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Show 112 For all the time that Critchlow served at the Uintah Agency, he wag pressed to either gather the Indians to the reservation or to encourage them to remain there. He was never able to gather some; they were wild and independent folk. The Elk Mountain, or Sheber-etches (called Sewarites by J. W. Powell) were nearly wiped out during an epidemic (of an undetermined disease) in about 1873, with the stragglers probably entering the reservation at a late date.1-' Throughout his stay on the reservation, Critchlow had tried to get the Indians to farm, as he saw this as their only realistic solution given the great distances, freight rates and small appropriations made by the Congress. In 1874, he again recommended that since the agency funds were mainly spent on beef and flour that the government would be wise to concentrate on wheat and beef production with the end in mind that flour could be consumed locally with no outlay, and a surplus of beef could be sold to make the reservation self-supporting. VThe additional capital needed for so basic and practical an enterprise was not given him. Critchlow's letters also show the very aggravating performance of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He at times exhausted his credit in Salt Lake City before the department would finally send his funds. v One of the tributes that can be given Critchlow's administration 15"Report of J. W. Powell and G. W. Ingalls," in U. S. Department of the Interior, Report of the Commissioner, 1873, p. 4l5. |