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Show The first full council was held on August 18. The main chiefs of the three bands, Ignacio of the Weeminuche, Aiguillar of the Muache, and Tapoche of the Capote, and 123 of their followers, were in attendance. In addition there was present Ouray, a leader among the Uncompahgre band of the Northern Utes, who were located at the Los Pinos agency. Ouray, who could speak both Spanish and English as well as Ute, had been influential in the negotiations of 1868 and 1873. The Government continued to rely on him, finally " appointing" him to be the main chief of the Colorado Utes. For this reason the Commission had sought his help in convincing the Southern Utes to sign the agreement. However, before the agreement was signed Ouray died. The immediate response to the Commission and the agreement was rejection by the Weeminuche and silence by the other two bands; however, after nine davs of negotiations, interrupted by Ouray's death, Ignacio, Aiguillar, Tapoche, Buckskin Charley, Severo and about 70 male adults agreed to sign the agreement. Fifty- nine more signed the following day. Although these signatures did not fulfill the require ment for ratification, the Commission felt the negotiations were proceeding well enough to survey the lands along the La Plata River for the possibilitv of relocating the Southern Utes. This was accomplished on September 5.47 By the time the commissioners, Bowman, Russell and Mears, had returned from the La Plata area 156 more Utes had signed the ratification agreement. 48 This number was still considered less than three- quarters of the adult male population. The total number of confederated Utes was estimated to be 4,207 bv the census taken for the 1879 agent's reports. Of this number 1,307 were reported as Southern Utes. The Commission felt that one out of every six of this number represented an adult male; thus, it was necessary to have 527 signatures to indicate Lite acceptance of the agree ment. Of that number 218 Southern Utes had yet to sign the document. 49 To gain the additional signatures the agent, Henry Page, Chief Ignacio and W. F. Burns, the interpreter, left for the Big Bend of the Dolores River, later known as the town of Dolores, where there was located a group of Weeminuche Utes that were not represented at the council. 50 The signing by these people increased by 204 the number of Southern Utes agreeing to the documents By September 20 the Commission had gained the signatures of 581 Utes, about fifty more than estimated as necessary. 52 The necessity for having three- fourths of the adult male Utes sign the agreement marked a departure from the normal procedures of past Indian treaties and agree ments. It was the usual practice to have only headmen sign representing the desire of all the members of the tribe. The difficulty experienced in having so many members of the tribe sign the agreement was indicated by the length of time it took'to first create a census for the confederated bands and then locate the Utes. 53 However, the advantage was that more of the tribal members were able to express their opinion on the agreement. 46. Ibid., p. 261. 47. Ibid., p. 262. 48. U. S., Congress, Senate, Letter for the Secretary of the Interior Transmitting in Response to Senate Resolutions of January 27. 1881, copy of report of Ute Commission, and Copies of All Correspondence between This Department and the Ute Commission, and also the Governor of Colorado, concerning the same since June 15, 1880; Ex. Doc No 31 46th Cong,, 3d Sess., Ser. No. 1943, February 2. 1881, p. 19. Hereafter cited as Report of the Ute Commission of January 27, 1881, Ex. Doc. No. 31, 49. Ibid., p. 18. 50. Ibid., p. 19. 51. Ibid., pp. 19- 20. 52. Ibid., p. 20; Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1881, op. cit., p. 262. 53. Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1881, op. cit., p. 262. - 25- |