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Show grant rights- of- way for the construction and maintenance of " dams, ditches, and canals on or through the Uintah Indian Reservation... for the purpose of diverting and appropriating the waters of the streams... for useful purposes." Under this act the water rights of the Indians were to be protected. 123 The government constructed a number of canals for the use of the Indians. Most canals built by whites diverting water off the Reservation, including those on the Strawberry and Duchesne Rivers, continued to operate without authority. 124 Miners, ranchers, and farmers, pushed for the allotment of lands within the Uintah Reservation and the opening of surplus land to their control. The commission authorized in 1894 to allot lands to the Uncompahgres was also authorized to: . . . negotiate and treat with the Indian properly residing upon the Uintah Indian Reservation... for the relinquishment to the United States of the interest of said Indians in all lands within said reservation not needed for allotment in severalty to said Indians, and if possible, procure the consent of said Indians of allotments in severalty of lands within said reservation. 125 However, the commission had spent its time trying to induce the Uncompahgres to take allotments and had not met with the Uintah Reservation Utes. Pressure mounted for the terms of the 1894 law to be fulfilled and a commission to be assigned to allot lands on the Uintah Reservation. Indian Commissioner Browning protested that: The Uintah Reservation is admirably adapted to Indian usage, and it seems to me that it should be kept intact for their use and occupation until it is ascertained beyond question that there is a surplus over and above the present and prospective wants of the Indians thereon and in that region of country, when such portions as are really not needed might be disposed of for white settlement. I do not think we should be in a hurry to encroach upon it simply because it happens to be attractive to white home seekers. 126 Councils were held by their agent with the Uintah Reservation Utes. He reported their continued opposition to allotment. 127 The White Rivers were particularly adamant; the agent finally requested that some of the more " incendiary" of them be removed from the reservation. 128 In June 1898 an act was passed which authorized the appointment of a commission to allot lands in severalty to the Uintah Reservation Indians and to obtain " by the consent of a majority of the adult male Indians... all the lands within said reservation not allotted or needed for allotment as aforesaid." 129 The consent was not forthcoming. A delegation of White Rivers and Uintah Utes went to Washington D. C. in November of that year to emphasize their refusal to give up more land: Our land is small, and we do not want to sell it to anyone. We do 25 |