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Show 140 Years of Trouble, Years of Hope, 1934-1960 World War II World War II caused additional hardships for the Ute People. At first there was resistance to the forced registration for the draft. Leaders of the Uintah and Uncompahgre People held a protest meeting. One explained: We don't want our boys to go to war. Long time ago we buried the tomahawk with the white man, put it way underground. Now we don't want to take it up again and break our promise. We aren't making this trouble with other eountries â€" it is you white people who are doing that. We don't want war.6 However, eventually a large number went into the armed forces â€" one hundred out of a society of 1,600 persons. When they returned to the reservation, they found things little changed. Unemployment was still high; opportunities were still few. The People became increasingly dependent on income from leases, state and federal relief, and treaty and agreement provisions. Jobs were scarce off the reservation. Even with the upswing in the national economy as a result of World War II, the Ute People remained victims of a shrinking rural economy. Small farms and ranches became unprofitable. Many were abandoned or taken over by large agri-business corporations. Small mines were closed down. There was created a surplus rural labor supply. The People had to compete, usually unsuccessfully, with non-Utes for jobs in the towns around the reservation. Hill Creek Extension, 1948 During these years, there were problems over grazing rights. By 1930 all the best farm lands in the Basin had been purchased or leased. Much of the poorer land was not. These lands were not under any regulation â€" federal or local. Ranchers used the lands profitably to graze livestock. One of the grazing areas was the Uncompahgre Reservation. Most of the land had remained open, that is, not claimed or purchased. Many Uncompahgre continued to live there. They still considered the 1,800,000 acres of the reservation to be theirs. Many grazed their livestock (2,000 cattle and 4,000 sheep by 1929) on the land.7 |