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Show Agreement of 1874, and with Presidental recommendation, Congress was then asked to provide for the establishment of an agency on the southern portion of the Colorado reservation which would serve the needs of all three bands of Southern Utes. i" Such a provision was attached to the Indian appropriations bill for 1877 and passed as part of that act." This Congressional action included the establishment of the Southern Lite Agency, with $ 10,000 appropriated for the construction of buildings and other provisions made for subsistence of the Indians.! 2 l n May of the same year, the agent, Francis A. Weaver, was appointed, and, with the help of Benjamin M. Thomas, he selected a site for the buildings on the Rio de los Pinos, the Pine River, in southwest Colorado. 13 But, by the date of Schurz's report to Congress, Januarv 14, 1878, the LItes had still not been moved from either Cimarron or Abiquiu. The report of Secretary Schurz did finally prompt further Congressional action. By July, 1878, two acts had passed Congress calling for the immediate removal of both Jicarilla Apaches and Southern Utes from Cimarron and Abiquiu. 14 The Cimarron LItes, as they became known in Government documents, were escorted from their former home to their new location in southwest Colorado by Agent Thomas and Government Inspector E. C. Watkins. Leaving Cimarron on July 18th, they arrived at the site of the new agency on August 15th. 15 The Southern Utes had finally been removed to one common reservation which was to be served by one central agency. The desires of the New Mexico citizens had been fulfilled, but those of the Colorado people still remained as a pressure on both the Utes and the Government. After the agreement of 1873 the land ceded to the Government had been opened for settlement under the preemption and homestead laws, and almost immediately a number of people moved into that area known as the San Juan Cession. By April 26, 1875, some 186 of these new arrivals had asked the land office for surveys defining the boundary lines of the ceded land. On September 20, 1876, T. M. Trippe had requested of the same office surveys which would allow these settlers the right to acquire title to land, and in December seventeen settlers located in the San Juan cession asked for public- land surveys.^ 1 These surveys were made over the valleys of Rio Mancos, Rio Florida and Rio Animas. In addition to these activities, the office recorded the subdividing of ten townships with seven located on the southern border of the San Juan Cession. Within this area nine towns, Animas City, Animas Forks, Howardsville, Eureka, Lake City, Mineral Point, Ouray, Silverton and Telluride, had been established. These records further indicate that by December 1, 1877, about one- third of the filings in the San Juan Cession were on lands in the Rio Florida and Rio Animas Valleys and along the northern boundary line of the Southern Ute Reservation. 17 The pressure of the settlers on both the Southern and Northern Ute Reservations was tremendous by 1878 and increasing at a very rapid rate. Desire for more land and fear of these Indians had increased demands from these citizens that the Government remove the Utes. In February of 1876, a memorial from the Legislative Assembly of Colorado to Congress called for the removal of the Ute Indians to Indian Territory.'* The basis for this memorial was the Utes' increas- 10. Ibid. 11. Report of the Secretary of the Interior. 1879, op. cit., p. 470. 12. Letter from the Secretary of the Interior. 1878, op. cit.. p. 3. 13. Ibid., p. 6. 14. Report of the Secretary of the Interior. 1879, op. cit.. p. 470. 15. Ibid. 16. Letter from the Secretary of tne Interior. January 14, 1878, op. cit., p. 3. 17. Ibid., pp. 2- 4. 18. U. S., Congress, House, Memorial of the Legislative Assembly of Colorado, calling the attention of Congress to the grievances of the Ute Indians. House of Representatives, Misc. Doc. No. 86. 44th Cong., 1st Sess.. Ser. No. 1701. February 14, 1876, p. 1. - 9- |