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Show NAVAJO COUNTRY REBORN 151 The Utah Navajos during the Early Years of the Reservation Later, much of the dispute over matters like education would center in the San Juan country. But, in the last part of the nineteenth century, the San Juan Navajos felt little pressure from either schools or the agents to give up the People's traditions. Though most agents' reports mentioned plans to move the Navajo agency to the San Juan River, the move was not made before the twentieth century. The remote northern Navajos saw very little of the government that claimed to watch over their lives. If the government was little seen, white settlers became more common. Cowboys built their ranches on the north side of the San Juan River, and the Mormons built towns at the mouths of streams draining into the river. Miners had their eyes on the country, too. The San Juan Navajos soon began to feel this pressure. H. L. Mitchell founded the first white settlement in the region in June 1878. By December, eighteen families had joined him at the mouth of McElmo Canyon. From the first, settlers and Indians fought for rights to water and grazing land. Navajos would not accept Mitchell's claims and grazed their flocks on the north side of the river. When there was trouble, Mitchell asked for arms and bullets so that the settlers could protect themselves. Mitchell had a strange relationship with the Navajos. Perhaps because he found himself surrounded, he soon made friends with them. He put up with the Navajos who grazed their stock around his holdings. He even started a trading post to make money from the uncertain friendship. But, while Mitchell worked for Navajo trade and friendship, he also told other people that the tribe was dangerous. He and his son-in-law, Joseph F. Daugherty, wrote letter after letter to complain that many Navajos had settled north of the reservation border. They also complained of raids and asked for troops to defend them in case of war. When agency officials checked on his complaints, they were puzzled to find a calm situation. They saw no hint of any real trouble. Some felt that Mitchell hoped to lure the army to his home and profit from their trade. They also saw that, if Mitchell could convince officials that the Navajos must be put back on their reserve, then their land on the river would be his alone to use. Captain Ketchum from Fort Lewis noted, "my sympathies are very much with the Navajos. The people who complain against them are the very worst set of villains in existence." |