OCR Text |
Show Years of Loss, Years of Adjustment, 1882-1933 129 project, about twenty-five thousand acres were sold to non-Utes. Thus, the land the Ute People held was reduced even further. The Strawberry Valley Reclamation Project was authorized late in 1905. A reservoir site had already been surveyed in the Strawberry Valley. These lands were reserved to the People in the opening of the Uintah Reservation in order to prevent settlers and ranchers from filing on them. However, persons interested in the Strawberry Project had no intention of allowing these lands to remain under Ute ownership. The Reclamation Service requested that the People sell the fifty-six thousand acres at $1.25 an acre. The People refused. The land was a long-time grazing area, and the fees paid by non-Utes to use the area were an important source of income for the tribal members. Congress then passed a law in 1910 which extinguished Indian title to the lands. The land was taken and $71,000 was paid for it into the tribal fund.34 In 1914 Albert Kneale was appointed superintendent of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. He was specifically assigned to use the water and save the "prior water rights" of the Indians. These rights were being challenged by non-Indian settlers. They argued that if the Utes did not use the water, they should be forced to give it up. Kneale decided to put ninety-five thousand acres of Ute land under cultivation in order to use the water. Most of the People were uncooperative. Thus, he decided to take an alternate course. Kneale began an advertising campaign throughout the West to encourage people to either lease land or to buy land from the Ute People. The campaign was so successful that Kneale could barely handle all applicants. Several hundred more settlers came into the Basin. Kneale, thus, saved the prior water rights of the People, but for the whites.35 The whites became partners in the use of the Uintah Irrigation System without Ute consent. There were many problems. Water was drawn off at the heads of rivers in reservoirs, and dams were built. As a result the water table of the lands just south of the Uinta Mountains, where the Ute People pastured their cattle, dropped. Water flowed into Indian allotments. Private irrigation companies drew off water higher up the rivers, leaving the Indian lands short of water. Strict rationing had to be practiced which caused ill feelings. |