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Show CHAPTER IV WORDS WITHOUT ACTIONS, 1 8 7 9 - 1882 " y^ Tith the failure of the 1878 commission to negotiate removal of the confederated Ute bands to one common reservation, and with the refusal of Congress to support the alternative to that removal, a smaller Southern Lite reservation in a more Favorable location, the Government was once again left in a most untenable position Something had to be done with the Ute Indians. The whites were increasing the pressures on the Ute reservation, and the Indians themselves were becoming alarmed. An answer to the Ute question was finally offered not bv the Indian Department or the Interior Department, but by the citizens of Colorado and the United States Congress. 1 his gave Congress the opportunity to become the major force in establish rag Lite policy, and this involvement of Congress changed the relationship between the Government and the Utes. The people of Colorado wanted all of the Indians within their state boundaries removed. Unlike the citizens of the Territory of New Mexico, who had only been able to send appeals to the Secretary of the Interior and Congress, the citizens of Colorado were able to pressure their representatives in Congress to introduce legislation calling for total removal. 1 he miners of Colorado were one group who exercised their citizenship toward such an end. Although the Lite lands had been reduced to about one- third of their size prior to 1864, the remaining third was found to be rich in minerals. The lure of this wealth brought the miners into direct conflict with the Indians. These trespassers on the Indian land came from communities that were developing just outside the boundaries of the reservation. By 1878, these new communities included areas just east of the continental divide and in the San Juan Cession. Creede, Lead-villc, Lake City and Silverton were all associated with the mining operations near the reservation. For the Southern LItes the problem of trespassers was particularly difficult due to the position of their reservation in relation to the San Juan Cession. The reservation was positioned in such a manner as to cut across seven major river valleys located in southwest Colorado. These valleys included the San Juan, Piedra, Los Pi'nos, Florida, Animas, La Plata and Mancos rivers, and were the main routes of travel between the growing communities of the San Juan Cession and the settlements of northern New Mexico, l o go around the reservation when traveling between the two locations meant a trip of several days and many more miles in distance than by cutting across the reservation. For this reason people were constantly trespassing on the reservation to follow the shorter routes. The Southern LItes complained to the Government about this invasion, but the Government was unable to keep people off Lite land as it had promised to do. In response to these Ute complaints and to white complaints that the Utes were not staying on their reservation, a military post, Fort Lewis, was established. First located at Pagosa Springs in 1878, the post was moved to a location on the La Plata river near I lesperus, Colorado, the following year. This attempt to limit travel on and oil the reservation failed to reduce the number of complaints to the Government or solve the problem, and Fort Lewis was abandoned, in 1891. Increased settlement along the northern boundary of the reservation and in the southern portion of the San Juan Cession had brought a number of people close to the Lite land. By 1877 the Government had surveyed the area for legal subdivision and the official plan of this survey had been filed in the Linked States Land Office - 19- |