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Show Economy 47 Pueblo tribes. By the time of the Meeker Massacre, the Southern Utes were already beginning to grow crops, and not long after, hunting as the main source of food was replaced by herding and farming. Ouray, the great leader of the Utes in the 1870's, had foreseen this and had devised long range plans to bring about this transition. First, he would secure one reservation for the Colorado Ute bands and then modify the hunting ecenomy to fit the growing market for tanned buckskin. Then the Utes would cease roaming and augment their reduced hunting income in their restricted territory by stock raising. An Act of Congress of May 27, 1902, authorized the Secretary of the Interior to permit a right-of-way through allotted lands of the Reservation for irrigation ditches, provided the Southern Utes consented, and to expend funds of the Southern Utes for irrigation of 10,000 acres on the western part of the Reservation, up to $150,000 for the purchase of perpetual water rights and fifty cents a year per foot for maintenance of water. The Utes, according to the treaty of 1880, were to receive per capita payments from that date on and the tribe was allowed the use of $25,000 per year for its benefits. The total per capita distribution as of 1880 was $50,000 per year. Additional payments from previous treaties meant a large sum of money for the Ute Indians. By 1910 approximately one hundred heads of families, half of the able-bodied men, were doing some farming and cultivating either on their own allotments or on tribal land in the reservation. Approximately 6,500 acres were cultivated, and the principal crops were alfalfa and oats. Perhaps one hundred Indians were raising cattle and some sheep, either exclusively or in conjunction with farming. Many Utes owned large numbers of horses, although these were of little value except to themselves. The Ute Indians are now in a fight to save their water rights from encroaching whites who took their lands. It has been a never-ending fight to preserve what belongs to the Ute Indians. The Utes are unrelenting in their efforts to protect their lands and people from the encroachments of other people. The present economy of the Southern Ute tribe is based on grazing of livestock, sale of natural gas, tourism, farming, local employment from governmental sources, and a few jobs in industry and commerce. A newly opened tourist complex will provide many new jobs. |
