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Show of the Green River about two miles above its junction with the White River. A military post, Fort Thornburgh, was also founded near the Ouray agency to control the Utes. 52 The military reserve took much of the desirable bottom and hay land in the immediate vicinity of the agency. That the military had taken so much land is a clue that there was very little good land to be had. The Uncompahgres had been moved from lush, green mountain parks in Colorado to a bleak and dry wasteland in Utah. The Ute Commission ( J. J. Russell, Otto Mears, and Thomas McMorris) assigned to select land for the Uncompahgres under the terms of the 1880 Agreement, explored the country in the valleys of the White and Green Rivers. They selected for the Uncompahgres lands in the valley of the Green River. The Ute Commission recommended that: Until the Indians can be made somewhat familiar with their new relations, it is ... of vital importance to maintain the exterior boundary limits of the lands upon which they dwell as a reservation, and within which white men may not be allowed to locate. This protection may be secured by legislation or possibly by executive order. For years to come these Indians should certainly have the aid of the government in protecting them from collision with white men. 54 A reservation was so established for the Uncompahgres by Executive Order, January 5, 1882 55- a procedure which did not require further negotiations with the Indians. No individual allotments of land were made. The few white settlers who occupied lands near the agency were paid for the lands and improvements and then removed. 56 There were problems of land tenure almost immediately. Chief Sappa-vonaro and other chiefs and headmen had settled themselves and their people upon lands found to be a part of the Uintah Reservation. Agent W. H. Berry requested that the Executive Order be amended to include the lands in the Uncompahgre Reservation. 57 The order was not so amended. This group of Uncompahgres moved east into Colorado. When D. C. Oakes made his survey of the Uncompahgre Reservation in 1884, he met with the Utes who were settled along the White River below the mouth of Douglas Creek. Oakes explained to them that the eastern boundary of the reservation was the Utah- Colorado border, and they were 15 miles east of that boundary. 58 The Indians continued, however, to occupy the land. The reluctance of the Uncompahgres to give up these lands in western Colorado finally resulted in tragedy. 59 In the summer of 1887 their leader, Colorow, moved his camp further into Colorado for the annual hunt. The game warden of northwestern Colorado organized a posse which rode into the Ute camp and attempted to arrest the indians. In the confusion which followed, a Ute was shot and the Ute goods were confiscated. Other encounters between white posses and Utes ended similarly. Several Indians 14 |