OCR Text |
Show Years of Trouble, Years of Hope, 1934-1960 139 The Ute People did not support reorganization enthusiastically. It is said that the full bloods were against it, but that the BIA and the mixed bloods were for it. The vote in 1938 was in favor of establishing a Business Committee. And the vote favored organizing the tribe into a corporation with a constitution and by-laws. However, only thirty percent of those eligible voted.3 Reorganization did not bring about as many changes as were hoped. The People still did not control their own destinies. There was controversy when the Business Committee, with BIA encouragement, used tribal funds to buy back land which had once belonged to the People. Increasingly, the People were split into factions. Most importantly, the reorganization failed to establish a self-sufficient tribal economy. The tribal government under reorganization was not organized in the traditional Ute way. Traditionally, influential people, many of whom were spiritual leaders, persuaded the People to follow their advice. Many People did not like or trust the new system of elections and representatives. The Great Depression, 1930s The Indian Reorganization Act was passed during the depths of the Great Depression, which was a world-wide economic collapse. Much of the land which was purchased by the Business Committee under the law was bought from bankrupted white farmers. The problem of low land prices had existed since the end of the 1905 and 1915 land booms. Between 1910 and 1937 the Indian Service pumped over $686,000 directly into the local economy of the Uinta Basin. This money was spent as part of the Uintah Irrigation Project on such things as water systems and land clearance. Most of the money went to non-Utes.4 Much of the money paid by the government in 1933 for land taken in 1905 for the Uinta Forest Reserve was spent by Ute People in the Basin. They bought equipment, food, clothing, supplies and paid debts. Despite this money spent by the People for land purchases, wages, and consumer goods, the Basin became economically depressed along with the rest of the state. In 1934-35 fifty-eight percent of the white population of Duchesne and Uintah Counties was on relief.5 |