these requests could not be granted, they returned to Utah in a dis-satislied mood and did all they could, short of actual violynce, to embarrass the work of the allotting commission. A few weeks ago the Office received information that a large part of the White River band, of both sexes and all ages, had left the reservation and were starting for some point in South Dakota, ap-parently uncertain whether to settle down in the Black Hills or go on to Pine Ridge or Rosebud. To their ignorant minds anything which still remains " Indian country " must be open to all Indians |
