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Show 146 Years of Trouble, Years of Hope, 1934-1960 Confederated Bands were awarded $3,000,000 in back payments for the lands set aside as forest reserves. The Colorado People agreed to give up their $50,000 a year payment established by the 1880 Agreement. The award money was then appropriated in 1913 as the Ute 5% Fund.14 Much of the money went to the Uintah Irrigation Project. Some of the money, about $80,000 a year, was paid to the People on a per capita basis. However, the money was not paid directly to the People. It was deposited in Individual Indian Money accounts at the agencies. It could be withdrawn only with the approval of federal officials. At the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Superintendent Kneale made the People work on road and bridge construction for the money. In 1920 Congress acted to distribute the 1911 award and the 1873 Agreement annuity payments (the Ute 4% Fund) on a per capita basis to all the Ute People.15 This act replaced the provision in the 1880 Agreement which provided that all money from the Colorado land should be distributed as: one-half to the Uncom-pahgre, one-third to the Southern Utes, and one-sixth to the White Rivers. However, the fund dwindled quickly. The People grew concerned. In 1921 the Northern Utes signed a contract with lawyers Richard Young and Ashby Boyle. They were to bring suit against the government for lands taken in 1905 to enlarge the Uinta Forest Reserve. Five years later the BIA disapproved of the contract. Other law firms asked to represent the People. A tribal committee consisting of two representatives chosen from each band was organized to conduct such business dealings. The committee made a contract with attorney Thomas Sterling in 1927. When Sterling died in 1930, R. T. Bonin was hired to continue the suit. After considering many bills to allow the People to sue the government, Congress finally settled the matter in 1931. An act was passed which paid the People for the forest land, except for 36,233 acres classified as coal lands.16 (In 1956 Congress restored all mineral rights in these lands to the Uintah and Ouray Tribe.)17 In 1933 the money was deposited in trust for the Northern Utes. Money was paid to individuals under a Family Program. They were issued purchase orders. These were issued only after the individual had submitted information about what they in- |