| OCR Text |
Show EPILOGUE This has been a study of white expediency-an analysis of the processes through which several bands of Ute Indians were coercively relocated upon lands in the Uintah Basin of eastern Utah. The early relationships based on trade and exploration, so promisingly begun, lasted only as long as the profits were gained by the invaders. Later, the piecemeal dismantling of the Ute lands was a forced accommodation to the expanding white populace. The establishment of towns which displaced Indian communities, such as Provo, Utah was done with little thought of the consequences to the Utes. When the total resources of an area were needed by the white populace, the Indians were expelled onto lands not of their choosing. When they resisted, a lopsided war against them was waged by forces having superior technical ability. The processes the Utes resisted were seldom questioned by the whites. Some expressions of conscience can be found in the casting out of the Utes from central Utah by the Mormons; in Colorado, the expulsion was done with almost total approbation. The expelling of the guiltless Uncompahgres from their beautiful homeland was treated v almost offhandedly by the functionaries of the white government. Little evidence was found of the corruption so widely heralded in the Indian Agencies. Ineptness was rife. From the policy makers |
