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Show UINTAH AND OURAY RESERVATION research notes NATIONAL ARCHIVES, OCTOBER 1994 This series of notes gives a brief box- by- box description of all of the documents examined during this document survey. The notes provide a brief outline of topics addressed by the documents under each reference and are not an exhaustive list of the subjects discussed. Central Classified Files CCF Uintah and Ouray, 30- 34 ( Two Boxes) Box 1 This box covers topics ranging from the need for new irrigation projects ( ca. 1910 to 1913) to the documentation of Court of Claims suits. The basic theme is that non- Indians are using the Reservation lands. They are there illegally as squatters, or they are leasing land from the Indians. Land transactions are at the heart of everything going at the Reservation. Another theme in these documents ( spanning three decades) is that the Indians are only little removed from the hunter- gatherer economy that they formerly knew. Even though hundreds of thousands of dollars had been appropriated from Indian funds, as well as separate appropriations, it is non- Indians who benefit from them'. I have copied at least one statement attesting to this situation for the year 1913. In 1910, the Utes recovered 3,500,000 dollars in a Court of Claims suit because the United States had not compensated them for 12,000,000 acres of land that had been taken from them. CCF Uintah and Ouray 3145- 1922, 013, is the file that discusses land transactions, the way the lands were taken from the tribe, and how the U. S. disposed of them. It contains copies of all the subsequent legislation relating to land sales. There are a few small files regarding cutting timber and grazing lands on the reservation. No locations are given of traditional grazing lands or other resources on the reservation. A 1930s stock reduction study surveyed types of farms found that the reservation. It concluded that the reservation was only suited for stock raising, and recommended that every acre remaining on tl\ e reservation should be preserved for Indian grazing. In 1938, an " Economic Study of Uintah Basin" was conducted. There is a large file on this study. The study seems to have been part of Indian Reorganization Act work that aimed at locating lands 16 |
