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Show Ute Delegations, 1863-1905 Congress authorized the Secretary of Interior to appoint a committee to negotiate with the Ute People for giving up some of this valuable land. Councils were held at the Los Pinos Agency in August 1872. However, the People refused to give up their land.6 The Commissioner of Indian Affairs then requested Charles Adams, the Los Pinos agent, to bring a delegation of People to Washington for a conference with the Indian department and to meet President Grant. On 10 November 1872 Ouray, Chipeta, and several other Ute leaders left the agency and traveled in a covered wagon to Colorado City. There they boarded a train for Washington. The delegation spent ten days in the national capital. The People were presented at the White House to President and Mrs. Grant. They spent the next several days traveling around New York City, Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, and other cities of the East. While in New York they were taken to a circus, where they were fascinated by the trick riding. They enjoyed the circus more than the theater where they saw "The Black Crook." The delegation finally arrived home at the Los Pinos Agency 10 January 1873 after a sixty day trip.7 The government now felt safe in setting up another council. It was set for September of 1873, again at the Los Pinos Agency. The council went well for the government this time. Government officials succeeded in getting the Ute People to sign an agreement giving up all rights to the San Juan area in return for money and provisions. After the 1873 Agreement was signed, Felix Brunot arranged to take another Ute delegation to Washington, D.C. He wanted to fulfill his promise to Ouray that he find his son, captured by Sioux who had given him to the Arapaho, enemies of the Utes. Ouray met in Brunot's office the boy believed to be his son, there with a delegation of Arapaho. Despite efforts by Ouray and others, the boy refused to believe he was not Arapaho, and he remained with them.8 There was a delegation of People from the Uintah Reservation who also traveled to Washington in 1872. Federal agents had suggested as early as 1852 that a delegation of Utah Utes be sent there in order to impress upon them the power of the government.9 However, not until twenty years later was a delegation sent. |
