OCR Text |
Show 93 with the teams of the agency, and a few more purchased for the purpose, we have been engaged in transporting to the agency supplies, seed, grain, &c, for the coming year. That labor will be substantially concluded during the present month, when all the men and teams will be at once put to work in ploughing the land for the crops of the coming season.^ The attempts to produce food for the Indian people were often frustrated, but with the lack of food remaining the central issue facing the Indian people, the failure of the crops must have been a very heavy blow. It was even more difficult because Dodds had the Indian people working on the farms. The Indians have labored much more during the present season than ever before, and although the destruction of their crops will, of course, operate to discourage them to some extent, yet they appreciate the reason of the failure, and are eager to work upon the land for the coming season. During the past spring it was necessary to dig a large ditch for purposes of irrigating, nearly a mile long, and in places deep and rocky, yet nearly the whole of this labor was performed by the Indians. They also aided greatly in planting the corn, irrigating the crops generally, and several of their number have learned to drive oxen and hold the plough. Pardon Dodds remained at Uintah for only one year. The very difficult situation was made little better by the rapid turn-better from Pardon Dodds to F. H. Head, September 8, 1868, in Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1868, p. 615. 9Ibid., p. 616. |