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Show After the war, miners were once again in the area prospecting for the valuable mineral. Although the treaties of 1864 and 1868 prohibited the trespassing of non-authorized people on Ute land, the miners were not to be stopped. As might be expected, trouble resulted. The Anglos demanded from both the Indians and the Government the right of access to the mineral- rich land. The Indians demanded protection by the Government against the trespassing miners and the removal of those people already located on the reservation. Again the Government was caught in the middle of a land struggle. It was immediately obvious to the Government officials that they lacked the power to block the miners from entering the land or remove those already located on the reservation. Evacuation of the Utes seemed to be the only solution. The order for Indian removal from the area of the mines came by Congressional agreement. 12 Signed by the President in 1874, the Brunot Agreement, named after the principal negotiator for the Government, ceded an area of land located in the heart of the defined reservation of 1868. The cession, rectangular in shape, acted as a dividing line between the northern portion and the southern portion of the 1868 land reserve with only a ten- mile section along the west boundry of the Ute domain connecting the two Ute reservations. 13 The Ute Indians failed to understand the strange boundaries of this agreement and soon felt cheated by the Government. They had understood the agreement to mean that they were only giving up claim to the land where the mines were located at the time of the signing of the agreement. The Southern LItes became upset when large numbers of miners moved into the San Juan Cession, as it became known, and started mining. The Indians were also frustrated by the Government's refusal to pay the annuity promised for giving up claim to the land. M In only a short time the Utes, both Southern and Northern, became impatient with the invading Anglos and with the Government. Again tensions between the miners and the Indians arose. By 1876 it was apparent to the Government officials that the treaty of 1868 and the agreement of 1874 were failing to solve the continuing problem of conflicts between the Indians and the Anglos of Colorado. The placing of the southern agency at Los Pinos to serve the Southern Utes had failed. These bands refused, in general, to travel to this location, preferring instead to remain in northern New Mexico and deal with the agents in that area. The people of northern New Mexico complained of their presence and demanded that the Government remove them onto their stated reservation in Colorado. With the miners complaining about the presence of the Indians in the mining area of Colorado and with the people of New Mexico demanding removal of the Southern Utes from their location on one hand and with the Indians upset over the unpaid annuities and the number of people trespassing on their lands on the other hand, the Government was once again caught in the middle of a removal struggle. As before, the problem proved hard to solve. Eventually, after two years of negotia tions, only the complaints of the New Mexico citizens were resolved. The rest of the Government's dilemma had to wait nearly twenty- five years before being answered. 12. In 1871 Congress adopted the " no- treaty" suggestion of the Senate's Committee on Indian Affairs. After that date only " agreements" were made with Indian tribes. Once signed by the Indian tribe a bill incorporating the provisions of the agreement was introduced in both Houses of Congress. If passed, the bill was then made law by the signature of the President. The law was then published as a part of the Statutes at Large. The Utes were among the first Indian tribes to experience this change in Government taxonomy. 13. The division was important in the later establishment of the Southern Ute Reservation, for it successfully divided the Northern Ute bands, located in nortfrwestern Colorado, from the Southern Ute Bands, located in southwestern Colorado. 14. Spiva, op. cit., " The Utes in Colorado," p. 61. - 6- |