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Show Mountain Men and Fur Trappers 23 Rio de Los Pinos, the tributary of Las Animas River in present day La Plata County, named by the Spaniards in the eighteenth century. Also, almost immediately after the treaty was negotiated, it was discovered that the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado held huge treasures of rich minerals.22 Actually, a third agency was maintained at Denver from 1871 to 1876 for the Utes of that area. During those years, the Utes still hunted buffalo there for the winter supply of meat and sold hides and other products to merchants. By the time that Colorado became a state of the Union in 1876, the huge herds of buffalo had been largely eliminated from the plains and the Utes around Denver had no products to sell and no more money to buy goods from the merchants. Soon their presence in the capital city became a source of friction and trouble.23 By the Act of April 10, 1869, Congress paved the way for President Grant to end all troubles with Indians by settling the remaining Indians on reservations deemed large enough to support them if they engaged in agriculture. 22 Robert W. Delaney, "The Southern Utes a Century Ago," Utah Historical Quarterly, XXXIX, No. 2 (1971), 124, citing the report of W. F. M. Amy of 1870. 23 Ibid., p. 81. |
