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Show on the reservation were allowed to move off the area as they pleased. This freedom increased the tension between the whites and the Utes. To end this threat of conflict between the two groups, the Anglos pressured the Government for a more explicit treaty with the Utes. It was these types of pressures that led to a re- examination of Indian policy by the Senate Committee on Indian affairs. The major question before this group was what to do with not only the Utes but also the other tribes who were feeling the pressure of Anglo civilization. The committee's answer was that two large reservations should be set aside for the American Indians, including the Utes, west of the Mississippi River. All native people not located in those areas were then to be moved onto the reserved lands. Further, all treaty- making with Indian tribes was to end. The justification for this action was that the tribes were no longer to be considered separate, sovereign nations but rather domestic dependent peoples subject to the laws of the United States. The Indian's right to own land was to be denied and the lands placed under Government control. 7 Several of these provisions adopted by the committee were written into the 1868 treaty with the Utes. The new Ute treaty was signed by the President on November 6, 1868, after a commission consisting of N. G. Taylor, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Alexander C. Hunt, Governor of the Territory of Colorado and ex. officio Superintendent of of Indian Affairs, Kit Carson, and the main headmen of the Muache, W7eeminuche and Capote bands of the Southern Utes and the Tabeguache, the Yampa, the Grand River and the Uintah bands of the Northern Utes had agreed to a cession of Ute lands. 8 The immediate effect was felt only by the Tabeguache band who occupied the land. The long term effect was felt by all of the Colorado Utes for it reduced the land base of the Ute nation by about one- third. Within the boundaries of the Territory of Colorado the Utes now held only lands located on the western slope of Colorado. The treaty also called for the establishment of two agencies for the Utes. 9 The first was to be located on the White River some 175 miles from Rawlins, Wyoming, the nearest location for railroad and telegraph service, and the second was to be placed at Los Pinos, nearly 165 miles from the nearest military post, Fort Garland. io It was hoped that the agent would finally be able to teach the Indians English and how to become self- sufficient farmers. Despite past failures, the Government had not given up in its attempt to " civilize" the Utes. As before, the attempts to locate all the Utes on one reservation failed. The Southern Utes refused to leave New Mexico, and the Government still lacked the manpower needed to move them. As a result, that portion of the 1868 treaty was not carried out. Unfortunately, the land- and- mineral- hungry citizens of the Territory of Colorado were not so willing to ignore what they felt to be the Government's obligation. By 1870 the miners had pushed their way across the territory to the heart of the Southern Ute land. This invasion into some of the most isolated area in the United States had been triggered by the discovery of gold in that area. Charles Baker had located gold in the San Juan Mountains in 1860, but the start of the Civil War ended his search." 7. Ibid., pp. 36- 37. 8. Ibid., pp. 37- 39. 9. George W. Manypenny, Our Indian Wards. ( Cincinnati: Robert Clark and Co., 1880), p. 396. 10. Spiva, op. cit., " The Utes in Colorado," pp. 38- 39. 11. James Warren Covington, " Relations Between the Ute Indians and the United States Government, 1848- 1900," ( unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 1949), p. 75. |