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Show The earliest United States documents relating to the Utes appear in the late 1840s. These early papers filed in the Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824- 1881, document the turbulent years of Mormon conquest of Utah lands. The Ute bands discussed in this correspondence lived west of the Wasatch Mountains. In the late 1850s, the United States had little knowledge at all of the Ute bands who lived in the Uintah Basin. 2 In 1857, federal agents anticipated the creation of a reservation in the basin because of its isolation. Although the Uintah Basin was reserved to the Utes in 1861, there was little or no federal administration of the reservation until after 1865 when a number of western Ute bands moved to the reserve. 3 The majority of Ute bands did not permanently locate on the reservation until 1872.4 Documentation for these early years tells the general location and political activities of the various Ute bands, their numbers, and their war exploits. The papers do not, however, discuss religion, and ritual in any form until the 1870s. With the appearance of the Ghost Dance among the Utes in the 1870s, United States agents began a policy of disparaging and discouraging and native religion on the Uintah Reservation. This practice explains why the federal historical documents are silent 2 See NAM M234 R. 898, January 1, 1858; NAM M234 R: 898, January 6, 1858; NAM M234 R. 898, May 21, 1858 as examples of the earliest documents related to the Uintah Utes. 3 Central Classified Files of the Bureau of Indian Affairs ( CCF), Record Group 75, CCF Uintah & Ouray 13965- 1938, 021.5, National Archives, Washington, D. C. 4 Joseph G. Jorgensen The Sun Dance Religion: Power for the Powerless ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press) pp. 29- 37. 4 |