| OCR Text |
Show 51 rapidly disappearing, in the depth of winter they were starving and almost unclad, sleeping in the snow and sleet, with no covering but a cape of rabbit's fur and moccasons [sic] lined with cedar bark."11 By i860, the traditional solution of Indian removal could no longer be delayed. The Mormon towns and villages had been generous in supplying food, but this could not serve as a permanent arrangement. After an experience of general disagreement', the Federal officials and the Mormon settlers finally agreed that the Indians must be moved. The Mormons had long known of the Uintah Basin. When Agent Humphries suggested that it be the area for the new reservation, Brigham Young sent a survey party to see if it was worthy of Mormon settlement before allowing it to become an Indian reservation. After traveling over the area, the party reports its disappointment on September 25: "Uintah not what was represented." The exploring and surveying party...have returned with a very unfavorable report...The fertile vales, extensive meadows, and wide pasture ranges so often reported to exist in that region were not found...The amount of land at all suitable for cultivation is extremely limited.l ? Partly because Mormon opposition vanished, Agent Humphries and other federal officials asked the Commissioner to set the area aside for a reservation. The Secretary of the Interior had a note signed HHubert Howe Bancroft, History of Utah, (San Francisco, The History Company, 1890), p. 629. l2Deseret News , September 25, l86l. |
