OCR Text |
Show A commission named to initiate the negotiations for removal consisted of the Honorable J. Montgomery Smith of Wisconsin, the Reverend Thomas S. Childs of the District of Columbia and a Mr. R. B. Weaver of Arkansas. This group received its instructions from the Secretary of the Interior on the 18th of July and on the 25th met in Kansas City, Missouri to organize themselves. 39 By the 4th of August the group had arrived at the Southern Ute Agency and had established headquarters for the accomplishment of the assigned task. The difficulty of this task was soon made apparent to the commission. In the first council on August 8 a strong voice against removal was heard. 40 However, after the council had adjourned, some stated their desire to move and requested that the commission stay and " talk. Ai The commission did, and for the next two and one- half weeks a series of councils were held. However, the headmen of the three bands retained their positions as spokesmen and did not allow the others to speak. The leaders were against removal. When the councils ended in a stalemate, the commission decided it would be best to inspect the areas being discussed and ascertain for themselves the condition of the land and the Indians. This survey lasted until September 11. During that time most of the reservation was examined as well as areas lying outside its borders. Their findings indicate why the split between the leaders and the others had occurred: . . . we . . . found that in former treaties the chiefs and leading men, to the number of thirty- two, had been well provided for: they were living in comfortable houses built for them by the Government, on ranches that had been fenced and irrigated by the Government. These ranches they rent to Mexicans on shares, and the rent they receive, added to the money, rations, and supplies furnished them by the Government, make them so well provided for that it is doubtful whether they would be benefited by a change. These chiefs, also for a consideration, permit favored white men to cut hay and to pasture stock on the reservation. After a careful examination we became satisfied that this tract of land is no longer a suitable home for the Indians, owing to its peculiar shape- 120 miles in length by 15 miles in width- and location, with the only railroad in this part of the State running more than one- half the length of the reservation, with seven stations. It is impossible, with the means usually at the disposal of an Indian agent, to keep the whites from traveling at will forth and back across it. In fact, highways for the convenience of settlers have already been constructed by La Plata County, some of them at considerable expense, across the reservation. The constant traveling over these highways and railroad, and the great amount of cattle and sheep owned by white men pasturing upon the reservation tend to drive all game off the land, and to so diminish the crop of grass that those Indians who are not farming but lead a pastoral life find it difficult and almost impossible to live on the reservation, and, in fact, do not live upon it, but roam all over the unoccupied lands in Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. They are f >- Congress, Senate, Letter from the Secretary of the Interior Transmitting a Report of the Commission to Negotiate with the Band of Ute Indians in Southern Colorado for such Modifications of Their Treaty and Other Rights, and such Exchange of Their Reservation, as May Deem Desirable by Said Indians and the Secretary of the Interior, Sen Ex Doc 67 50th Cong., 2d Sess., Ser. No. 2611, January 14, 1889, p. 11. Hereafter cited as Report of the Ute Commission of 1888, . . . 40. Ibid., p. 12. 41. ibid. ' . - - 40- |