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Show 72 ceived no gifts, and that there were increasing pressures on their food gathering areas meant that the starving had spread to them. Their first agent at Uintah, L. B. Rinney (Kinney) was not able to cope with the situation at all, which Head says was because he was guilty of "gross neglect." It is hard to imagine how the agent could have been expected to take a small crew to that lonely spot and create a farm and reservation while surrounded by angry, uncooperative and hungry Indians! At any rate, he was fired and replaced by Thomas Carter who was sent as a special agent in March, 1866, and was accompanied to the reservation by a "few laborers." Superintendent Head assured the people at Uintah that they would be fed. Accordingly, four wagonloads of flour and provisions were sent from the federal sources, and 70 beef cattle were sent to the reservation by Brigham Young. During the summer, Carter and his small group had cleared, planted and fenced 25 acres, and had built irrigation ditches to the land. The Indian people helped with the farming and herding. All the effort, however, was but a shadow of what was needed to support such a large population. In the conclusion of his annual report, Head makes several obiter dicta which illustrate his relationships in Utah: 3Ibid, |