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Show Unfulfilled Promises: Negotiations with the Intruders, 1849-1882 63 However, Congress then acted to negotiate to remove all the Moache, Kapota, and Weeminuche to the White River area. Their leaders refused. But they did agree to cede part of their lands and move to a small reservation in southern Colorado. Congress refused to ratify the agreement; the Colorado representatives wanted the Utes removed.36 Efforts were also made to negotiate for all of the Uncom-pahgre Park. Ouray and several other Uncompahgre were again taken to Washington, D.C. In January 1879 they signed an agreement to sell for $10,000 the four acre tract of land which had been added to the reservation in 1876. However, this agreement was never ratified.37 Ute Agreement, 1880 Many bills were presented in Congress to either move the Ute People out of Colorado or to confine them all to the White River area. In 1879 the Meeker incident finally provided the rationale for removal. The People were forced to give up their lands. In negotiations at Washington, D.C. with Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz, Ute leaders agreed to sell their reservation.38 The Southern Utes agreed to settle along the La Plata River. The Uncompahgre agreed to settle along the Grand (upper Colorado) River. The White Rivers agreed to join the Uintah in Utah. These lands were to be allotted. The allotments were to be 160 acres to each head of a family, with an additional 160 acres of grazing land to each. Eighty acres were to be allotted to each single adult and to each child, with an additional eighty acres of grazing land to each. The annuities included $50,000 to be paid the Ute People "annually forever." The provisions of the 1868 Treaty and the 1873 Agreement to pay $25,000 "annually forever" were also included in the 1880 Agreement. Both the size of the allotments and the amount of the annuities were later reduced. President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed a Ute Commission to secure the necessary approval of three-fourths of the adult male Utes. Several councils were held at the Los Pinos Agency in the summer of 1880. Most of the Ute People refused to ratify the agreement. |