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Show Their task completed, the Commission left southwest Colorado for Washington, D. C., 54 and sent the agreement with the list of names of consenting Utes to the Secretary of the Interior. The money due the LItes upon ratification was forwarded to the reservations for distribution, and on November 4 the Southern Utes received their portion of the money, $ 25,0000. By December 15 most of the other bands of the Confederated Utes had also received their annuity money. 55 The agreement had been signed in the alloted time, and the monev was received bv the Indians bv the end of 1880. Once the ratification was completed, removal of the Northern LItes from Colorado to Utah, and removal of the Southern LItes to the La Plata River became the next duties of the Commission. The Northern LItes were removed by the end of 1882, but the Southern Utes' removal was much more difficult. To expedite this work of the Commission its members were divided into three groups to work with the major Ute bands. George Manypenny was assigned to the Southern LItes. s<> His duties included the selection and surveying of the lands for the Indians and the supervising of their removal to the chosen area. 57 After first inspection of the proposed new land for the Southern Utes, in the fall of 1880, Manypenny had written Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, that insufficient agricultural land was available along the La Plata River in both Colorado and New Mexico. 58 However, despite his report, the land was withdrawn from the public domain and on April 22 the surveyors were ordered to proceed with the surveying of the land for allotment purposes. 59 The surveyors, from the firm of Tyler and Medary, were contracted by the Government on October 18, 1880, but didn't arrive on the reservation until May, 1881. They then worked through the summer. Manypenny inspected the area again. His later report detailed his misgivings about the La Plata region. It indicated that even white settlers were scarce in the region. Only one settlement owned by a Mr. Rambo was situated north of the reservation, and Manypenny found only nineteen settlers south of the reservation although he had been told there were twenty- three. None were found on the reservation. While inspecting these few ranches Manypenny was struck by the lack of land under cultivation. 60 From all appearances the proposed reservation land was not capable of supporting the agricultural efforts of nearly 1200 Indians. Observation of these poor conditions spurred Manypenny to expand his inspection of the area to include the valleys of Animas, Florida, Los Pinos and Piedra, as well as the San Juan and Mancos regions. He ordered the surveyors to include the Valleys of Mancos, Animas and the Florida in their survey .61 This caused much concern among the whites of the area, for they had understood the agreement to read that all of the Utes on the Southern Reservation were to be moved on to the land along the La Plata River with the rest of the reservation land being opened for settlement. They accused Manypenny of having " deliberately perverted the language of the treaty and committed a great wrong." 62 Flowever, the agreement had stated that Manypenny was restricted to either the La Plata region or the lands located tin the reservation. Manypenny realized that neither area was suitable for the Utes, not only because the land was impoverished, but also because it was surrounded by angry whites: The strip of land through which the streams flow on which the Indians are to be located is only fifteen miles wide. On these streams there are settlements in Colorado, north of the reservation 54. Report of the Ute Commission of January 27, 1881, op. cit., Ex. Doc. No. 31, p. 21. 55. Ibid., pp. 33- 39. 56. Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1881, op. cir., p. 391. 57. Ibid. p. 390. 58. Report of the Ute Commission of January 27, 1881, op. cit, Ex. Doc. No. 31, pp. 25- 26. 59. Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1881, op. cit, p. 391. 60. Ibid. 61. Ibid., p. 393. 62. Ibid. - 26- |