OCR Text |
Show 218 REPORT OF AGENT IN UTAH. There is enough agricnltnral land on this reservation far the entire Ute Nation.. There is dao an sbrtndauce of good grazing lands, the lands of the Strewberry Val-ley on this reservation being the beat grazing lands in tha oonnt,~. The agency is sitnated at tt point on the reservation near theUintal1 River, distant 100 lniiea north of Price, a station on the Denver and Rio Grmde Railroad, 170 miles east of Salt Lake Cit,y and 150 miles from Green River City, a atation an the Union Pacific Railroad. The elevation of this agency above the level of the sea is 6,130 feet. I?,dkiaas.-The Uintah and White River Utes oooupg this reservstion. The popnla tiou is divided as follows: 1Jintah Utea .......................................................... 146 White River lltes.. ................................................... 417 - Total ............................................................... be3 These Indiana are known asl~lnukeItn dians, and still retain in a great degreetheir-ancient habits and customs. They rare fond of gambling,horse-raoiug, and the chase. There baa not been xs much gambling duriug the past year as heretofure,as I have. entirely Lroken up all gambliog at, arotmd, or &bout the agenay, and the police force^ %reu nder iosrruotio~~tos break i t up wherever i t is practiced. If done a t all now. it is done ant of sight, orio the quiet of the wiok-e-up. There are ratious islrued weekly, conssting of floor, beef, ooffse, sugar, salt, and hakikiag po\\.der, ia au amount equal to a. half ration. These Indians reooiFa x oash nonuiry. Of this fund the Uintahs received this year $12.89 each, and the White Rivers received 86.22ench. Theoause of the smallersnm being paid the White Rivers is from the fact that the psyment of tbe Dleekcr pension is made from the annuity of lhis tribe. Tbere is also an annual grettlity fund paid amonnting to about $1,500. 'This amount is divided autoup those industrious Iudiaus =ha seud t,heir children to school. Tbese Indians have been at all times obedient sud respectful to me; in no.. case has a sillgle order been disobeyed or my advice disregarded. Aglicallare.-These Indians have made more progress iu work and farming this. par than avex before. There are now about 150 families engaged in farming. Al-t, hongh many of them are beginners and in a ver,v amall way, yet they show every disposition to do goor1 work when tbe proper facilities are ntfurded them. Many of. them have largely increased the sine of their farms over previous years, and there seams to be n apirited rivnlry among them as to whowill make the largest and best farms. Previous to my nrcival here, wire fenuingwasentirel~u nknown nrnong these Indians, and 8iooe that time I have issued to them over 30,000 pounds. No Indian receive8 wire fenciug until ha has cut his poars and plsoted them. I have distributed to them 28,000 pouuds of seed grain during this spring. No lndian reoeived any of' this grain until his ground waa first plowed. The agency farmers were constantly with them, inatructiug t,hetu in their @rm work. The grain a ~ hda7 froin theae fi~rmsw ere sold to the subcontractors a t Fort Do-. cheslle at misarnblv'law prices, very far below the original ooutract prioes. I made. an effort to avoid d h i ~in bhe fnture, and to ~ e o u r eto them the full controot prioe for all hay and graiu delivered at the fort for military use. I made s, full statement of' the faots to ,yon, which sou kiudly referred to Coograss, askiog that a clanve be in-serted in the~uilitary approprietiou bill permittiug the oommsndent st Fort Du-chesna to purohaae snob supplies from these Indians st full contract price. 0 t h i~nd ustries.-During last fall these Indians cut and hauled to this agancg 300 cords of wood, for mhioh they reoeived the snm of $5 per cord; 200 ourds of which was for the agency and agency school, and 1011 cords for the traders and employ6a.~ Thls wan the first time in the history of this reservation thet these Indiana were em-ployed to do tbis work. When I received authority to bave them do this work I was tdld that thag would not do it. I found but little trouble to get them at it, bnt much trouble to get them to stop outtiog. All freights reoeised at this and Onray Agency were hauled by these Indians. The total amauut of fmights hnoled by them fi.o!a Price was over 300,000 poonda, for which they received '2 cents per poeod. OF tbis over 170,000 pounds were for the agencies aod 130,000 pounds were for the traders. These Iodisna have s. speoialliking for this kind of work, and make good freightem. They have shown themselves to be trustworthy and reliable. Cattle.-Under Sour authority IissueA the a p o y oattle-herd, aggregating over 600. head. This has been a. peat incentive to do good work. I believe that it is the best thing that ever has been doua for these Iodlaos. Now thet they hiwa a little atart with these cattle, it will hold them to their farms on the reserva,tion end encoursge them to further industry. Xissianary work.-There are no missionaries at this aoency, nor has there been any missionary work done here or any kind olreliyioua serzces held other t.han the aerv-. ieea held by the employes an the Sabbath day, which serrioes are conduoted by Dr. .. B. Dudley Williams, Agency physician. |