| OCR Text |
Show 148 Years of Trouble, Years of Hope, 1934-1960 government had not dealt fairly. The Commission listened to claims about the government's failure to carry out treaty obligations and its use of treaty obligations against Indians' wishes. It heard claims about the government's failure to pay Indian people enough for their land and its failure to account properly for the use of their tribal funds. In other words, the Commission heard the claims of the many instances the government had not been fair and honorable in its dealings with Indian people. After a claim was decided, Indian groups could have it reviewed by the Court of Claims or the Supreme Court of the United States. However, there was one important limit. The Commission could only make money judgments. It could not return any land to the Indians, even if the land had been taken unlawfully. In 1949 a claim was filed by the Uintah People. They asked for payment for the land they had agreed to give up in the unratified Treaty of 1865. The United States Department of Justice tried to prove that there were no Ute People in Utah, that they all lived in Colorado. This was disproven, and the Uintah won a claim of $7,700,000 in 1957. The Uintah agreed to contribute this money to the joint account of the Uintah and Ouray People, because they had shared in the awards made for Colorado land. Also in 1949 a claim was filed regarding the removal of the White Rivers to the Uintah Reservation. This claim was settled in 1960. In 1951 the Confederated Ute Bands again sued for lands ceded in the 1873 Agreement. And the Uncompahgre sued for the lands near Grand Junction, Colorado, where they were to have been settled as part of the 1880 Agreement. After much controversy and compromise these two cases were settled in 1965 for over $8,000,000. Uintah Irrigation Project There were also law suits over water rights between whites and Ute People. The Uintah Irrigation Project, begun in 1906 over Ute protest, had thrown many allotted People into debt. There had been little thought as to how the People would pay off debts from the costs of the project. And it was ruled that land owners who did not pay off their debts could not work the land. Under government urging the Business Committee used tribal funds to settle these debts. Occasionally they settled debts |
